A Garland for the Queen

To celebrate a coronation 70 years ago, the Arts Council of Great Britain commissioned 10 leading composers to provide choral works in honor of the new Queen, Elizabeth II. In doing so, it was in effect recreating the famous choral compilation, The Triumphs of Oriana, that had attended the accession of Elizabeth I nearly 400 years earlier.

Sheet music

The resulting Garland for the Queen is unlikely to leave such a lasting impression, and was not particularly well received following its premiere by the Cambridge University Madrigal Society in the Royal Festival Hall. As critic John France noted, "it is conventionally regarded as being a generically substandard work from its ‘composer collective’."

That said, it is hard not to enjoy the works as prepared by the "collective" - Arthur Bliss, Arnold Bax, Michael Tippett, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, Alan Rawsthorne and Edmund Rubbra. The first performance was led by Boris Ord, who recently appeared here leading music for an Easter service. He and his choir then recorded the program for a 1953 UK Columbia LP.

Today's post is devoted to what I believe to be the second recording of the "garland," as done by the Exultate Singers, conducted by Garrett O'Brien. That ensemble was previously heard here in a program of choral music composed for the 1953 coronation. (Both records were issued to commemorate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.) The Singers also have appeared on the blog in a Vaughan Williams choral program.

Ad in The Gramophone, June 1977

In his Gramophone review, Roger Fiske wrote that the Singers "have a clean fresh youthful quality, especially the two soprano soloists. They have all been meticulously trained and agreeably recorded." He did complain about the sameness of the settings and the inability to understand the texts.

The latter complaint is a valid one, especially so in that RCA did not include texts with the LP. It's a shame because the words are by notable poets of the time - Henry Reed, Clifford Bax, Christopher Fry, Ursula Wood, Paul Dehn, James Kirkup, Walter de la Mare, Edmund Blunden, Louis MacNeice and Christopher Hassall. I have partially remedied the text void by hunting down the words for six of the 10 compositions.

Southwark Cathedral

I believe this program was recorded in London's Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was on the music staff.

In the process of posting three of the Exultate Singers' LPs, I have yet to find a photo of the group or its conductor. There is an ensemble with the same name today, but it doesn't seem to be related. RCA managed to misspell O'Brien's first name on the cover of this LP. Sic transit gloria mundi musicale.

ADDENDUM - A friend of the blog found a photo of Garrett O'Brien and the Exultate Singers, dating from a program in Grimsby, England in 1972 and taken from the local Evening Telegraph. He admits it is "laughably poor," but we can see O'Brien at the left and note that he wore sideburns in the fashion of the time, also glasses. See below.

Vaughan Williams - Choral and Organ Works

My recent post of Coronation choral music elicited a request for this elusive 1976 LP by the same forces - a set of choral and organ works by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

As before, the performers are the Exultate Singers led by Garrett O'Brien, with organist Timothy Farrell. RCA UK issued this disc; the previous item came out on Vista, producer Michael Smythe's own label. The recording location was London's Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was assistant organist.

Southwark Cathedral

The LP opens with one of the composer's apocalyptic compositions, A Vision of Aeroplanes from 1929. The work is a setting of a text from Chapter 1 of Ezekiel in which the prophet describes an overwhelming vision of God. The text is frightening in its intensity, which Vaughan Williams captures in both the organ and choral passages. 

The other choral works include the motet O vos omnes from 1922, A Choral Flourish from 1956 (a setting of Psalm 32), and The Hundredth Psalm from 1929.

The LP closes with The Voice Out of the Whirlwind from 1947. The "voice out of the whirlwind" is God's, as captured in a passage from the book of Job. The work includes music related to the composer's ballet Job. 

Texts of the choral works were not supplied with the album, but I've pulled them together because they are essential to understanding the composer's intent, particularly with A Vision of Aeroplanes.

The choral works are interspersed with organ preludes on Welsh tunes as set by Vaughan Williams in 1920 (Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn-Tunes) and 1956 (Two Preludes on Welsh Folk-Songs).

The Exultate Singers never made a huge impact, but they did make some excellent records in the mid to late 1970s. I will be presenting a few more later on.

Music for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was accompanied and celebrated by much splendid music, including the choral works heard on this LP, recorded to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Performing are the Exultate Singers under Garrett O'Brien, an ensemble that made several LPs from 1977-80, including music of Vaughan Williams for RCA UK and Finzi for Hyperion. From what I have read, the ensemble was based at Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was assistant organist.

The organist here was Timothy Farrell, who was at the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace, and was previously sub-organist at Westminster Abbey. Farrell was for many years organist of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, and performed there as recently as last year.

The ceremony in Westminster Abbey

Most of the composers represented on the LP were living at the time of the coronation - Herbert Howells, Sir William Harris, Sir George Dyson, Healey Willan, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Gordon Jacob. The works by Howells ("Behold, O God Our Defender"), Harris ("Let My Prayer Come Up"), Dyson ("Confortare"), Willan ("O Lord, Our Governour") and Walton ("We Praise Thee, O God") were written for the ceremony.

Stanley Webb praised the LP in The Gramophone, saying that the ensemble sings "with the fervent intensity of a concert hall performance rather than the reverent dedication of a cathedral choir: they have no difficulty filling the great spaces of Westminster Cathedral with splendid sound." I have to disagree that the group fills the Cathedral with sound. It sounds like quite a small group.

Webb also praised organist Timothy Farrell, writing that he "is a sensitive accompanist throughout and his inspired playing heightens the drama of the Walton Te Deum." (The Walton is indeed dramatic; even O'Brien's sleeve note calls it "vehement.")

As recorded the choral sound lacked presence, which I remember noting when I bought the record nearly 40 years ago. Today's audio tools give me the ability to address the issue to an extent, along with fixing some pitch problems. The result is pleasing, I think - although the singers still seem backwards compared to the dramatic organ sound.

The record came out on Vista, a small label that issued quite a number of LPs of organ, choral and other music in the 1970s, until the early death of its founder, Michael Smythe, who produced this LP.