The world premiere recording of brand new Christmas choral works from Patrick Hawes.

Patrick has teamed up with the excellent Voce Chamber Choir of Connecticut to create an album of twenty brand-new Christmas choral works.  Specially written for the choir, the first collection and album title, sets words by Patrick’s poet brother Andrew.  The Nativity, for unaccompanied choir, moves through the Christmas nativity scene exploring the drama of this momentous moment in human history.  For the second collection, Patrick has set Four Christmas Motets;  the fragile ancient poetry giving rise to tender and heartfelt music for unaccompanied choir.  The album goes on to explore the Christmas story through various texts, old and new, in works that are set to become extremely popular with choirs around the world.

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“Christmas is my absolute favourite time of year and it has been a joy to set such inspiring and dramatic words to music.  The variety of texts – from ancient to modern – are all so relevant for today because they speak of eternal truths and the mystery of the Christmas story.  I am thrilled with how Voce and their director Mark Singleton have brought a freshness of approach and musical excellence to their interpretation of this exciting project.” Patrick Hawes

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“This album is the fruit of an extraordinary partnership between composer, conductor, and choir.  Composer Patrick Hawes created a collection of sublime works with Voce in mind, and our collaboration with him during the recording sessions was a source of great joy for all involved.  Working closely together, we endeavored to capture the vibrancy and tenderness of Patrick’s compositions, as well as the magical texts crafted by Patrick’s brother Andrew.  We offer this album in tribute to Patrick Hawes and his continuing contribution of choral works celebrated throughout the world”. Mark Singleton

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Taken from the album sleeve notes:

The Fire of Love

I am extremely grateful to my brother Andrew for adapting the writings of Richard Rolle into these six choral ‘songs’.  As well as capturing a deep and passionate spiritual journey, they possess alluring pictorial qualities and flowing poetic lines which make them ideal for rich and varied choral treatment.  Rolle believed that there are three phases of the soul’s movement towards God – heat, sweetness and song.  This Fire aims to create a sense of purifying fire being kindled in the human soul while This is the Love recognises the fire as a ‘shining’, enlightening love.  Eternal Praises is an expression of that joy which sweetness brings once the mind has become changed through heat.  In Paradise speaks of a quieter, more peaceful ecstasy.  The final two movements rejoice in the gift of song.  The Angel’s Praise becomes almost breathless in its desire to “sing all that before I said”.  Endless Love is essentially a chorale which unfolds into an eternal “ghostly symphony”.  The soul has moved towards its maker and, now that it is renewed, desires nothing more than to glorify God through song.  – Patrick Hawes

Songs of Innocence

This setting of nine of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence for choir and piano is testament to my long affinity with the poems.  Given the public’s renewed interest in Blake’s work, I feel this is now the perfect time for their release.  The fragile poetry gives rise to a tender and heartfelt musical style heard from the outset in Introduction. Here, Blake sees himself as a piper and his poetry as melody and song.  He becomes deeply moved and inspired by the vision of a child who urges him to sing and then write about innocent things which “every child may joy to hear.”  The choir and piano alternate in a gentle and evocative interpretation of The Shepherd before dancing rhythms and figurations suggest children at play in The Echoing Green.  In The Lamb the piano is dispensed with, giving way to simple four-part harmony together with high-voice solos.  The tranquility is broken by the urgent calls of The Little Boy Lost and Found as a rolling piano accompaniment underpins a tale of fear and despair where the little boy eventually finds repose in the arms of a compassionate Father.  The exquisite text of A Cradle Song inspires a warm lullaby with the solo soprano conveying a deep maternal love.  The Divine Image aspires to create an angelic world where Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love become personified and offer sweet caresses to the listener.  A Dream brings a period of light relief, with its playful tale of a beetle and a glow-worm, before the rich sonorities and floating melodies of On Another’s Sorrow bring the collection to a close.  “Till our grief is fled and gone,” the choir sings as the piano descends into deep harmony, and we are left with an image of a God who is unable to stand passively by but can only “sit by us and moan.” – Patrick Hawes

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The following text is taken from Patrick’s sleeve notes for The Great War Symphony:

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“Revelation demonstrates the scope of Hawes’s musical style [and] shows how inventive he can be with harmony.  Creative and compelling.”
– GRAMOPHONE

The following text is taken from the album sleeve notes:

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“I have always been fascinated by angels. For as long as I can remember, the image of the Archangel Gabriel appearing to Mary has filled me with comfort and light and sustains me now, as an adult, as much as it filled me with awe as a child.  That event marked the beginning of the Christian faith – a faith which has come to pervade my life and give true meaning to my work as a composer.  I have never seen an angel and yet my awareness of the presence of angels has grown increasingly strong over the past few years.  I never consciously set out to write an album on this subject; rather the album presented itself to me.  Musical themes flowed through my psyche and ‘coincidences’ occurred whereby I was being constantly reminded of angels.  We ended up recording, for instance, in two venues – St Michael and All Angels, Summertown and Angel Studios in Islington. And while I was writing the Archangel Suite, each of the four angels became real to me, particularly in terms of colour: Raphael, for instance, generated purple and deep reds while Gabriel was shrouded in pastel blues and greens.  The centenary of the First World War made me aware of the apparition of The Angel of Mons, and this event (when over a hundred British soldiers claim to have seen the vision of an angel in the first battle of the war) is one of the main sources of inspiration behind the music.  Through writing the choral work The Angel of Mons I have come to realise that I have my own guardian angel and that, without the protective presence of Michael and the heavenly host, we would never enjoy the many blessings that envelop us.  I feel extremely fortunate and humbled that I am able to convey my awareness of such phenomena through the medium of my music.  As a result of writing this music, I feel closer to the angels than ever before and it is my deepest wish that those who listen to it will be enriched and ennobled in a similar way.”

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“What the Lazarus Requiem does do – and to striking effect – is bring into sharp relief Hawes’s unerring gift for evocative orchestral texture and beautiful melodic line.”
– Choir & Organ

For centuries, the requiem mass has been the most eloquent and intense means of prayer for the departed.  The offering of the sacrifice of the Eucharist as a means of intercession has been the inspiration for the most sublime music.  In the mass, earthly grief is assumed in the worship of heaven.  In the sign of the raising of Lazarus in the eleventh chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus is seen encountering the raw and angry grief of Martha and Mary, and is moved to tears at Lazarus’s grave.  Jesus, who declares himself ‘The Resurrection and the Life’, is both the victim of death’s pain and a victor over its power to separate and diminish humanity.  In all this, he prefigures the events of Easter.  In the Lazarus Requiem, the mystery of life and death, the pain of grief and the hope of a risen life are held in taut symmetry.  The experience of death and dying, the challenge of faith and the promise of hope are all present.  These are words and music for any person who has wondered in the face of death.

There are many variations of the Propers for a requiem, and composers have used various configurations to serve their own creative ends.  The text of the Lazarus Requiem follows that used by Fauré very closely – except at the very end where the traditional reference to Dives and Lazarus has been omitted (as this refers to a different Lazarus.)  Fauré’s Requiem selects all the texts that point to heaven and the hope of the resurrection.  In the same way, the Lazarus Requiem emphasises the victory of Christ over death, but does not evade the pain and confusion that death leaves in its wake.  The eleventh chapter of St. John’s Gospel figures heavily in the funeral rites of the reformed tradition, stressing the need for the personal recognition of Jesus as ‘the resurrection and the life’.  In this way, the Lazarus Requiem opens up a truly catholic perspective on the Christian experience of death and dying.

There are various examples of the liturgical sequence of the requiem being used as a framework to carry other texts: Britten’s War Requiem is one English example.  In the Lazarus Requiem the text, with the exception of one original poem, is from the New Testament.  In this way, the liturgical text and the scripture throw light upon one another and so illuminate the hearts and minds of all those who perform and listen in a ‘double light’.  It is possible both to extract the Latin texts and use them as a liturgical setting, or to extract the narrative of the Gospel and perform a dramatic cantata.  Many of the ‘movements’ also stand alone for concert or liturgical performance.

The work begins with an orchestral Elegy for Lazarus which depicts the dying man and sets the scene for the first tableau.  The sound worlds of the tableaux and the Latin movements are quite different.  The Requiem Aeternam, Kyrie, Sanctus etc. use the full resources of both choir and orchestra whereas the tableaux, as well as using semi-chorus, are characterised by muted strings, harp and baritone saxophone.  Christ’s solos see the addition of the four horns.  There are moments when the two sound worlds become superimposed.  Most notably, the Benedictus takes the form of a soprano solo sung by Mary and, at the climax of the miracle when Christ exclaims, “Unbind him!  Loose him!  Let him go!” the mutes are removed from the strings, and the full orchestra interject with the concluding section of this tableau.  The final movement of the work is the Lux Aeterna, for choir and orchestra, together with the two female soloists.

Andrew & Patrick Hawes

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This recording of the suite, performed by Royal Harpist Claire Jones with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Patrick, was made the day immediately after the premiere.  The album also features Patrick conducting Parry’s Lady Radnor suite – which was performed at Highgrove – along with a selection of other pieces for harp.

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“Hawes’s admirers will find much here to confirm their warm response to his music’s quiet strength and individuality… The excellent performances feature the tawny loveliness of Julian Lloyd Webber’s cello-playing, plus two fine solo singers”
– Classic FM Magazine

The following text is taken from the album sleeve notes:

“The inspiration for my music stems from three essential areas – my Creator, my loved ones, and my country.  Being English opens the door to a wonderfully rich heritage, a fascinating history, beautiful architecture and stunning landscapes and seascapes.  Furthermore, I am instilled with a sense of pride and patriotism which resonates from our forefathers and their efforts to defend our island and the precepts which have made it ‘great’.  It is difficult to analyse those features which have given rise to Englishness in the styles of our great composers – Purcell, Walton, Elgar and Vaughan Williams for instance.  It certainly has something to do with a sense of majesty and a striving for things spiritual and noble.  Our open and honest countryside provides a pastoral inspiration and, just as important, our parishes churches stand tall and proud in every village in the land.  They have been and still long to be the life-blood of our communities and are perhaps underestimated in the influence they have worked on the English spirit.

The pieces on this album are all visions of England in that they either aim to portray a certain building or scene, or else they speak of a more general reverence for the country and its heritage.”

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This disc of choral and organ works centres on the mystery and beauty of the words of the Old Testament, with stunning performances from Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas and Patrick’s own choral group Conventus.

The collection of love poetry which forms the Old Testament’s Song of Songs is the basis for the opening collection of six choral works focussing on the relationship of romantic and erotic love to spirituality.  They express desire, hope, confusion and joy; the whole range of emotions experienced by the lover – but there is no final consummation.  The metaphors of vine, wine, garden and fountain are ones that prefigure the language of Christian spirituality.  They provide Christian spirituality with a language of love that is both sensual and spiritual, of earth and of heaven.  The text for these songs is faithful to the text of the Bible but poetic licence has provided a narrative structure and the development of some metaphors.  The cry of the lover to the beloved, the heightening of the senses through sumptuous smells and tastes, and the imagery of fire provide a rich basis for a certain type of music – music born out of our time, yes, but which also draws upon the timelessness of tonality, consonance and balance.

Other works for choir and organ (When Israel was a Child and O Lord our Governor) and a cappella choir (Perfect Love, The Vauday Part Songs and The Lord’s Prayer) plus the knockout organ Toccata to finish create an album of real passion and pathos.

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The first piece, Towards the Light, uses plainsong from the feast of the Epiphany, supported by added-note and suspended harmonies that create the feeling of stillness and reflection.  Serenitas earned its name following a competition hosted by Classic FM for a suggested title which perfectly encapsulates its gentle oscillating feel.  Made up of simple piano configurations it both enhances the tranquil mood, and also asks searching questions about the journey ahead.  Arioso responds with a soothing outpouring of melody.  Meaning ‘in the style of an aria’ it introduces the lyrical quality which is a major feature of the collection.  Patrick’s deeply held Christian faith find moving expressions in My Beloved Spake, inspired by the sensual language of the Bible’s Song of Songs and provides a quicker pace and a greater sense of optimism.  Ave Maria restores a feeling of dream-like gentleness that exudes radiant warmth, while Ebb Tide, with its hypnotic undulations, is a direct response to the spacious seascapes of the Norfolk coast and the eternal movement of the tide.

The piece written for December, Stargazer, is in the bright key of B major and has clear connections with the nativity story.  Song of Innocence takes its title and sentiment from two sources – the poetry of William Blake and the words of the Nuns Dimittis ‘Lord, now lettest thought Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word’.  Sleep Song, in the restful key of G flat major, aims to capture those mystical moments between consciousness and sleep.  The three pieces which follow reflect the changing skies of East Anglia and also follow the Church year through Easter and The Ascension.  The Time of Sacrifice feels barren and mournful while the nostalgically swaying rhythms of Waltz aim to suggest the hope of new life.  The Gift marks the journey’s end when the goal of salvation is reached: a gift received but also extended, through the medium of music, to others.

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