Psalms For The Soul

"The performances are of the highest quality. I would guess that most of the members are young adults. The choral tone has a freshness and control that one does not usually get from older singers. The straight-toned sopranos have a seemingly effortless delivery, while the men are able to combine intensity with gentleness, as in the opening of Howells's 'like as the Hart'. Ensemble, intonation, and enunciation (so important in psalm chanting) are all excellent.

Some choirs tend to be deliberate, even ponderous in their chanting. Sometimes this is made necessary by a highly reverberant acoustic, as in the series of psalms from St Paul's Cathedral in London (Hyperion). The chanting from the St John's choir has a propulsive flow but never sounds rushed or driven. It is exactly the sort of chanting I prefer. The organ tone is generally dark but clear, and therefore well suited to psalm accompaniment. organist Michael Bloss sensitively varies the registration and voicing of his accompaniment to suit the character of the psalm verses. Several of the psalms are chanted without accompaniment. Many of the chants are by 20th Century composers: Charles Hylton Stewart, David Willcocks, Ivor Atkins, and a particularly eloquent specimen by choirmaster Noel Edison. There are also chants by Henry Lawes of the 17th Century, Richard Woodward of the 18th, and Thomas Attwood Walmisley of the 19th."
- American Record Guide (William Gatens) March/April 2001

"Choral enthusiasts, arise! Here is a new recording that you can really get excited about. A dozen or so miles north of the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, lies the village of Elora. And there, at St. John's Anglican Church, is a choir that stands among the best in North America. Its director, Noel Edison, also is the founder of the acclaimed Elora Festival and its Elora Festival Singers, another world-class professional ensemble. The singing on this disc, which includes Psalm settings for the Anglican service, a couple of anthems with Psalm texts, and service music for Good Friday known as The Reproaches, gives further confirmation of Canada's second-to-none stature in the world of choral singing. During the six years that I lived in Kitchener (in the pre-Elora Festival days) I discovered and participated in a choral music tradition that's not widely known or appreciated outside of Canada. Mostly centered in the Anglican churches, it breeds generations of singers who not only are rooted in English church music but also, because of the country's relatively small population and brief musical history, are open to all the world's music, and especially to contemporary works. Luckily for us, Naxos has found this outstanding St. John's choir and I hope we can look forward to many more recordings.

"Of course, this program is of a fairly specialized nature. Anglican chant--a stylized singing of liturgical texts, in this case the psalms, to an original, fully harmonized tune--is not for everyone. But over the centuries many of the world's finest composers have lent this form their interest and inspiration--and many lesser-known but highly competent organists and choir directors have contributed their own often strikingly imaginative efforts. If sung properly, as they are here, and if the musical settings are well chosen--also the case on this recording--then listeners are in for a treat. There are too many highlights to single them all out, from Charles Hylton Stewart's Psalms 23 and 103, to David Willcocks' Psalm 131, Hubert Parry's Psalm 84, Ivor Atkins' Psalm 149, Edison's own Psalm 121, and the resounding closer, Stanford's Psalm 150. More famously represented are Edward Bairstow's luscious Lamentations, and the anthems by Herbert Sumsion (They that go down to the sea in ships) and Herbert Howells (Like as the hart, in a lovely, highly romantic rendition with triplets stretched to the limit and beyond). Lennox Berkeley's wonderful The Lord is my Shepherd, so simple and perfect in its expression of the text, deserves wide recognition, and former Gloucester Cathedral organist John Sanders' sensational setting of The Reproaches alone gives reason to own this disc. The well-balanced, luminous sound gives all the immediacy and presence the music requires."
- Classics Today (10/10)

The Book of Psalms has been described by one modern authority as "the most precious heritage which the Christians received from the Jews." Filled with vivid poetic imagery these texts have provided composers with inspiration over the centuries. This is only to be expected since they were written with the idea of musical accompaniment in mind from the start. One has only to call to mind the lines from Psalms CXLIX and CL, "O sing unto the lord a new song, Praise him in the sound of the trumpet, praise him upon the strings and pipe, or Sing praises unto him with timbrel and harp", to realise that these are words to be sung. From the early years of the Christian church the singing of psalms was an important part of the services of worship. This was just as true after the Reformation within the Anglican tradition, to which the music on this CD belongs. Psalms were particularly prominent in the services of Morning and Evening Prayer where they were appointed to be read or sung in regular cycles. These services are no longer as conspicuous as they once were and we have lost that continual exposure which allowed phrases from the psalms to enter our common store of imagery - "out of the mouth of babes and sucklings",or the strikingly resonant "valley of the shadow of death."

Three of the psalms on this recording are treated by their composers - Herbert Sumsion, Lennox Berkeley, and Herbert Howells - as full scale anthems. The imagery of the text that Sumsion chooses, "They that go down to the sea in ships", is deftly reflected in musical imitation or word painting. The melodic lines of the choir climb upwards to heaven and sink downwards to the deep, and later they stagger, if not exactly like drunken men, then at least like mildly inebriated ones. The organ meanwhile keeps up a constant, watery, lapping motion.