Hail! Blessed Virgin Mary - Charles Wood (arr.), John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
14. 'Hail! Blessed Virgin Mary'
From the album ‘Hail! Queen of Heaven’
Composer Charles Wood (arr.)
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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LYRICS:
Hail! Blessed Virgin Mary!
For so when he did greet thee,
Spake mighty Gabriel
And thus we greet thee.
Come weal, come woe,
Our hymn shall never vary.
Hail! Blessed Virgin Mary!
Ave, ave Maria!
To gladden priest and people,
The angelus shall ring
From ev’ry steeple,
To sound his Virgin-birth,
Alleluia!
Ave, ave Maria!
Archangels chant Osanna,
And Holy, Holy, Holy,
Before the Infant born
Of thee, thou lowly
Aye-maiden child
Of Joachim and Anna;
Archangels chant Osanna.
(G. R. Woodward, 1848–1934)
Hail! Blessed Virgin Mary
This delightful choral miniature is built on an Italian melody from a collection called Corona di sacre Canzoni o Laude Spirituali, published in Florence in 1689. It comes from 'An Italian Carol Book' (1920), one of several significant collections of carols and hymns co-edited by Wood (Stanford's successor as Professor of Music at Cambridge University) and Woodward, an Anglican clergyman and antiquarian.
Hail! Queen of Heaven
This recording, made in the architecturally and acoustically glorious setting of the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral by the 28 mixed voices of the Cambridge Singers, gathers together 21 examples of the extraordinary wealth of choral music inspired by the Virgin Mary, from Gregorian chant to the 20th-century sounds of Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, Pierre Villette, Igor Stravinsky and Giles Swayne.
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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