Tag Archive: 0choral music

I’m delighted to announce the release of an album of my choral music recorded by the critically acclaimed London Choral Sinfonia under Michael Waldron: https://orchid-music.lnk.to/theworldtome In the sleeve notes, he writes: ‘I first came across Simon’s music several years ago. I was initially grabbed by a setting of Advent Calendar – a setting of a […]

Some of you may be familiar with The Triumphes of Oriana, the famous book of madrigals by various Elizabethan composers compiled by Thomas Morley in 1601 in honour of Elizabeth I. The late Queen Elizabeth II received a similar choral compilation in 1953: A Garland for the Queen, with pieces by the likes of Bliss, […]

Back in September, I blogged about my catalogue project The English Choral Tradition. Part II: The Victorians and beyond is now available and I thought I’d highlight one item in it. This little card (it measures only 62 × 99 mm; I’ve enlarged it here so you can see the performers) shows what looks like […]

Although famously dubbed ‘das Land ohne Musik’, England has in fact always enjoyed a rich choral tradition, in large part thanks to its cathedral choirs of boys and men (now finally with female voices among them, too) who have sung daily services for, quite literally, centuries, broken only by the dictates of Oliver Cromwell and, […]

Continuing on in our series of Christmas carols, it’s ‘Ding dong! merrily on high’, one of our personal favourites! Its first appearance (words only) was in George Ratcliffe Woodward‘s Carols for Yule-tide (privately printed, Highgate Village, 1922): Traditionally, the first edition of ‘Ding dong! merrily on high’ (and ‘Past three a clock’) have been ascribed […]

Dmitrii Agrenev-Slaviansky (1834–1908) was a Russian singer who founded a choir in 1868, and toured for many years around Europe and the USA.  According to one source, they gave more than 15,000 concerts over 40 years. This printed programme, from 1886, shows the kind of thing Western audiences could hear, many of them, such as […]