Salve Regina

Marian Antiphon-Composer's note:'Each year at their Summer Festival in Tavistock the Exon Singers feature the music of a living composer. In the summer of 2008 I was privileged to be the chosen composer. Salve Regina was written for the Festival and was performed once at a concert and subsequently at the broadcast of Choral Evensong in Buckfast Abbey.The music is unaccompanied and set for a six-part choir with two parts for both sopranos and basses (and divisi for altos and tenors in the final phrase). The music begins gently and there is some dialogue between upper and lower voices. The climax in the middle uses all six parts and the end is quiet and reflective. Although some of thephrases are short they should be sung with much expression and with appropriate crescendos and diminuendos.'

Pour Choeur Mixte A Cappella-In 1936 Poulenc began creating the more sombre austere tones of religion after returning to his Catholic faith.The Salve Regina was one of two motets Poulenc composed in 1941 the other being the Exultate Deo. The setting is exclamatory and triumphant alternating between strict imitation and assertive homophony. For SATB a cappella.

Richard Allain presents a beautifully sombre and gentle setting of the Salve Regina for SSAATTBB chorus. Allain's close harmonies are set across a staggered texture creating a seamless continuous halo of sound with each syllable melding into the next. The effect is developed as the density of the music builds allowing each singer a level of metric freedom that allows a series of repeating phrases to blur into an undulating layer of sound against which the lower voices sing. A captivating and hugely atmospheric devout setting.