How Fair Thou Art by The King's Singers

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

The King's Singers

How Fair Thou Art

Price: € 13.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212045022
Catnr: SIGCD 450
Release date: 20 May 2016
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Label
Signum Classics

UPC
0635212045022

Catalogue number
SIGCD 450

Release date
20 May 2016

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

The King’s Singers return with a new early-music recording that features 12 of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s beautiful polyphonic choral settings of the ‘Canticum Canticorum’ – better known as ‘The Song of Songs’ or Canticles, a collection of poetry in the Hebrew Bible on the theme of the joy and ecstasy of human love. These settings are framed by four of Palestrina’s Marian motets, works in honour of the Virgin Mary which he composed throughout his life.

Prachtige polyfone werken van Palestrina
De King’s Singers keren terug met een album met oude muziek, met daarop 12 van Palestrina’s prachtige polyfone toonzettingen van het Canticum Canticorum, beter bekend als het Hooglied. Dit is een collectie gedichten uit de Hebreeuwse Bijbel, op het thema van de vreugde en extase van de liefde van de mens. De werken worden omlijst door vier van de Mariamotetten van Palestrina, werken ter ere van de Maagd Maria die hij door zijn leven heen componeerde.

De King’s Singers, opgericht in 1968 door zes koorstudenten van het King’s College uit Cambridge, groeiden algauw tot een prominent ensemble binnen het Verenigd Koninkrijk, en de inmiddels hebben zij de rest van de wereld verorverd. De King’s Singers zijn beroemd vanwege hun toewijding om balans en intonatie in hun uitvoeringen met elkaar te vermengen, maar het is vooral het eenvoudige plezier in hun uitvoeringen wat het publiek tot de verbeelding spreekt, en wat het ensemble al voor drieënhalf decennium op het toppunt van hun kunnen houdt. Dit is de eerste opname waarop tenor Julian Gregory met het ensemble meezingt.

Artist(s)

The King's Singers

The King's Singers have set the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty-five years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, musicianship and versatility, which stem from the group’s rich heritage and its drive to bring an extraordinary range of new and unique works, collaborations and recordings to life. The King’s Singers’ extensive discography has led to numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and a place in Gramophone magazine’s inaugural Hall of Fame. The King’s Singers were officially formed in 1968 when six recent choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge gave a concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. By chance, the group was made up of two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and the group has stuck to this formation ever since.
In the last few years, the group has recorded and released a series of diverse, collaborative albums that showcase the huge breadth of their repertoire. One honours two great English Renaissance composers: Thomas Weelkes and William Byrd; another is centred around Romantic music; a third honours 100 years of Disney, with 28 brand-new arrangements of iconic Disney songs; a fourth is a double-album focussed on the group’s library of signature ‘close harmony’ arrangements; and another celebrates the group’s extraordinary body of commissioned new music. Growing the global canon of choral music has always been one of the group's key aims, and The King’s Singers have now commissioned more than 300 works by many of the most prominent composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. These composers include John Tavener, Joe Hisaishi, Judith Bingham, Eric Whitacre, György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Penderecki and Toru Takemitsu. All this new music joins their body of bespoke a cappella arrangements, including many by King’s Singers past and present.
Alongside their demanding performing and recording schedule – with over 100 concerts worldwide every season – the group leads educational workshops and residential courses across the globe, working with ensembles on their approaches to group singing. To mark their 50th anniversary in 2018, they founded The King’s Singers Global Foundation (based in the USA), to provide a platform to support the creation of new music across multiple disciplines, to coach a new generation of performers, and to provide musical opportunities to people of all backgrounds.

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Composer(s)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

The name Palestrina might remind you of strict, proper counterpoint and boring music lessons. And this image isn't new; even before his death, Palestrina was already portrayed as a legendary master of counterpoint. His body of work commands respect with more than 100 missas, 300 motets and many more other religious works. And all of them written with flawless mastery of the composition techniques of his Franco-Flamish predecessors. Besides the quantity and quality of his work, the council of Trent added to this image. The council wished to reform the music of the catholic church: all excessive and secular elements should be withdrawn and the text had the in the foreground, intelligibly. One story tells that it was Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli which was performed during the council to test the intelligibility. Another myth portrays Palestrina as the saviour of sacred music. In any way, Palestrina was the most central composer in Rome during the 16th century, and his stature lasts to this day. At times, his music is depicted as boring, but if you would give it a listen you will soon find out this is a myth as well!

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