Listen & tracks

1 of 24 tracks have a preview · 4 works · 65:01

1 Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230 Johann Sebastian Bach 6:49
Mass for Four VoicesWilliam Byrd 6 movements23:30
1. 2 Kyrie 2:12
2. 3 Gloria 5:50
3. 4 Credo 8:07
4. 5 Sanctus 2:29
5. 6 Benedictus 1:28
6. 7 Agnus Dei 3:24
Five Flower Songs, Op. 47Benjamin Britten 5 movements11:31
1. 8 To Daffodils 2:05
2. 9 The Succession of the Four Sweet Months 1:55
3. 10 Marsh Flowers 2:36
4. 11 The Evening Primrose 2:24
5. 12 Ballad of Green Broom 2:31
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28, for treble voices and harpBenjamin Britten 12 movements23:11
1. 13 Procession 1:20
2. 14 Wolcum Yole! 1:27
3. 15 There is no Rose 2:36
4. 16 That yonge child 1:41
5. 17 Balulalow 1:29
6. 18 As dew in Aprille 1:04
7. 19 This little Babe 1:37
8. 20 Interlude (harp solo) 3:38
9. 21 In freezing winter night 4:23
10. 22 Spring Carol 1:17
11. 23 Adam lay i-bounden 1:17
12. 24 Recession 1:22

The programme shows the choir’s range across Baroque, Renaissance and twentieth-century English repertoire. Bach’s four-voice motet on Psalm 117 is intense polyphony crowned by a canonic Alleluia. Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, from the 1590s, is clear and devout English modality.

Britten’s Five Flower Songs set floral poems with vivid word-painting. A Ceremony of Carols, for treble voices and harp, draws on medieval and sixteenth-century texts, from procession and recession to the harp Interlude, with Mary Anderson as harpist.

Reviews

…precise articulation enhances the lively Bach polyphony; suave melodic contouring highlights the elegance of Byrd’s vocal lines and rhythmic precision and fine vocal blendings throw into sharp relief the spicy harmonies of Britten’s delightful songs and carols.

— One Voice

Artists

The Choir of Ormond College

choir

The Choir of Ormond College has, since its founding in 1982 under Douglas Lawrence, become the first Australian choir to earn ongoing international recognition for its concert and recorded work.

Douglas Lawrence

director

Melbourne organist Douglas Lawrence is Director of Music at The Scots' Church and Teacher of the Organ at the University of Melbourne. He founded the Choir of Ormond College and directed it from 1982 to 2006.

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

Benjamin Britten

composer

Edward Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. His operas are firmly established in the international repertoire, and more of them are played worldwide than those of any other composer born in the twentieth century.

William Byrd

composer

William Byrd wrote English Renaissance polyphony that still defines the choral repertory: Latin motets of fierce concentration, three Masses of luminous restraint, Anglican services and anthems, plus keyboard and consort music of dancing invention.