Gareth Malone has called on British choirs to drop Purcell for punk after the award-winning choirmaster unveiled a new project in which a hand-picked group of singers lend their voices to radical new arrangements of hardcore rap, rock and R&B songs. Malone, credited with leading a nationwide revival of community singing through his television series, topped the charts with the Military Wives, the choir he formed from the partners of serving military personnel in Afghanistan. The Bafta-winning broadcaster now promises a “watershed” in choral singing with a new album, Voices, which he says is designed to expand the repertoire of British choirs beyond tried and trusted works by Bach and Handel and selections from the Glee songbook. Malone has assembled “a new and revolutionary choir” of 18-25 year-olds after putting up posters of himself around Britain as a Lord Kitchener-style figure, with the phrase “your choirmaster needs you”. The first track released from the album is a cover of “Guillotine” by Death Grips (video above – with strong language), an experimental Californian hip-hop band, who mix hardcore punk, dub and militantly political lyrics to create a highly confrontational sound. Malone’s choral reinvention retains the title and repeats one line of the original lyric – “Hidden art, between and beneath, every fragmented, figure of speech” – to create a haunting interpretation, which transforms Death Grips’ aggression into sacred vocal music more closely resembling the Tallis Scholars. The track, which Malone has posted on the Soundcloud website, will be followed on Voices by versions of songs by Fleet Foxes and Alicia Keys among others, with guest vocals from Lianne Le Havas, fashion model Amber Le Bon and Guillemots’ Fyfe Dangerfield. Malone told The Independent: “In choosing music to record for this choir, David Kosten (producer, whose credits include Bat For Lashes) and I asked ourselves the question: ‘what is the unlikeliest piece of music for a choir to sing?’. “David suggested Death Grips’ track ‘Guillotine’ and we wondered if we could pull it off. The result is, I think, a choir sounding very different from how you’d expect and yet it’s still distinctly a British Choral sound.” Malone, who helped Gary Barlow record a No 1 single for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, added: “Death Grips appealed because they are inherently experimental. Consequently David felt they’d be unlikely to object to a choir covering their song because they’d appreciate the creativity and...
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Amongst the many endeavours funded by the Carnegie Trust marking its centenary in 2013), was the publication and editing of ‘Tudor Church Music’ in ten large folio volumes of music, with 50 performing pieces published individually. This had a considerable impact on the revival of this important music: for the first time a significant body of the greatest Tudor compositions became accessible to scholars, performers and listeners having languished in cathedrals, museums and colleges. It also inspired a further generation of English composers after its resurrection including Howells, Britten and Vaughan Williams. Stile Antico presents a varied selection of the finest pieces from TCM in a programme centred around William Byrd s masterful five-part mass. Stile Antico is an elite ensemble of young British singers, working without a conductor, each contributing artistically to the musical result. They are now established as the crack ensemble to beat, having enjoyed huge success, via their SACD recordings for harmonia mundi USA. Awards include the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music [Song of Songs] which also reached the top of the US Classical Chart. Their performances have repeatedly been praised for their vitality, commitment and imaginative response to text. Highlights of Stile Antico’s 2012-13 season include a series of concerts as co-curators of the Wigmore Hall’s William Byrd: Sacred Music festival, and this new recording celebrating the centenary of the Carnegie UK Trust, publisher of the pioneering Tudor Church Music edition. Carnegie Trust: changing minds, changing lives 1913-2013 Set up by Andrew Carnegie in 1913 to improve the wellbeing of the people of the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is one of the oldest and most respected charitable trusts in the British Isles. The Carnegie medal of philanthropy, given to those who have dedicated their private wealth to public good, will be presented in the Scottish Parliament in October 2013, in a week of events seeking to engage the Scottish public with the legacy of Andrew...
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Fly to Paradise recorded by the Eric Whitacre Singers is the single version of Virtual Choir 4. When Britlin Losee – a fan of Eric’s music – recorded a video of herself singing ‘Sleep’ and shared it on YouTube, Eric was deeply moved by the spirit of her performance and responded by sending a call out to his online fans to purchase Polyphony’s recording of ‘Sleep’, record themselves singing along to it, and upload the result. Scott Haines generously volunteered to cut the video together. Eric was so impressed by the result that he decided to push the concept to the next level by recording himself conducting ‘Lux Aurumque’, and asked Virtual Choir members to sing along to that. Once again, Scott edited the audio and video and produced the very first Virtual Choir. Britlin Losee’s first video has been like a drop of water on the surface of a still lake, rippling the musical and online landscape to reach millions. Now with more than six million views collectively on the first three Virtual Choir performances, the VC phenomenon has reached all corners of the world, inspiring more and more singers to join each year. The VC has grown from 185 singers in VC1 to an amazing 5,903 singers and 8,400 videos for VC4 this year. These singers use webcams, smartphones, tablets, and video cameras to record themselves in bedrooms, bathrooms and basements across the World, creating a truly global choir that this year includes 101 countries. And the VC is not just growing in size but it’s also evolving to include new musical genres and eclectic mixes of sounds and visuals to further expand the art form. By combining traditional choral singing, electronica, video and digital animation, Virtual Choir 4: Fly to Paradise represents a continuing evolution that will once again ripple the musical and online...
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The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, under the direction of Stephen Darlington, gives glorious renderings of rich 15th-century English sacred music from the Eton Choirbook, by Browne, Cornysh, Davy, Lambe and Wylkynson. Following a critically acclaimed recording of music from the Eton Choirbook, More Divine Than Human (AV2167), The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford returns with a second volume from the vast collection of 15th-century English sacred music, Choirs of Angels. The works range from John Browne’s richly scored eight-part O Maria salvatoris mater, the first piece in the Eton Choirbook, to William Cornysh’s exquisite miniature Ave Maria mater Dei, the choirbook’s shortest work. The compositional range in the Eton Choirbook demands extraordinary virtuosity from its performers, and Stephen Darlington and his choir of men and boys do this glorious music tremendous...
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The Brabant Ensemble, better known for uncovering works by forgotten composers such as Dominique de Phinot, turns to a giant of the Renaissance—perhaps the most celebrated name of the period. Yet within Palestrina’s huge output there are many hidden gems, lacking both recordings and modern performing editions, and it is from among these that the ensemble’s director Stephen Rice has chosen the repertoire for this album. A Mass—Missa Ad coenam Agni, from Palestrina’s first book of Mass-settings—is included, plus antiphons, motets and five Eastertide Offertories. Each work is, as Stephen Rice states in his typically informative booklet notes, ‘a finely crafted addition to the liturgy’. The Brabant Ensemble brings a matchless blend of musicianship, scholarship and sensitive singing to this glorious music. For more information, please visit the Brabant’s...
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The Chelsea Carol was commissioned by the Choirs of Birmingham-Southern College, Lester Seigel, conductor, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the college’s Service of Lessons and Carols. See below for a preview of the track which we filmed at the recording in St. Alban-the-Martyr, London. Original Latin text by Eric’s long-time collaborator Charles Anthony Silvestri. “For this Advent text I chose a darker, more overtly pagan hymn to the Mother (Virgin or otherwise) adapted from an earlier version entitled Adveni Sapientia. Composer Eric Whitacre loved it, as did the commissioning choir. The images here are among the multiple roles the Mother plays as the wheel of the seasons turns about us. Advent is a time of waiting, of preparation. We wait all year long for various milestones, both those natural and those declared.” The Chelsea Carol (English translation) Come thou, Wisdom, Gift of Winter– Strengthen us to wait For that which is to come. Come thou, come thou dream-bearer, Time-bearer, Queen of sun and stars. Come thou, come thou moon-bearer, Frost-bearer, Queen and mother of the seasons. Holy lady, Queen! Holy lady of silver! Purest holy lady! Come thou, come thou flower-bearer, Sun bearer, Queen of gleaming white light. Come thou, come thou sheaf-bearer, Snow bearer, Queen, Mistress of Dreams. Come, Thou, Mother! Come to us! Come Lady! Come thou, Wisdom, Gift of Winter– Strengthen us to wait For that which is to come. Charles Anthony Silvestri...
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