Choral Dances from Gloriana: Final Dance of Homage - Britten, John Rutter, Cambridge Singers
21. Choral Dances from Gloriana: Final Dance of Homage - from the album ‘This is the day’
Composer Benjamin Britten
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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LYRICS:
These tokens of our love receiving,
O take them, Princess great and dear,
From Norwich city you are leaving,
That you afar may feel us near.
William Plomer (1903–73)
In 1952 Britten, in collaboration with his then favoured librettist William Plomer, conceived the idea of a ‘national’ opera to mark the dawn of the new Elizabethan age; Elizabeth I was settled upon as the central figure, her relationship with the Earl of Essex providing the mainspring of the drama, and the music was swiftly written. With royal approval, Gloriana was made a semi-official part of the 1953 coronation festivities and premièred at Covent Garden just four days after the coronation. In 1954 Britten successfully extracted the six choral dances which are heard at the start of Act II as the Queen is welcomed by the people of Norwich with a pageant of ‘Time and Concord’. Only minimal editing was needed to turn this episode from the opera into the present attractive suite for unaccompanied choir, which has firmly remained in the repertoire and is perhaps Gloriana’s most lasting legacy.
This is the day
The music on this album recollects, and celebrates, some of the choral music heard on royal occasions in England during the lifetime of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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