John Tavener: Mother Of God Here I Stand: String Orchestra: Score

John Tavener's Mother Of God Here I Stand taken from Veil of the Temple and arranged for String Orchestra. ommissioned by the Temple Music Trustfor Premiere in The Temple Church London. This versioncontains conductor's score and full set of parts (8x Violin 1 8x Violin 2 5x Viola 5x Cello 5x Double Bass).

This album features 16 of John Tavener's anthems for SATB choir. Contents include: 'A Christmas Round' 'Advent Antiphon' 'Agnus Dei' 'As one who has slept' 'Exhortation and Kohima' 'TheFounder’s Prayer' 'God is with us (A Christmas Proclamation)' 'A Hymn to the Mother of God' 'The Lamb' 'Mother of God here I stand' 'Nunc dimittis' 'O that we were there' 'Rocking' 'Song for Athene' 'Today theVirgin' and 'What God is we do not know'.

Noël! 3 is an exciting collection of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany music for mixed-voice choirs, from the easy to learn to the more challenging and unconventional. The contents range from the Baroque to the present: familiar settings of traditional and lesser-known carols through the ages to Howells, Berkeley and Warlock, and works by today's composers including Richard Rodney Bennett, Paul Mealor, John Tavener, Francis Pott and Richard Allain. Mixed-voice choirs of all levels will enjoy these new arrangements of favourite carols as well as stimulating original works for the Christmas season. / Choeur SATB Et Orgue (Ou Piano)

Good work for examinations and recitals by an important British composer. Duration c.6'. AMEB (Australian Syllabus) 2004. Programme notes as follows:Lennox Berkeley was born in 1903 and died in 1989. After reading modern languages at Oxford he had no intention of becoming a composer until he met Ravel in 1926 who encouraged him to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He stayed in Paris until 1932 developing his own musical language. In 1936 after the death of his mother he went to Barcelona for the International Society for Contemporary Music festival where he met Benjamin Britten. The two lived together at Snape in Suffolk for a while until the outbreak ofwar before Berkeley moved back to London to work for the BBC. Here he met his future wife Freda Bernstein. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1946 until 1968 where his pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett Nicholas Maw and John Tavener among others. He was knighted in 1974. In early February 1971 I was playing in a concert at St. John's Smith Square London then only relatively recently restored as a superb venue for music. The programme which I believe was being broadcast included Berkeley's Serenade Op.12. It was a work I had always enjoyed playing and was standard string orchestra repertoire at the time. There was initially no platform at St. John's and so the audience sat virtually on top of the performers. So close were they on this occasion that I had to ask for a little more room in order to play. At the end of the piece the orchestra acknowledged the applause and the gentleman who I had all but practically decapitated with my over-enthusiastic playing stood up and took a bow. I had been almost playing in Lennox Berkeley's lap! The opportunity was too good to miss and I wasted little time in introducing myself. Mr Berkeley said that he had been fascinated by my playing and asked me to write to him about a possible commission.This I did on 6 February mentioning that

This work for viola chorus and percussion was commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus and was first performed in October 1994 at the Barbican Hall London by Yuri Bashmet and the London Symphony Chorus conducted by StephenWestrop.The remarkable text of the Troparion written by the great Byzantine poetess-nun Cassiana was the inspiration of The Myrrh-Bearer. The text informed the architecture of the music. The viola solo represents MaryMagdalen as the cello solo represented the Mother of God on The Protecting Veil. This is where the resemblance between the two pieces ends.In The Myrrh-Bearer the Chorus symbolises ‘us’ the ‘sins of the world’ from‘stylized dictatorships’ to ‘the frivolous inane escapist vanities of the world ’ the to cries of ‘help’ after the cosmic catastrophe and finally reaching an apocalyptic climax in the words ‘We have no king by Caesar;’ adownright condemnation of God in the Earthly power.In a surreal way the Magdalen’s ‘sin’ shines through in the viola music because she recognises the Godhead and the endless ‘Kyrie eleison’ chanted by the semi-chorusrepresents her repentance and whatever is left of a ‘repentant’ world.The Myrrh-Bearer explores the whole range of the viola climbing from the depths up to the highest notes and then falling again at the end after theMagdalen’s recognition of the Risen Christ ‘Rabboni.’The last stroke of the gong in the viola’s final bottom C gives a deliberately ominous end to the piece.This is a special item which is made to order. Please e-mail ourMail Order Department for further information.

O that we were there! is a text taken from the Christmas hymn In Dulci Jubilo. It expresses a longing to be present at the Incarnation of Christ but it also conveys alonging to be out of the world oftime and space and in an eternal world.Composed in 2012 in memory of Blossom Barrow this SATB version was first performed at the memorial service for Annabel Freyberg mother of Blossom Barrow at St Mary Abbots theparish church of Kensington on 26th February 2014. The performance was given by the choir of St Mary Abbotsconducted by the Director of Music Professor Mark Uglow.