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How Fair Thou Art
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)
EN
NL

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 represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, versatility and skill in performance, and for their consummate musicianship, drawing both on the group’s rich heritage and its pioneering spirit to create an extraordinary wealth of original works and unique collaborations. What has always distinguished the group is their comfort in an unprecedented range of styles and genres, pushing the boundaries of their repertoire, while at the same time honouring their origins in the British choral tradition. They are known and loved around the world, and appear regularly in major cities, festivals and venues across Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia, including Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Mozarteum Salzburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Edinburgh International Festival, Helsinki Music Centre, Sydney Opera...
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The King’s Singers have represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, versatility and skill in performance, and for their consummate musicianship, drawing both on the group’s rich heritage and its pioneering spirit to create an extraordinary wealth of original works and unique collaborations.
What has always distinguished the group is their comfort in an unprecedented range of styles and genres, pushing the boundaries of their repertoire, while at the same time honouring their origins in the British choral tradition. They are known and loved around the world, and appear regularly in major cities, festivals and venues across Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia, including Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Mozarteum Salzburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Edinburgh International Festival, Helsinki Music Centre, Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Opera City and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing. They also work with orchestras, recently including the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with whom they performed a specially commissioned work by Sir James MacMillan.
9 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. As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations in 2018, the group undertook a series of major tours worldwide, supporting the release of a special anniversary album GOLD (also nominated for a Grammy Award), which featured important works in the group’s history and new commissions by Bob Chilcott, John Rutter and Nico Muhly.
This commitment to creating a new repertoire has always been central to the group, with over 200 commissioned works by many leading composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries, including John Tavener, Judith Bingham, Eric Whitacre, György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki and Toru Takemitsu. These join a unique body of close-harmony and a cappella arrangements, including those by individual King’s Singers past and present. Many of their early collaborators’ own experience with brass bands helped to inform the distinct ‘King’s Singers sound’ and a large number of their commissioned works and arrangements are available in their own signature series with Hal Leonard, selling over two million copies worldwide. A key to the group’s success has been their ability to evolve and innovate over many years – and through 28 individual members – while always retaining this special sound and musical integrity.
They also lead educational workshops and residential courses across the world, working with groups and individuals on their techniques and approaches to ensemble singing. In 2018 they founded The King’s Singers Global Foundation to provide a platform for the creation of new music across multiple disciplines, coach a new generation of performers and provide musical opportunities to people of all backgrounds.
The King’s Singers were 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 maintained this formation ever since that debut.
Patrick Dunachie countertenor Edward Button countertenor Julian Gregory tenor Christopher Bruerton baritone Nick Ashby baritone Jonathan Howard bass
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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...
more

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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