SURROUND SOUND IX

Winchester%20Cathedral%20empty%20nave%20msw_edited.jpg

Texts and Translations

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 –1611) | Alma redemptoris mater

Regarded as one of the leading composers of the Spanish Renaissance, Victoria was born in Avila, and travelled to Rome in 1565. He held various positions in Rome, including succeeding Palestrina as a teacher at the seminary, before returning to Spain the late 1580s. He only wrote sacred music, not even borrowing secular motifs as themes, as others composers did at the time. The text is a Marian antiphon, which is sung at the end of the monastic service in the evening, for the season of Advent through to Candlemas.

Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli porta manes,
et stella maris, succurre cadenti, surgere qui curat, populo;

Tu quae genuisti, natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem:
Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore sumens illud Ave,
peccatorum miserere.

Loving mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven,

star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again;

to the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before,

You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.

Francisco Valls (c1665 –1747) | Ave Regina caelorum

Valls spent much of his working life in Barcelona. He was a significant composer

of church music in the Baroque era, and in his later years wrote a treatise on harmonic theory, Mapa Armónico Práctico, using examples of his works. Many of his church compositions are on a grand scale, written in eight or ten parts. The text is another Marian antiphon, for the season from Candlemas through to Easter.

Ave, Regina caelorum,
Ave, Domina Angelorum:
Salve, radix, salve, porta
Ex qua mundo lux est orta:

Gaude, Virgo gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa,
Vale, o valde decora,
Et pro nobis Christum exora

Hail, Queen of Heaven.
Hail, Lady of Angels
Hail! thou root, hail! thou gate
From whom unto the world a light has arisen:

Rejoice, O glorious Virgin,
Lovely beyond all others,
Farewell, most beautiful maiden,
And pray for us to Christ.

Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896) | Ave Maria

Bruckner was an Austrian composer, whose bicentenary is celebrated this year. He is best known for his large-scale symphonies; he also wrote around 40 more modest motets for the Catholic church. Ave Maria is one of the most popular; it was first performed in 1861 in Linz cathedral as the Offertory motet.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum;

benedicta tu in mulieribus,

et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei

ora pro nobis peccatoribus

nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis. Amen

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;

blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Holy Mary, pray for us. Amen.

James MacMillan (b 1959) | The Gallant Weaver

MacMillan was born in Scotland in 1959, and studied at the University of Edinburgh and at Durham University. He lectured at the University of Manchester, and returned to Scotland in 1988, devoting himself primarily to composition. He currently lives in north Ayrshire. The Gallant Weaver is a setting of a Robert Burns poem, which describes the age-old dilemma of marrying for love versus social position and wealth.

Where Cart rins rowin to the sea,

By mony a flower and spreading tree,

There lives a lad, the lad for me,

He is a gallant Weaver.

Oh I had wooers aught or nine,

They gied me rings and ribbans fine;

And I was fear'd my heart wad tine

And I gied it to the Weaver.

My daddie sign'd my tocher-band

To gie the lad that has the land,

But to my heart I'll add my hand

And give it to the Weaver.

While birds rejoice in leafy bowers,

While bees delight in opening flowers,

While corn grows green in simmer showers,

I love my gallant Weaver.

Labi Siffre (b 1945), arr RGC & MS Williams | (Something inside) So strong

Claudius Afolabi Siffre, known as Labi Siffre, is a British singer-songwriter, active in '70s and late '80s. As well as music, Siffre has published essays, plays and poetry. Siffere was born in Hammersmith, and studied at thet Eric Gilder School of Music, Wardour St, London. (Something inside) So strong was released as a single in 1986, reaching #4 in the Singles chart. Originally inspired by a documentary on apartheid, the song has become associated with causes at large fighting injustice, and has been used in Amnesty International campaigns.

The higher you build your barriers
The taller I become
The further you take my rights away
The faster I will run
You can deny me, you can decide
To turn your face away
No matter 'cause there's ...

Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Though you're doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone, oh no
There's something inside so strong
Oh, something inside so strong

The more you refuse to hear my voice
The louder I will sing
You hide behind walls of Jericho
Your lies will come tumbling
Deny my place in time, you squander wealth that's mine
My light will shine so brightly it will blind you
Because there's ..

Something inside so strong ....

Brothers and sisters
When they insist we're just not good enough
Well we know better
Just look him in his eyes and say
We're gonna do it anyway
We're gonna do it anyway

Something inside so strong ....