Magnificat: Evening Canticles in G - C.V. Stanford, John Rutter, Wayne Marshall, Cambridge Singers
1. 'Magnificat: Evening Canticles in G'
From the album ‘Stanford and Howells Remembered’
Composer Charles Villiers Stanford
Conductor John Rutter
Soprano Caroline Ashton
Organ Wayne Marshall
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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LYRICS:
My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his hand-maiden. For behold, from hence-
forth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me:
and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout all
generations. He hath shewed strength with his arm: he hath scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and
hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he hath sent empty away. He remembering his mercy hath holpen his
servant Israel: as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
(Luke 1, vv.46–55)
Magnificat and Nunc dimittis: Evening Canticles in G
Stanford wrote six published sets of canticles for use in the Anglican liturgy. The G major set, dating from 1904, was inscribed to Sir George Martin, organist of St Paul’s Cathedral. Its delicately radiant Magnificat (one of the two canticles proper to Evensong) is said to have been inspired by the legend that the Virgin Mary was seated at her spinning-wheel when surprised by the Angel Gabriel (though of
course, according to St Luke, she did not utter the words of the Magnificat until she later visited her cousin Elisabeth). The decorative organ accompaniment to Mary’s solo certainly could be a depiction of the spinning-wheel, a nicely Schubertian touch. In his centenary tribute to Stanford delivered at the Royal Musical Association in 1952, Howells remarked of this lovely piece that Stanford ‘revealed afresh . . . that this Canticle is in essence feminine, that it is ecstasy without crisis’. By contrast, the Nunc dimittis (the song of Simeon, the old man who saw Christ in the temple) has a warmly valedictory solo for baritone, and a final page of serene and heart-melting beauty to the words ‘world without end, amen.’
Stanford and Howells Remembered
This recording is a choral tribute to the sacred music of two visionary composers: Stanford and Howells, who, among their other achievements, made distinctive, lasting and much-cherished contributions to the musical repertory of the English Church.
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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