John Tavener: Mother Of God Here I Stand: SATB: Vocal 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).

An original and exciting collection of anthems and other choral pieces written for the Orthodox Church and inspired by the Church in Russia, selected by Ralph Allwood. Partly because of the re-emergence of the Church in the former Soviet Union, interest in Christian musical sources alternative to the great body of the Anglican and other Western Christian traditions has grown sharply in recent years. Though the works presented here may be unfamiliar, they are all masterly. Designed to appeal to choirs of various levels, the collection includes a Kontakion and Ikos for the funeral service, anthems by Great Russian Romantics: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Grechaninov - and composers from our age: Stravinsky, Schnittke, or Arvo Part speaking for a tradition outside the Orthodox Church, as well as settings of the Lord's Prayer in both Russian and English by John Tavener. / Chant Et Piano

Written for SATB choir and Organ.The Veil of the Temple was commissioned by the Temple Music Trust. The world premiere took place on 27th June 2003 at the Temple Church London performed by the Choir ofthe Temple Church and the Holst Singers with Patricia Rozario (soprano) conducted by Stephen Layton as part of The City of London Festival 2003.The anthem Mother of God here I stand was sponsored by the ToulminFamily and it is dedicated to the Choir of the Temple Church its Director of Music Stephen Layton and the Master of the Temple the Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones. It was first performed on 13th May 2004 by the Choir of the TempleChurch conducted by Stephen Layton. Mother of God also features in the film Philomena starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan and directed by Stephen Frears.

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

The Veil of the Temple is a journey from darkness into light. Care and attention has been given to the key chosen for each anthem and to the voicings so that these versions are attractive to the broadest possiblerange of amateur as well as professional singers. The breathtakingly simple Mother Of God here I stand and the quietly ecstatic Awed by the Beauty are for unaccompanied chorus. The remaining three anthems are scoredwith Organ accompaniment: the sonorous You mantle yourself in light; the contemplative What God is we do not know and the radiant O Mary Theotokos.

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.