PRESS RELEASE
AND COMES THE DAY
Carols and Antiphons for Advent
New CDrelease – November 2012
The Choir of Queens’ College, Cambridge
The Queens’ Chapel Players
Silas Wollston, Director of Music
AND COMES THE DAY, to be released by Orchid Classics at the end of October, is a celebration of Advent carols and antiphons through the words of mediaeval English poets and Latin texts.
‘The majority of the English carols focus on the mystery of the incarnation and the role and experience of Mary, who is referred to symbolically as a rose. The seven Advent antiphons, explore attributes of Christ as the Messiah, each referring to aprophecy from the book of Isaiah. They were traditionally sung before and after the Magnificat on the seven days preceding Christmas Eve and were in regular liturgical use by the eighth century. They are most familiar to us today as the hymn ‘Veni, veni Emmanuel’ (‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’), which is a thirteenth-century lyrical paraphrase of these antiphon texts. The order of the antiphons has a definite purpose: starting with the last title ‘Emmanuel’ and working backwards, the first letters of each title form the acrostic “ERO CRAS”, the Latin “Tomorrow I will be with you.”’ – Silas Wollston, Director of Music
THE CHOIR OF QUEENS’ COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (
The Choir of Queens’ College is one of the leading mixed-voice choirs in Cambridge. It consists of around twenty-four singers, the majority of whom are undergraduate members of the College, and two organ scholars, all under the leadership of the Director of Music, Dr Silas Wollston. During the academic term, the choir sings at services three times a week in the College chapel, performing music from both Protestant and Catholic traditions. While twentieth-century music forms the core of the choir’s repertoire, the choir increasingly performs baroque and contemporary music, reflecting the specialisms of the Director of Music. The choir is also regularly joined by a group of student instrumentalists, the Queens’ Chapel Players, enabling the liturgical performance of concerted music. Outside the academic term, the choir performs both national and internationally. In recent years the choir has travelled to Hong Kong, New York, France, Germany, Southern Italy and Belgium. The choir’s CD recordings, including ‘Flight of Song’, ‘Songs of Heaven’ and ‘Earth and Love and Honour’, have attracted widespread critical acclaim.
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Sopranos
Sara Anderson (16)
Camilla Biggs (20)
Emily Black
Helen Brannigan
Sophia Halberstam
Rebecca Maggs
Sarah Paige
Sophia Sosnina
Altos
Julia Dilnot
Rose Jakeman
Guy James
Lewis Owen (20)
Rachel Owusu-Agyei (16)
Tenors
Alexander Berry (13)
Robert Busiakiewicz
Nicholas Butler
Greg Liddington (20)
Cameron Richardson-Eames
Dominic Yeo (16)
Basses
Alastair Chilvers
Chris Douse
Karol Jaworski
Adam Jones (13, 16, 20)
Nicholas Morris
Calum Roberts (13, 21)
Arthur Tombs
Tom White
Numbers in brackets indicate solos (by track number).
Tracks 24-25 conducted by Alex Berry.
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THE QUEENS’ CHAPEL PLAYERS, CAMBRIDGE
The Queens’ Chapel Players was formed in 2011 by Silas Wollston to enable the performance of sacred music with instrumental accompaniment within a liturgical context. Led by a local professional, its members are undergraduates and graduates of the University, many of whom also perform with the Collegium Musicum, the University’s baroque orchestra. The group adopts a historically informed approach to performance, using instruments appropriate to the repertoire.
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Violin 1
Emilia Benjamin
Violin 2
Anna Goldbeck-Wood
Viola
Helen Roche
Violoncello
Emily Smith
Organ
Alex Berry (Tracks 12 & 14)
Nick Morris (Track 13)
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SILAS WOLLSTON, DIRECTOR OF MUSIC
Silas Wollston is a versatile musician who has pursued a varied career as a researcher, performer and composer. As principal continuo player and assistant conductor for Sir John Eliot Gardiner since 1999 he has become closely associated with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, with whom he has appeared as a soloist on numerous occasions, including the celebrated Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000. From 1996 to 2004 he was the artistic director of the award-winning chamber ensemble The Private Music, which championed unusual seventeenth-century English repertoire: this became the subject of his PhD thesis (The Open University, 2010). In 2011 he was appointed Director of Music and Director of Studies in Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge. As a composer, his works have been performed and recorded by Fretwork.
TRACK LISTING
1. Advent Prose: Drop down ye heavens from above (Plainsong)2:15
2-8. Advent Antiphons (Bob Chilcott, 2004) 12:08
9. There is no Rose of such virtue (John Joubert, 1954)2.16
10. Adam lay ybounden (Boris Ord)1:28
11. Matin Responsory: I look from afar (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
arr. Rutter and Willcocks)2:49
12. Noël: Or nous dites, Marie (Marc-Antoine Charpentier, c.1690
arr. S. Wollston)2:30
13. Antiphon: O Clavis David (Charpentier, c. 1690)2:13
14. Noël: Joseph est bien marié (Charpentier, c.1690, arr. S. Wollston)1:07
15. There is no Rose of such virtue (Anon., c.1420)3:29
16. A Hymn to the Virgin (Benjamin Britten, 1930, rev. 1934)3:26
17. All this time (William Walton, 1970)1:32
18. Antiphon: O Morgenstern (Arvo Pärt, 1988, rev. 1991)1:53
19. Magnificat (Hieronymous Praetorius, 1599, rev. 1622)7:15
20. In dulci jubilo (Praetorius,1599, rev.1622)1:54
21. A Spotless Rose (Herbert Howells, 1919)3:17
22. Veni, veni Emmanuel (Anon.)3:30
23. I saw a sweet and seemly sight (Silas Wollston, 2012)3:22
24. Bethlehem Down (Peter Warlock, 1927)4:22
25. Benedicamus Domino (Warlock)1:38
Total playing time 62:10
NOTES FOR EDITORS
CD
Release date: 29 October 2012.
Catalogue No: ORC100027.
Barcode: 5 060189 560271.
Produced and engineered by Alan Mosley and Mike Price.
Recorded in Queens’ College Chapel, Cambridge on 19-21 March 2012.
Chamber Organ: copy of a 17th-century English original by Robin Jennings, 2003;
tuned at 415hz in Vallotti temperament by Dr Silas Wollston.
Latin translations prepared by Prof. James Diggle.
CD Booklet
Cover Photo: Helen Nock.
Image: Helen Nock (
Photograph of Queens’ College Choir: JET Photographic.
Artwork Design: Ken Koch.
and © 2012 Orchid Music Limited.
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Orchid Classics was founded in 2005 by violinist Matthew Trusler.Orchid’s recordings are distributed in the UK by Select Music and Video Distribution Ltd.
Orchid Promotions (‘an artist led, creatively driven company’)was founded to provide a full range of complementary services for classical music performers and organisations. It was launched in July 2011.
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November 2012
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