Now Is The Month Of Maying by Thomas Morley

Sung by The King's Singers. To be performed by The Washington Collegium under the direction of Benjamin Hansen at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington DC on this Sunday, the 19th of July, at 7:30 PM.

When we speak of English Madrigals, we speak of Thomas Morley before anyone else. At a time and place in which Tallis and Byrd reigned supreme among composers of sacred music, Thomas Morley was undisputed master of secular English music in an era that teemed with masters.


(April Is In My Mistress Face as sung by The Hilliard Ensemble)

His contemporaries regarded him as an extremely affable man, and such a temperament seems to be reflected in his music. His madrigals are lighter in spirit than many of his contemporaries like Weelkes, John Willbye, and John Dowland. had many connections to other famous artists of the period. Not only is it documented that he studied with William Byrd, not only did Thomas Weelkes compose a madrigal in commemoration of his death, but it has often been speculated that Thomas Morley was a friend of William Shakespeare's. They belonged to the same Anglican parish in Stratford and it is documented that Morley's setting of "It Was A Lover And His Lass" was employed for a production of As You Like It.



(the great Robert Tear and the legendary Julian Bream perform Morley's setting of "It Was A Lover And His Lass")

Howells Requiem

(Requiem Aeternam from the Howells Requiem. Sung by Egregor. To be performed by the Washington Collegium under the baton of Benjamin Hansen on the 19th of July, at 7:30 PM, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill.)

Like his mentor, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells was born to the English gentry class. As a boy he went studied music at the Gloucester Cathedral in the same class as the famous British entertainers Ivor Novello and Ivor Gurney. As a young man he was diagnosed with Graves Disease and told he had six months to live. However, a successful operation gave him another seventy years of life.


(Salvator Mundi from the Howells Requiem. Sung by the Blenhein Singers directed by Tom Hammond-Davies. To be performed by the Washington Collegium under the baton of Benjamin Hansen on the 19th of July, at 7:30 PM, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill.)


But when his son died of polio in 1935 at the age of nine, Howells began work on a series of works for unaccompanied chorus that would eventually comprise his Requiem. They were not published in their entirety until 1981 and but for the pleading of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1950 these works would have never been shown to the public.

It was perhaps because of Howell's intimate experiences with death that he created one of the two most famous musical memorials for the death of John F. Kennedy. His choral anthem, Take Him Earth For Cherishing, a masterpiece in the consoling vein of his Requiem.


(Take Him Earth for Cherishing. Sung by the University of Wisconsin Eau Concert Choir directed by Dr. Gary Schwartzhoff)

Exultate Deo by Francis Poulenc

Sung by Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton. To be performed by The Washington Collegium under the direction of Benjamin Hansen this Sunday, the 19th of July at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington DC.

Memorably described as 'half-monk, half-delinquent' Poulenc's music alternates consistently between these two strains. Often displaying a religiously Catholic austerity right next to a light-heartedness reminiscent of Stravinsky in his neo-classical period.


(The second of the three Novelettes for Piano by Poulenc. Showing the various aspects of his lighter side.)

Like Stravinsky, Poulenc was extremely devoted to his Christian faith (though Stravinsky was Orthodox). But unlike the vigorously heterosexual Stravinsky, Poulenc struggled his entire life with reconciling his homosexuality with his Catholicism. His music often seems to reflect the tension between these two worlds. The text of Exultate Deo as sacred as sacred becomes, yet the music sounds as though it should be an accompaniment to the Follies of French Vaudeville.



It is a short piece and only indicative of a part Poulenc's stylistic makeup. In an era dominated by atonality, Poulenc resolutely affirmed his allegiance to tonality - the one certainty of his life. Some of his tonal compositions display a greater ferocity than most atonal composers were capable. The range of both his technique and expression was stupefying. Poulenc was a composer committed to human expression in an age that declared such expression useless.


(The famous and terrifying ending of his opera Dialogue of the Carmelites in which an entire order of nuns martyr themselves to the guillotine. James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and chorus. Jessye Norman and Maria Ewing star.)

As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending by Thomas Weelkes

Performed by the Washington Collegium under the baton of Benjamin Hansen on July 27th, 2008 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington DC.

Excerpt of Os Justi by Anton Bruckner

Second half of Os Justi. Performed by the Washington Collegium conducted by Benjamin Hansen on November 15th, 2008 at St. Vincent's Chapel on the campus of the Catholic University of America.

Adieu Sweet Amaryllis by John Wilbye

Performed by the Washington Collegium under the direction of Benjamin Hansen on July 27th, 2008 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC.

Collegium Concert this Sunday

the Washington Collegium, is having its summer concert on Sunday, July 19th at 7:30. What better way to wind down your weekend than by listening to great choral music by fantastic composers, including Herbert Howells, Poulenc, Thomas Tallis, and lots of other ones just as great. Our current conductor, Benjamin Hansen, has worked really hard with us and he's moving to Cincinnati so we're working hard to give an extra-good concert.

Admission to the show is FREE, with a suggested donation at the door.

Please come out to support the Washington Collegium! 

What: The Washington Collegium
When: Sunday, July 19th, 7:30 pm
Where: Saint Mark's Episcopal Church - Third and A Streets, SE, Behind the Library of Congress 

Program

    Phillips—Ascendit Deus

    Tallis—If ye love me

 Weelkes --Hark All Ye Lovely Saints

 Thompson—Alleluia

 Sweelinck--Chantez a Dieu

 Rheinberger—Abendlied

 Parry—My delight and they delight

 Morley—Now is the Month of Maying

 Howells—Requiem

 Poulenc—Exultate Deo

 Hurd—Love Bade Me Welcome