Love Divine features music by Phillipe de Monte, drawing on a motet by Cipriano de Rore. Musical material is embedded throughout this parody mass, which reflects a mature and assured mastery of counterpoint.
The disc goes on to explore two composers featured by luminatus vocal ensemble in concerts this year, Tiburtio Massaino and Ippolito Baccusi. Massaino was also featured on the previous CD, O Beata Virgo Maria. These are interesting and worthwhile pieces, suggesting it is time to explore their work further.
Agneta Sköld is a very experienced singer and composer from Sweden. These pieces provide an opportunity to enjoy strong rhythmic drive and an assured harmonic language. Becky McGlade is a highly regarded English composer based in Cornwall. Writing in a programme note for performances she wrote:
‘I saw a new heaven’ is a setting of a well-known passage from the book of Revelation in which the apostle John has a vision of the ‘new Jerusalem’. The text is full of hope and consolation- the old earth with its pain and grief will give way to a new world where God’s people will dwell in His presence forever. I attempted in my music to convey something of this transformation. The piece opens sparsely with tenors and basses in unison, but as the music progresses, the harmonies become more sumptuous, and at the words ‘The new Jerusalem’ the music is full of optimism as it shifts to a bright A major. The wonderful reassurance that ‘God shall wipe all tears from their eyes’ is conveyed through a slower, very expressive section of music, before echoes of the opening theme are heard and the piece closes in serenity and hope.
The words of this well-known hymn by Charles Wesley came to mind one day as I was walking on the cliffs near my home in Cornwall and I found myself singing them to a new melody. I rushed home quickly to jot down my ideas before they vanished! Thus my setting of Love Divine came into being. Wesley’s hymn has long been one of my favourites and I attempted in my setting, with its soft dissonances and harmonic shifts, to convey something of the wonderful truths and emotion contained within the text. The piece opens gently, but there is a sense of building intensity throughout which reaches its climax at the words ‘Till we cast our crowns before Thee’, before the music ebbs slowly away, lingering on the words ‘Lost in wonder, love and praise’.
01: Ad te levavi oculos meos – Cipriano de Rore
02: Missa Ad te levavi oculos meos: Kyrie – Philippe de Monte
03: Missa Ad te levavi oculos meos: Gloria – Philippe de Monte
04: Missa Ad te levavi oculos meos: Credo – Philippe de Monte
05: Missa Ad te levavi oculos meos: Sanctus & Benedictus – Philippe de Monte
06: Missa Ad te levavi oculos meos: Agnus Dei – Philippe de Monte
07: Salve Regina – Ippolito Baccusi
08: Cantabant sancti canticum novum – Ippolito Baccusi
09: Salvatorem expectamus – Tiburtio Massaino
10: O Domine Jesu Christe – Tiburtio Massaino
11: Ne timeas Maria – Tiburtio Massaino
12: Corpus Christi Carol – Agneta Sköld
13: God be merciful – Agneta Sköld
14: I saw a new heaven – Becky McGlade
15: Love divine – Becky McGlade
16: O ye who taste that love is sweet – Eleanor Daley
Recording Dates 28 – 29 August 2024
Recording Location St Mary’s Parish Church, Woburn