8.557935 Andrew Gant - Naxos Music Library

HANDELMusic for theChapel Royal Let God ariseI will magnify theeAs Pants the hartO Sing unto the Lord

Choir of the Chapel Royal

Andrew Gant

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Andrew Gant

Andrew Gant was a Choral Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge under George Guest. After several years as aprofessional singer, including two years as a Tenor Lay Vicar in the choir of Westminster Abbey, he has followeda career as a choirmaster and church musician, holding positions at Selwyn College, Cambridge, Worcester College,Oxford, and The Royal Military Chapel (The Guards’ Chapel), Wellington Barracks. In 2000 he took up his presentpost of Organist, Choirmaster and Composer at Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal. Under his direction the choir hasperformed at a number of State events and other occasions as required by Her Majesty, has broadcast on BBC Radioand television and Classic fm, performed at the Proms and worked closely with the Master of the Queen’s Music,Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who has written four works specially for the choir and two other large-scale choral andorchestral works in which the choir has taken part. Andrew Gant’s compositions include operas, (including May weborrow your husband?, an a cappella opera commissioned by the Lichfield Festival), an oratorio, The Vision of PiersPlowman, for the Three Choirs Festival, works for James Bowman and Catrin Finch, A Hymn for the Golden Jubileewith Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate (recorded by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral), church music, works for childrenand his British Symphony, commissioned for performances by the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and BarryWordsworth in February 2007. Current projects include a one-woman opera for Patricia Rozario, Don’t go down theElephant after Midnight.

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The Musicians Extra-ordinary

For most of its history the English monarchy has maintained a variety of instrumental musicians on its staff inaddition to the singers of the Chapel Royal. Musicians (and others) who are directly employed by the monarch areformally designated as being “in ordinary”: the adult members of the Chapel Royal choir are “Gentlemen-in-Ordinary”. Those employed on an occasional basis to perform with the monarch’s own musicians are thus describedas “extra-ordinary”, both titles dating back to the very earliest records in the fifteenth century and before. The bandassembled to accompany the Chapel Royal for this recording continues this tradition, a modern amalgam of theirforebears referred to in the records as “the musicians extra-ordinary for the violins” and “the musicians extra-ordinary for the windy instruments”.

Violin I: Emilia Benjamin (leader) Hannah Tibell Wiebke Thormälen

Violin II: Persephone GibbsRebecca Rule

Viola: Rachel Byrt

Cello (and continuo, tracks 11–13 and 15):Joseph Crouch

Double-bass: Christine Sticher

Flute: Katy Bircher

Oboe: Katharina Spreckelsen (solo)Hannah McLaughlin

Bassoon: Peter Whelan

Trumpet: David Hendry Robert Vanryne

Organ: Andrew Gant (tracks 14, 22 and 23), Joseph Nolan (all other tracks)Organ supplied and tuned by Nigel Gardner

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Let God arise, HWV 256b 12:321 Chorus: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him fly before him. 3:202 Duet – Bass [AA] and Alto [JB]: Like as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away: 5:33

like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God.3 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB]: O sing unto God, and sing praises unto his name. 1:404 Chorus: Blessed be God. Alleluja. 1:59

I will magnify thee, HWV 250b 18:115 Solo – Alto [JB]: I will magnify thee, O God my King: and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3:516 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [MM]: O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 2:357 Chorus and quartet [JF-L, MM, JF, MO’S]: Glory and worship are before him: 1:55

power and honour are in his sanctuary.8 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB] and chorus: Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King: 3:49

and that he made the world so fast it cannot be moved.9 Solo – Alto [MM]: Righteousness and equity are the habitation of thy seat: 3:00

mercy and truth shall go before thy face.0 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB] and chorus: My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: 3:01

and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy name. Amen.

As Pants the hart, HWV 251d 11:54! Sextet [JF-L/AM, MM, JB, JF, MO’S, AA] and chorus: As pants the hart for cooling streams, 2:57

so longs my soul for thee, O God.@ Solo – Alto [MM] and quartet [JF-L, JB, JF, AA]: Tears are my daily food: while thus they say, 2:23

where is now thy God?Recit – Bass [AA] Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, and brought them out into the house of God.

# Chorus: In the voice of praise and thanksgiving: among such as keep holy day. 1:45$ Duet – Alto I [MM] and Alto II [JB]: Why so full of grief, O my soul: why so disquieted within me? 3:25% Chorus: Put thy trust in God: for I will praise him. 1:24

O Sing unto the Lord, HWV 249a 11:19^ Solo – Alto [JB] and chorus: O sing unto the Lord a new song, all the whole earth. 2:03& Solo – Alto [MM]: Sing unto the Lord, and praise his name: declare his honour unto the heathen, 2:59

and his wonders unto the people.

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)Music for the Chapel Royal

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shifts from A minor chords to F major chords, using thenote A as a pivot, could be Schubert. The last movementjoyously combines a long-note theme (derived from theancient Non nobis tune, used before by Handel) with arapid fugue in quaver runs. This technique appearsseveral more times in Handel’s later work, for examplein the chorus I will sing unto the Lord in Israel in Egypt,where the full theatrical possibilities of this combinationof different kinds of tune are thoroughly exploited.

Handel composed several more works for grand,public Chapel Royal events in the two decadesfollowing 1727, returning to composition for the regular,more private services of the Chapel in the last years ofhis working life. His association with the institution thuslasted some four decades, the whole of his working lifein England. The Chapel Royal had always been, and stillis, a community of musicians working together, andHandel clearly knew and admired his singers at theChapel well. Many of them worked with him elsewhere:then, as before and as now, they were part of a close-knitprofessional circuit of singers, performing with other

London choirs as regular members or as deputies, and assoloists in oratorio and opera. The Chapel Royal, itshistory, its traditions, its buildings, its place at the heartof the British court, its personnel, provided Handel witha constant throughout his life on which he could drawfor inspiration and musical comradeship. Some of thefruits of that remarkable relationship are on this disc,music of unequalled variety, vigour, vitality and sheerbeauty. The music is a lasting testament not just of theman who wrote it, but of the men and boys who sang andplayed it, and the institution which nurtured it. We canonly hope Handel would have been pleased that thismusic has come back home.

Andrew Gant

The writer acknowledges with gratitude the help of Professor Donald Burrows, whose Handel and the English

Chapel Royal (OUP 2005) has been the source of muchincluded here and will be a valuable resource for those who

seek further information.

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* Accompagnetto – Bass [AA] The Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised: 1:05he is more to be feared than all gods.

( Solo – Bass [MO’S]: Glory and worship are before him: power and honour are in his sanctuary. 2:22) Duet – Bass [AA] and Alto [JB] and chorus: O worship the lord in the beauty of holiness: 1:37

let the whole earth stand in awe of him.¡ Solo – Alto [MM] and chorus: Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad: let the sea make a noise 1:12

and all that therein is.

Two movements from As Pants the hart, HWV 251a 6:59

™ Solo – Alto [JB]: Tears are my daily food: while thus they say, where is now thy God? 4:03Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, and brought them out into the house of God.

£ Duet – Treble [JF-L] and Alto [JB]: Why so full of grief, O my soul: why so disquieted within me? 2:56

Choir of the Chapel RoyalAndrew Gant

Children of the ChapelRalph Warman (Head Boy)

Jacob Ferguson-Lobo (Deputy Head Boy) [JF-L]Oliver FinchamMark Loveday

Alexander May [AM]Joseph Jackson

Ivo AlmondDaniel Barber

Allan RossOrlando Byron

Gentlemen-in-Ordinary:Alto:

James Bowman [JB]Michael McGuire [MM]

Tenor: Jerome Finnis [JF]

Ben Breakwell (gentleman extraordinary)

Bass: Maciek O’Shea [MO’S]Andrew Ashwin [AA]

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the downward semitone transposition. Handel invertsthe parts, giving the original treble music to the bass, thetenor to the alto, the whole wrapped in a halo of stringsplaying the opening vocal phrase as a kind of chorale-ritornello at various points throughout. It is a typicallyoriginal touch, and as so often with Handel it is hard tobelieve that this unutterably gorgeous piece of musicrepresents a re-writing of earlier music: uniquely amongthe great composers his ideas sometimes seem to growand mature each time he re-visits them. The thirdmovement, Glory and Worship, again takes a Cannonschorus and re-scores it, this time for the rather oddlayout of seven-part voices, four solos and three tutti. Aselsewhere in these works, the solos are not reallyindependent solo lines, rather a means of varying thetexture within the choir. Typically, Handel often doublesa solo line with a chorus line of a different voice part(treble solo with chorus alto, tenor solo with chorusbass), suggesting a concern principally for choralsonorities, especially across the two sides of the Chapel.The fourth movement tightens up the structure of yetanother Cannons original. Handel replaces his originalsetting of the word “can’t” with “cannot”: perhapssomeone pointed out the inadvisability of slang inchurch anthems. This is one of several examples on thisdisc of a movement in two sections, each setting adifferent piece of the text to different music, the twothemes being combined together at the end. This is atechnique Handel was to develop further in his oratorios,and lends splendid weight to the endings: the dominantpedal in this movement must be one of the longestHandel ever dared. The fifth movement is again one ofthose re-workings of a Cannons movement which makesthe modern listener wonder if it would not have beeneasier simply to start again and write a new piece: majorbecomes minor, chorus becomes solo, only occasionalmusical phrases are retained. Finally Wheely is allowed

to show off a few more top F sharps before the chorusbursts in with dramatic shouts of “Amen” and amagnificent final fugal section. Again it is perhaps thesheer variety and inventiveness of the conception whichis so impressive and satisfying.

Let God arise has the fewest movements of thesepieces- just four. Like O Sing unto the Lord it can bepaired with a setting of the Te Deum, this time thesetting in A. Both are short- perhaps the King had had abad crossing and wanted his Thanksgiving kept brief.The first and last movements are again adapted from theCannons setting of the same text. The first movement isin two distinct sections, the second of which, a splendidtriple-time depiction of the ungodly flying before theLord, is largely unchanged from Cannons (though “flee”becomes “fly” for some reason). The first section ismore substantially altered, and has a number of highlydistinctive features: the first chorus entry comes not onthe first beat of a bar but on the third, starting with thedominant chord of a perfect cadence. The downwardquaver figure scattered through the parts and thetheatrical scales and rests to mark the dispersal of hisenemies is one of those musical devices which theBaroque composer seems obliged to use for texts of thiskind- compare the similar effects at dispersit superbos inMagnificats by both J.S. and C.P.E. Bach- but is greatfun none the less. The second movement is entirely new.It is not really a duet at all but two arias joined together.They are in different keys but share musical themes andtextual ideas. Wheely, the high bass, gets a wider rangethe Hughes, the high alto. The third movement, agenuine duet for the same singers, is another whollyoriginal conception: the swinging bass-line is almost amediaeval pendulum bass, the voices and instruments,including a bassoon obbligato, putting a swayingdescending semiquaver figure over the top. The changesof tonality are also strikingly modern- the unprepared

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This recording restores some of Handel’s finest butleast-known music to the choir for which he wrote it andto the building where he performed it, probably for thefirst time since his own performances there.

By Handel’s day the Chapel Royal was already anancient and famous musical institution. It emerges fromthe mists of history alongside the Christian Kings ofEngland, the earliest records speaking of its havingexisted before the Norman Conquest. During the 200years before Handel all the greatest names of Englishmusic worked there, including Fayrfax, Cornyshe,Tallis, Tye, Byrd, Gibbons, Weelkes, Morley, Purcelland Blow as well as many others. By Handel’s time theglory days perhaps were over, but this Germancomposer and his German monarchs certainly providedthe English Chapel Royal with one magnificent lasthurrah before the long slide of English music into proto-Victorian dullness began.

The term “Chapel Royal” is strictly a collective forthe body of clergy, musicians and vestry officersattached to the Royal Household, and its function todayis the same as it was in Handel’s, and indeed inCornyshe’s day: to sing the regular services in theChapel of whichever Palace the monarch wishes, and toaccompany the monarch to major state services andother events elsewhere as commanded. The ChapelRoyal is in one sense not therefore a place at all: in 1715the Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal called St Paul’sCathedral “the King’s Chappell upon this occasion”when the King attended a service there with his ownChapel in attendance. This leaves little doubt that themonarch’s own establishment is the senior partner onthese occasions, not the host Cathedral, and this peckingorder is equally clear from the records of events such as

Coronations, where the music was always under thedirection of the Chapel Royal choirmaster and thosemusicians who were members of both the Chapel andthe Abbey choirs (like Purcell) would always perform intheir Chapel capacity, providing deputies for theirAbbey employment. Slightly confusingly, the chapelinside St James’s Palace is, as the oldest Royal chapel incontinuous use, referred to by tradition as The ChapelRoyal. The Chapel Royal (people) became based here inthe Chapel Royal (building) in 1714, shortly afterHandel’s association with the institution began, andservices are now sung here and at the Queen’s Chapeljust outside the Palace. Handel knew and worked in bothplaces, and most (probably all) of the music on this discwas performed by him in the Chapel Royal at St James’swhere this recording was made. His Chapel Royal choirwas a little bigger than it is today (perhaps 12 boys and12 men, compared with 10 boys and six men today), butwere he to attend a service at St James’s tomorrow thechoir (complete with distinctive State uniformsintroduced a few decades before his arrival), thebuilding, the liturgy and (at least some of the time) themusic would be thoroughly familiar to him.

Handel’s association with the Chapel Royal beganearly in his residence in England, and was clearly animportant factor in establishing him in English musicallife and in the favour of the monarch and court. As Pantsthe Hart, HWV 251a was the first anthem he composedfor the Chapel Royal. Written probably betweenDecember 1712 and May 1713 it is (with its partnerHWV 251d) Handel’s only anthem with accompanimentfor organ and basso continuo alone, and was written notfor a grand public occasion like the other anthems in thiscollection, but for use in the regular routine services of


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disc began life in the Chapel Royal and were thenrecomposed as anthems for Cannons (and in the case ofAs Pants the Hart subsequently recomposed again forthe Chapel Royal); the other two, I will magnify TheeHWV 250b and Let God arise HWV 256b went the otherway round, beginning as Cannons anthems and beingrecomposed later for the Chapel Royal.

In January 1715 State Thanksgiving services werefinally discontinued. They began again in 1720 in theirnew role as celebrations of the King’s safe return fromtrips to Hanover, but for the first two Handel washimself abroad and the music was composed by Croft.After 1720 Croft appears to fall out of favour much asHandel had done after 1714, and Handel, aided by arapprochement between King and Prince, was back inactive participation at the Chapel Royal. Between 1722and 1727 Handel’s music was used at each ChapelRoyal Thanksgiving service for the King’s return. Hecomposed six new works for these services after 1720,including the two remaining anthems on this recording.

It has always been (and still is) part of the ChapelRoyal composer’s role to write pieces marking thevarious events in the life of his sovereign. The attentivelistener can perhaps hear varying levels of sincerity andenthusiasm in these encomiums across the centuriesaccording to the character of the individuals concernedand the health or otherwise of the working relationshipbetween musician and monarch. Handel certainly gaveof his best to these pieces, though perhaps sensibly hechose texts of a general character rather than potentiallylimiting the scope of his imagination by honouring theKing directly as other Chapel Royal composers haddone. There is no doubt that crossing the Channel safelywas an occasion for thanksgiving: on one occasion earlyin his reign George I was forced ashore at Rye in Sussexby a violent storm, the weather so bad that he could notleave the town for several days. He was put up by the

Mayor, James Lamb, in his brand new Lamb House (stillthe grandest house in the town and later home of HenryJames). While he was there Lamb’s wife gave birth to ababy (perhaps inspired by the joint shock of a fiercestorm and the unexpected appearance of the King in herspare room), and the enforced royal house-guest stoodgodfather to the new arrival. The silver dish given by theKing to his new godchild is still on display at LambHouse. Such were the journeys marked by theThanksgiving services.

It is impossible to be sure exactly which anthem wassung at which Thanksgiving service during this period,but Professor Donald Burrows suggests 5 January1723/4 as a possible date for the performance of I willmagnify Thee HWV 250b and 16 January 1725/6 for LetGod arise HWV 256b. Unlike the other two anthems onthis disc, these two were conceived and began life atCannons, reaching maturity in these later versions forthe Chapel Royal.

I will magnify Thee retains only its first and lastmovements from its Cannons pair, the last movementlargely unaltered, the first completely rewritten from athree-part “chorus” to become an alto solo (for thehigher of Handel’s two alto soloists, Mr Hughes) with aritornello for oboe and strings. The middle fourmovements are all derived from three other Cannonsanthems, giving this piece four parents in all. Thesecond movement duet provides a detailed insight intoHandel’s recreative processes. The music of this duetrather confusingly comes from the appearance of thesame text in the Cannons version of O Sing unto theLord (for the Chapel Royal version of which Handelcomposed a new and completely different setting). TheCannons duet was for treble and tenor in B flat major.Handel re-writes it for his alto Hughes and his bassWheely, both clearly men with good high ranges, but notquite able to maintain the original part writing even with

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the Chapel Royal. It is significant that soon after theintroduction of this work to the Chapel Royal repertoireHandel received his first pension from Queen Anne:£200 per annum. The music of this anthem then beginsa journey through his creative processes which as muchas any other work illustrates the extent to which Handelwas prepared to borrow, steal and reinvent existingmusic to suit new occasions and new requirements. Thesecond version, HWV 251b, was written for Cannons in1717, adding an orchestra. 1720-1722 saw theappearance of HWV 251d marking Handel’s return toactive participation in the life of the Chapel Royal. Thisis another continuo-only anthem, and there is no directevidence that it was actually performed: Handel almostimmediately made a fourth version, HWV 251c, withorchestra again, perhaps suggesting that he only becameaware of the need for orchestral accompaniment once251d was complete. A fifth version, HWV 251e,followed a full quarter of a century after the first, in1738, for a benefit evening at the King’s Theatre,Haymarket.

The third version, HWV 251d, is recorded here,along with two movements from the first, HWV 251a.Like 251a, 251d marked the beginning of a period ofwork with the Chapel Royal for Handel. And like itsearlier stable mate it seems to have led directly to royalfavour: Handel’s second pension, granted to him as“Composer to the Chapel Royal” followed soon after itscomposition, in 1723. (Interestingly, Handel also beganhis work at Cannons with his second setting of this sametext- it seems to have become a totem with him to begineach new phase of anthem composition with a version ofthis work.) This second pension brought Handel’s totalannual income from court pensions and his position asMusic Master to the Royal Princesses to £600- a veryconsiderable income. Various explanations have beenoffered as to why he was put on a pension rather than a

salaried position like other Chapel Royal musicians. Oneis that the two posts of Composer to the Chapel werealready taken (by Croft, Handel’s sometime nemesis,and Weldon), but this does not explain why Handel didnot then proceed to the salaried post on Croft’s death in1727 (the place went to Maurice Greene). Anotherexplanation offered is that Handel as a German citizencould not according to the Act of Settlement hold a courtposition; but surely this could have been got around-there had after all been a great many foreign musicianson the royal pay-roll for centuries. Perhaps anotherexplanation is that Handel was simply not the man to beemployed and told what to do by anyone, monarch, deanor anyone else. Famously his own man, he brought hisstubborn determination and self-will to everything hedid- choice of texts (Burney famously quotes himreceiving the Bishops’ instructions regarding the textsfor the Coronation anthems with the muttered riposte “Ihave read my Bible well and shall choose for myself”),choice of performers, circumstances and style ofperformance, and every aspect of his own career. He wasthe world’s first professional freelance composer (andremained the only one to make a success of it for anothercentury), and he was very good at it. As a pensioner,rather than an employee, he had no superiors and nofixed duties: he could contribute as an when it suitedhim, using the opportunities it afforded him to write themusic he wanted to write and thereby gain favour withthe monarch and recognition from the public. This isexactly what he did, entirely on his own terms, and hedid it brilliantly.

The texts of all Handel’s settings of As Pants theHart are the same. He seems to have found this text inJohn Church’s 1712 publication Divine Harmony, aword-book of anthems currently in the repertoire at theChapel Royal, where they are linked to a lost musicalsetting by Dr John Arbuthnot, who was Queen Anne’s


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Anthem was also sung”(The London “Evening Post”,

25-28 September 1714)

Another paper makes equally frustrating reference to theanthem without saying what it was:

“Mr Handel’s Te Deum…was very excellentlyperform’d there, as was also a very fine Anthem”

(The “Weekly Packet”, 25 September- 2 October 1714)

A few weeks later, on 17 October, another service washeld to mark the safe arrival of the King’s daughter-in-law and granddaughters:

“On Sunday [17 October] the Prince and Princessof Wales accompanied the King to the Chapel

Royal, St James’s Palace, where Te Deum, withanother excellent thanksgiving piece with music

composed by the famous musico Mr Händel, was sung on account of the joyful arrival

of the princess of Wales and the young princesses”

(reported by the London correspondent of the “Hamburg Relations-Courier”)

Te Deum had become the canticle of choice fornational celebrations, particularly since Purcell’s grandsetting in D, and there is evidence (based on theorchestration, similar idiosyncratic spellings in bothscores and the type of paper used) which links O Singunto the Lord with Handel’s setting of the canticlecomposed for Princess Caroline. In any event, this isHandel’s first independent church anthem withorchestral accompaniment, and very probably the firstorchestral anthem ever heard in the Chapel Royal at StJames’s Palace where this recording was made(Purcell’s Chapel Royal was based at Whitehall Palace

until the fire there in 1698). The text of O Sing unto the Lord is from Psalm 96.

Again, Handel seems to have found the text in Church’sDivine Harmony, where it features as the text to ananthem by Weldon, and once again Handel slightlychanges the selection of verses taken from the PrayerBook to increase the dramatic possibilities. Once againsome of the soloists are named: Elford, the lower of thetwo altos, takes the first movement. The second does notbear the soloist’s name, but the higher-pitched altowriting makes Hughes the more likely. The followingrecit and aria were written for bass Thomas Baker,clearly quite a singer: the recit has a two-octave range.This movement is strikingly Purcellian in feel: the vividvocal writing recalls Purcell’s for that other celebratedChapel Royal bass John Gosling (still nominally on thepayroll); the ground-bass played tasto solo at the start isfar more of a feature of Purcell’s work than Handel’s;the little string playout at the end, the strings unusuallynot having featured before in the movement, could be asailors’ hornpipe from Dido and Aeneas. Purcellfamously set this text himself: could Handel be makingmusical homage to his Chapel Royal predecessor here?The fifth movement wrings splendidly dramatic effectfrom the division of the text into two sections, and thefinal movement is a brief blaze of D major, the onlyappearance on this disc of trumpets. The effect is of agrand accumulation of texture and mood, though thetrumpets do commit Handel to ending the anthem in adifferent key from the one in which he began: two of thefour anthems on this disc have this slightly eccentricfeature.

After 1714 social and political pressures connectedwith a falling-out between King and Prince of Walespushed Handel away from court. In 1717 he began workfor James Brydges, later Duke of Chandos, at his houseCannons in Middlesex. Two of the four anthems on this

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doctor and clearly a musical amateur (a commonaspiration for an educated gentleman- Samuel Pepystried his hand at composition under the guidance ofChapel Royal composers William Child and ChristopherGibbons). The text opens with verses from Tate andBrady’s well-known metrical version of Psalm 42,reverting at verse 2 to the Prayer Book text (Handelmakes a slightly different selection of verses fromArbuthnot’s). Typically, Handel names the soloists forwhom he was writing, giving a fascinating insight intothe strengths of his particular singers and Handel’ssensitivity to individual performers, particularly whenmusic composed for one singer is re-written later foranother. In HWV 251a of 1713, the singers are MrHughes (Alto I), Mr Elford (Alto II) Mr Wheely (Bass I)and Mr Gates (Bass II). The treble soloist is alwaysreferred to simply as “The Boy”. Elford also gets the oddlittle aria and recit (in that order) which form movement2, with its unusual written-out right-hand organ part, andthe duet with “The Boy”. Several changes occurbetween this version and the 1723 HWV 251d. Handel’scommand of English, never great, had slightlyimproved: in the earlier setting Elford is called “Eilfurt”,and the word “pants” comes out as “paints” throughout.This is corrected by 1723. Elford died in 1714, so in the1723 setting his music is allocated to Mr Bell, a newsecond movement appears (for Mr Hughes) and thetreble/alto duet becomes a duet for the two altos Hughesand Bell. This duet had already been re-composed forthe Cannons setting 251b, and appears again in thesecond orchestral version 251c in very similar formexcept that Mr Bell, oddly, seems to have made thecareer move from singing alto to singing tenor more orless overnight (he is also named elsewhere as a bass-clearly a versatile man to have in your choir). Hughes’solo Tears are my daily food makes typically operaticuse of reported speech at “where is now thy God?”, a

quartet of soloists spitting the accusation in Hughes’ earas he muses on his fate. This dotted figure actuallyappears first as orchestral music in 251c, but is so wellsuited to these words that Handel may have thought of itin vocal terms first. Of such was his genius. Thechoruses are based on those of 251a with sometightening of counterpoint and some transposition. Thewhole is a beautifully paced and varied setting of acarefully-chosen text, showing consummatecontrapuntal skill (one pair of parallel unisonsnotwithstanding) and Handel’s unsurpassed humansympathy for the human voice and the human heart.

O Sing unto the Lord HWV 249a was Handel’s nextanthem (as opposed to liturgical settings such as the TeDeum) for the Chapel Royal, and his first for a nationalservice of Thanksgiving. These events had become anincreasingly regular part of the Chapel Royal’s life sincethe first one, held to mark the defeat of the SpanishArmada in 1588. Under William III they were often heldto mark the success (or to give the public the impressionof success) of that year’s military campaigns. QueenAnne’s reign saw the service marking the Peace ofUtrecht in 1713 among others, but by the time of GeorgeI’s accession political and public pressures were movingagainst foreign wars and the Thanksgiving services tookon a different character, being used to mark the arrivalof the king and other members of the Royal family fromtheir native Hanover, and to celebrate the king’s safereturn to London after his periodic trips back to Hanoverthroughout his reign. There are two such occasionswhich may have seen the premiere of O Sing unto theLord. 26 September 1714 was George I’s first Sunday inLondon after his ceremonial entry into his new capitalearlier that same week:

“On Sunday morning last, his Majesty went to hisRoyal Chapel at St James’s;…Te Deum was sung,

compos’d by Mr Hendel, and very fine

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Anthem was also sung”(The London “Evening Post”,

25-28 September 1714)

Another paper makes equally frustrating reference to theanthem without saying what it was:

“Mr Handel’s Te Deum…was very excellentlyperform’d there, as was also a very fine Anthem”

(The “Weekly Packet”, 25 September- 2 October 1714)

A few weeks later, on 17 October, another service washeld to mark the safe arrival of the King’s daughter-in-law and granddaughters:

“On Sunday [17 October] the Prince and Princessof Wales accompanied the King to the Chapel

Royal, St James’s Palace, where Te Deum, withanother excellent thanksgiving piece with music

composed by the famous musico Mr Händel, was sung on account of the joyful arrival

of the princess of Wales and the young princesses”

(reported by the London correspondent of the “Hamburg Relations-Courier”)

Te Deum had become the canticle of choice fornational celebrations, particularly since Purcell’s grandsetting in D, and there is evidence (based on theorchestration, similar idiosyncratic spellings in bothscores and the type of paper used) which links O Singunto the Lord with Handel’s setting of the canticlecomposed for Princess Caroline. In any event, this isHandel’s first independent church anthem withorchestral accompaniment, and very probably the firstorchestral anthem ever heard in the Chapel Royal at StJames’s Palace where this recording was made(Purcell’s Chapel Royal was based at Whitehall Palace

until the fire there in 1698). The text of O Sing unto the Lord is from Psalm 96.

Again, Handel seems to have found the text in Church’sDivine Harmony, where it features as the text to ananthem by Weldon, and once again Handel slightlychanges the selection of verses taken from the PrayerBook to increase the dramatic possibilities. Once againsome of the soloists are named: Elford, the lower of thetwo altos, takes the first movement. The second does notbear the soloist’s name, but the higher-pitched altowriting makes Hughes the more likely. The followingrecit and aria were written for bass Thomas Baker,clearly quite a singer: the recit has a two-octave range.This movement is strikingly Purcellian in feel: the vividvocal writing recalls Purcell’s for that other celebratedChapel Royal bass John Gosling (still nominally on thepayroll); the ground-bass played tasto solo at the start isfar more of a feature of Purcell’s work than Handel’s;the little string playout at the end, the strings unusuallynot having featured before in the movement, could be asailors’ hornpipe from Dido and Aeneas. Purcellfamously set this text himself: could Handel be makingmusical homage to his Chapel Royal predecessor here?The fifth movement wrings splendidly dramatic effectfrom the division of the text into two sections, and thefinal movement is a brief blaze of D major, the onlyappearance on this disc of trumpets. The effect is of agrand accumulation of texture and mood, though thetrumpets do commit Handel to ending the anthem in adifferent key from the one in which he began: two of thefour anthems on this disc have this slightly eccentricfeature.

After 1714 social and political pressures connectedwith a falling-out between King and Prince of Walespushed Handel away from court. In 1717 he began workfor James Brydges, later Duke of Chandos, at his houseCannons in Middlesex. Two of the four anthems on this

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doctor and clearly a musical amateur (a commonaspiration for an educated gentleman- Samuel Pepystried his hand at composition under the guidance ofChapel Royal composers William Child and ChristopherGibbons). The text opens with verses from Tate andBrady’s well-known metrical version of Psalm 42,reverting at verse 2 to the Prayer Book text (Handelmakes a slightly different selection of verses fromArbuthnot’s). Typically, Handel names the soloists forwhom he was writing, giving a fascinating insight intothe strengths of his particular singers and Handel’ssensitivity to individual performers, particularly whenmusic composed for one singer is re-written later foranother. In HWV 251a of 1713, the singers are MrHughes (Alto I), Mr Elford (Alto II) Mr Wheely (Bass I)and Mr Gates (Bass II). The treble soloist is alwaysreferred to simply as “The Boy”. Elford also gets the oddlittle aria and recit (in that order) which form movement2, with its unusual written-out right-hand organ part, andthe duet with “The Boy”. Several changes occurbetween this version and the 1723 HWV 251d. Handel’scommand of English, never great, had slightlyimproved: in the earlier setting Elford is called “Eilfurt”,and the word “pants” comes out as “paints” throughout.This is corrected by 1723. Elford died in 1714, so in the1723 setting his music is allocated to Mr Bell, a newsecond movement appears (for Mr Hughes) and thetreble/alto duet becomes a duet for the two altos Hughesand Bell. This duet had already been re-composed forthe Cannons setting 251b, and appears again in thesecond orchestral version 251c in very similar formexcept that Mr Bell, oddly, seems to have made thecareer move from singing alto to singing tenor more orless overnight (he is also named elsewhere as a bass-clearly a versatile man to have in your choir). Hughes’solo Tears are my daily food makes typically operaticuse of reported speech at “where is now thy God?”, a

quartet of soloists spitting the accusation in Hughes’ earas he muses on his fate. This dotted figure actuallyappears first as orchestral music in 251c, but is so wellsuited to these words that Handel may have thought of itin vocal terms first. Of such was his genius. Thechoruses are based on those of 251a with sometightening of counterpoint and some transposition. Thewhole is a beautifully paced and varied setting of acarefully-chosen text, showing consummatecontrapuntal skill (one pair of parallel unisonsnotwithstanding) and Handel’s unsurpassed humansympathy for the human voice and the human heart.

O Sing unto the Lord HWV 249a was Handel’s nextanthem (as opposed to liturgical settings such as the TeDeum) for the Chapel Royal, and his first for a nationalservice of Thanksgiving. These events had become anincreasingly regular part of the Chapel Royal’s life sincethe first one, held to mark the defeat of the SpanishArmada in 1588. Under William III they were often heldto mark the success (or to give the public the impressionof success) of that year’s military campaigns. QueenAnne’s reign saw the service marking the Peace ofUtrecht in 1713 among others, but by the time of GeorgeI’s accession political and public pressures were movingagainst foreign wars and the Thanksgiving services tookon a different character, being used to mark the arrivalof the king and other members of the Royal family fromtheir native Hanover, and to celebrate the king’s safereturn to London after his periodic trips back to Hanoverthroughout his reign. There are two such occasionswhich may have seen the premiere of O Sing unto theLord. 26 September 1714 was George I’s first Sunday inLondon after his ceremonial entry into his new capitalearlier that same week:

“On Sunday morning last, his Majesty went to hisRoyal Chapel at St James’s;…Te Deum was sung,

compos’d by Mr Hendel, and very fine


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disc began life in the Chapel Royal and were thenrecomposed as anthems for Cannons (and in the case ofAs Pants the Hart subsequently recomposed again forthe Chapel Royal); the other two, I will magnify TheeHWV 250b and Let God arise HWV 256b went the otherway round, beginning as Cannons anthems and beingrecomposed later for the Chapel Royal.

In January 1715 State Thanksgiving services werefinally discontinued. They began again in 1720 in theirnew role as celebrations of the King’s safe return fromtrips to Hanover, but for the first two Handel washimself abroad and the music was composed by Croft.After 1720 Croft appears to fall out of favour much asHandel had done after 1714, and Handel, aided by arapprochement between King and Prince, was back inactive participation at the Chapel Royal. Between 1722and 1727 Handel’s music was used at each ChapelRoyal Thanksgiving service for the King’s return. Hecomposed six new works for these services after 1720,including the two remaining anthems on this recording.

It has always been (and still is) part of the ChapelRoyal composer’s role to write pieces marking thevarious events in the life of his sovereign. The attentivelistener can perhaps hear varying levels of sincerity andenthusiasm in these encomiums across the centuriesaccording to the character of the individuals concernedand the health or otherwise of the working relationshipbetween musician and monarch. Handel certainly gaveof his best to these pieces, though perhaps sensibly hechose texts of a general character rather than potentiallylimiting the scope of his imagination by honouring theKing directly as other Chapel Royal composers haddone. There is no doubt that crossing the Channel safelywas an occasion for thanksgiving: on one occasion earlyin his reign George I was forced ashore at Rye in Sussexby a violent storm, the weather so bad that he could notleave the town for several days. He was put up by the

Mayor, James Lamb, in his brand new Lamb House (stillthe grandest house in the town and later home of HenryJames). While he was there Lamb’s wife gave birth to ababy (perhaps inspired by the joint shock of a fiercestorm and the unexpected appearance of the King in herspare room), and the enforced royal house-guest stoodgodfather to the new arrival. The silver dish given by theKing to his new godchild is still on display at LambHouse. Such were the journeys marked by theThanksgiving services.

It is impossible to be sure exactly which anthem wassung at which Thanksgiving service during this period,but Professor Donald Burrows suggests 5 January1723/4 as a possible date for the performance of I willmagnify Thee HWV 250b and 16 January 1725/6 for LetGod arise HWV 256b. Unlike the other two anthems onthis disc, these two were conceived and began life atCannons, reaching maturity in these later versions forthe Chapel Royal.

I will magnify Thee retains only its first and lastmovements from its Cannons pair, the last movementlargely unaltered, the first completely rewritten from athree-part “chorus” to become an alto solo (for thehigher of Handel’s two alto soloists, Mr Hughes) with aritornello for oboe and strings. The middle fourmovements are all derived from three other Cannonsanthems, giving this piece four parents in all. Thesecond movement duet provides a detailed insight intoHandel’s recreative processes. The music of this duetrather confusingly comes from the appearance of thesame text in the Cannons version of O Sing unto theLord (for the Chapel Royal version of which Handelcomposed a new and completely different setting). TheCannons duet was for treble and tenor in B flat major.Handel re-writes it for his alto Hughes and his bassWheely, both clearly men with good high ranges, but notquite able to maintain the original part writing even with

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the Chapel Royal. It is significant that soon after theintroduction of this work to the Chapel Royal repertoireHandel received his first pension from Queen Anne:£200 per annum. The music of this anthem then beginsa journey through his creative processes which as muchas any other work illustrates the extent to which Handelwas prepared to borrow, steal and reinvent existingmusic to suit new occasions and new requirements. Thesecond version, HWV 251b, was written for Cannons in1717, adding an orchestra. 1720-1722 saw theappearance of HWV 251d marking Handel’s return toactive participation in the life of the Chapel Royal. Thisis another continuo-only anthem, and there is no directevidence that it was actually performed: Handel almostimmediately made a fourth version, HWV 251c, withorchestra again, perhaps suggesting that he only becameaware of the need for orchestral accompaniment once251d was complete. A fifth version, HWV 251e,followed a full quarter of a century after the first, in1738, for a benefit evening at the King’s Theatre,Haymarket.

The third version, HWV 251d, is recorded here,along with two movements from the first, HWV 251a.Like 251a, 251d marked the beginning of a period ofwork with the Chapel Royal for Handel. And like itsearlier stable mate it seems to have led directly to royalfavour: Handel’s second pension, granted to him as“Composer to the Chapel Royal” followed soon after itscomposition, in 1723. (Interestingly, Handel also beganhis work at Cannons with his second setting of this sametext- it seems to have become a totem with him to begineach new phase of anthem composition with a version ofthis work.) This second pension brought Handel’s totalannual income from court pensions and his position asMusic Master to the Royal Princesses to £600- a veryconsiderable income. Various explanations have beenoffered as to why he was put on a pension rather than a

salaried position like other Chapel Royal musicians. Oneis that the two posts of Composer to the Chapel werealready taken (by Croft, Handel’s sometime nemesis,and Weldon), but this does not explain why Handel didnot then proceed to the salaried post on Croft’s death in1727 (the place went to Maurice Greene). Anotherexplanation offered is that Handel as a German citizencould not according to the Act of Settlement hold a courtposition; but surely this could have been got around-there had after all been a great many foreign musicianson the royal pay-roll for centuries. Perhaps anotherexplanation is that Handel was simply not the man to beemployed and told what to do by anyone, monarch, deanor anyone else. Famously his own man, he brought hisstubborn determination and self-will to everything hedid- choice of texts (Burney famously quotes himreceiving the Bishops’ instructions regarding the textsfor the Coronation anthems with the muttered riposte “Ihave read my Bible well and shall choose for myself”),choice of performers, circumstances and style ofperformance, and every aspect of his own career. He wasthe world’s first professional freelance composer (andremained the only one to make a success of it for anothercentury), and he was very good at it. As a pensioner,rather than an employee, he had no superiors and nofixed duties: he could contribute as an when it suitedhim, using the opportunities it afforded him to write themusic he wanted to write and thereby gain favour withthe monarch and recognition from the public. This isexactly what he did, entirely on his own terms, and hedid it brilliantly.

The texts of all Handel’s settings of As Pants theHart are the same. He seems to have found this text inJohn Church’s 1712 publication Divine Harmony, aword-book of anthems currently in the repertoire at theChapel Royal, where they are linked to a lost musicalsetting by Dr John Arbuthnot, who was Queen Anne’s

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the downward semitone transposition. Handel invertsthe parts, giving the original treble music to the bass, thetenor to the alto, the whole wrapped in a halo of stringsplaying the opening vocal phrase as a kind of chorale-ritornello at various points throughout. It is a typicallyoriginal touch, and as so often with Handel it is hard tobelieve that this unutterably gorgeous piece of musicrepresents a re-writing of earlier music: uniquely amongthe great composers his ideas sometimes seem to growand mature each time he re-visits them. The thirdmovement, Glory and Worship, again takes a Cannonschorus and re-scores it, this time for the rather oddlayout of seven-part voices, four solos and three tutti. Aselsewhere in these works, the solos are not reallyindependent solo lines, rather a means of varying thetexture within the choir. Typically, Handel often doublesa solo line with a chorus line of a different voice part(treble solo with chorus alto, tenor solo with chorusbass), suggesting a concern principally for choralsonorities, especially across the two sides of the Chapel.The fourth movement tightens up the structure of yetanother Cannons original. Handel replaces his originalsetting of the word “can’t” with “cannot”: perhapssomeone pointed out the inadvisability of slang inchurch anthems. This is one of several examples on thisdisc of a movement in two sections, each setting adifferent piece of the text to different music, the twothemes being combined together at the end. This is atechnique Handel was to develop further in his oratorios,and lends splendid weight to the endings: the dominantpedal in this movement must be one of the longestHandel ever dared. The fifth movement is again one ofthose re-workings of a Cannons movement which makesthe modern listener wonder if it would not have beeneasier simply to start again and write a new piece: majorbecomes minor, chorus becomes solo, only occasionalmusical phrases are retained. Finally Wheely is allowed

to show off a few more top F sharps before the chorusbursts in with dramatic shouts of “Amen” and amagnificent final fugal section. Again it is perhaps thesheer variety and inventiveness of the conception whichis so impressive and satisfying.

Let God arise has the fewest movements of thesepieces- just four. Like O Sing unto the Lord it can bepaired with a setting of the Te Deum, this time thesetting in A. Both are short- perhaps the King had had abad crossing and wanted his Thanksgiving kept brief.The first and last movements are again adapted from theCannons setting of the same text. The first movement isin two distinct sections, the second of which, a splendidtriple-time depiction of the ungodly flying before theLord, is largely unchanged from Cannons (though “flee”becomes “fly” for some reason). The first section ismore substantially altered, and has a number of highlydistinctive features: the first chorus entry comes not onthe first beat of a bar but on the third, starting with thedominant chord of a perfect cadence. The downwardquaver figure scattered through the parts and thetheatrical scales and rests to mark the dispersal of hisenemies is one of those musical devices which theBaroque composer seems obliged to use for texts of thiskind- compare the similar effects at dispersit superbos inMagnificats by both J.S. and C.P.E. Bach- but is greatfun none the less. The second movement is entirely new.It is not really a duet at all but two arias joined together.They are in different keys but share musical themes andtextual ideas. Wheely, the high bass, gets a wider rangethe Hughes, the high alto. The third movement, agenuine duet for the same singers, is another whollyoriginal conception: the swinging bass-line is almost amediaeval pendulum bass, the voices and instruments,including a bassoon obbligato, putting a swayingdescending semiquaver figure over the top. The changesof tonality are also strikingly modern- the unprepared

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This recording restores some of Handel’s finest butleast-known music to the choir for which he wrote it andto the building where he performed it, probably for thefirst time since his own performances there.

By Handel’s day the Chapel Royal was already anancient and famous musical institution. It emerges fromthe mists of history alongside the Christian Kings ofEngland, the earliest records speaking of its havingexisted before the Norman Conquest. During the 200years before Handel all the greatest names of Englishmusic worked there, including Fayrfax, Cornyshe,Tallis, Tye, Byrd, Gibbons, Weelkes, Morley, Purcelland Blow as well as many others. By Handel’s time theglory days perhaps were over, but this Germancomposer and his German monarchs certainly providedthe English Chapel Royal with one magnificent lasthurrah before the long slide of English music into proto-Victorian dullness began.

The term “Chapel Royal” is strictly a collective forthe body of clergy, musicians and vestry officersattached to the Royal Household, and its function todayis the same as it was in Handel’s, and indeed inCornyshe’s day: to sing the regular services in theChapel of whichever Palace the monarch wishes, and toaccompany the monarch to major state services andother events elsewhere as commanded. The ChapelRoyal is in one sense not therefore a place at all: in 1715the Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal called St Paul’sCathedral “the King’s Chappell upon this occasion”when the King attended a service there with his ownChapel in attendance. This leaves little doubt that themonarch’s own establishment is the senior partner onthese occasions, not the host Cathedral, and this peckingorder is equally clear from the records of events such as

Coronations, where the music was always under thedirection of the Chapel Royal choirmaster and thosemusicians who were members of both the Chapel andthe Abbey choirs (like Purcell) would always perform intheir Chapel capacity, providing deputies for theirAbbey employment. Slightly confusingly, the chapelinside St James’s Palace is, as the oldest Royal chapel incontinuous use, referred to by tradition as The ChapelRoyal. The Chapel Royal (people) became based here inthe Chapel Royal (building) in 1714, shortly afterHandel’s association with the institution began, andservices are now sung here and at the Queen’s Chapeljust outside the Palace. Handel knew and worked in bothplaces, and most (probably all) of the music on this discwas performed by him in the Chapel Royal at St James’swhere this recording was made. His Chapel Royal choirwas a little bigger than it is today (perhaps 12 boys and12 men, compared with 10 boys and six men today), butwere he to attend a service at St James’s tomorrow thechoir (complete with distinctive State uniformsintroduced a few decades before his arrival), thebuilding, the liturgy and (at least some of the time) themusic would be thoroughly familiar to him.

Handel’s association with the Chapel Royal beganearly in his residence in England, and was clearly animportant factor in establishing him in English musicallife and in the favour of the monarch and court. As Pantsthe Hart, HWV 251a was the first anthem he composedfor the Chapel Royal. Written probably betweenDecember 1712 and May 1713 it is (with its partnerHWV 251d) Handel’s only anthem with accompanimentfor organ and basso continuo alone, and was written notfor a grand public occasion like the other anthems in thiscollection, but for use in the regular routine services of



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shifts from A minor chords to F major chords, using thenote A as a pivot, could be Schubert. The last movementjoyously combines a long-note theme (derived from theancient Non nobis tune, used before by Handel) with arapid fugue in quaver runs. This technique appearsseveral more times in Handel’s later work, for examplein the chorus I will sing unto the Lord in Israel in Egypt,where the full theatrical possibilities of this combinationof different kinds of tune are thoroughly exploited.

Handel composed several more works for grand,public Chapel Royal events in the two decadesfollowing 1727, returning to composition for the regular,more private services of the Chapel in the last years ofhis working life. His association with the institution thuslasted some four decades, the whole of his working lifein England. The Chapel Royal had always been, and stillis, a community of musicians working together, andHandel clearly knew and admired his singers at theChapel well. Many of them worked with him elsewhere:then, as before and as now, they were part of a close-knitprofessional circuit of singers, performing with other

London choirs as regular members or as deputies, and assoloists in oratorio and opera. The Chapel Royal, itshistory, its traditions, its buildings, its place at the heartof the British court, its personnel, provided Handel witha constant throughout his life on which he could drawfor inspiration and musical comradeship. Some of thefruits of that remarkable relationship are on this disc,music of unequalled variety, vigour, vitality and sheerbeauty. The music is a lasting testament not just of theman who wrote it, but of the men and boys who sang andplayed it, and the institution which nurtured it. We canonly hope Handel would have been pleased that thismusic has come back home.

Andrew Gant

The writer acknowledges with gratitude the help of Professor Donald Burrows, whose Handel and the English

Chapel Royal (OUP 2005) has been the source of muchincluded here and will be a valuable resource for those who

seek further information.

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* Accompagnetto – Bass [AA] The Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised: 1:05he is more to be feared than all gods.

( Solo – Bass [MO’S]: Glory and worship are before him: power and honour are in his sanctuary. 2:22) Duet – Bass [AA] and Alto [JB] and chorus: O worship the lord in the beauty of holiness: 1:37

let the whole earth stand in awe of him.¡ Solo – Alto [MM] and chorus: Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad: let the sea make a noise 1:12

and all that therein is.

Two movements from As Pants the hart, HWV 251a 6:59

™ Solo – Alto [JB]: Tears are my daily food: while thus they say, where is now thy God? 4:03Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, and brought them out into the house of God.

£ Duet – Treble [JF-L] and Alto [JB]: Why so full of grief, O my soul: why so disquieted within me? 2:56

Choir of the Chapel RoyalAndrew Gant

Children of the ChapelRalph Warman (Head Boy)

Jacob Ferguson-Lobo (Deputy Head Boy) [JF-L]Oliver FinchamMark Loveday

Alexander May [AM]Joseph Jackson

Ivo AlmondDaniel Barber

Allan RossOrlando Byron

Gentlemen-in-Ordinary:Alto:

James Bowman [JB]Michael McGuire [MM]

Tenor: Jerome Finnis [JF]

Ben Breakwell (gentleman extraordinary)

Bass: Maciek O’Shea [MO’S]Andrew Ashwin [AA]

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The Musicians Extra-ordinary

For most of its history the English monarchy has maintained a variety of instrumental musicians on its staff inaddition to the singers of the Chapel Royal. Musicians (and others) who are directly employed by the monarch areformally designated as being “in ordinary”: the adult members of the Chapel Royal choir are “Gentlemen-in-Ordinary”. Those employed on an occasional basis to perform with the monarch’s own musicians are thus describedas “extra-ordinary”, both titles dating back to the very earliest records in the fifteenth century and before. The bandassembled to accompany the Chapel Royal for this recording continues this tradition, a modern amalgam of theirforebears referred to in the records as “the musicians extra-ordinary for the violins” and “the musicians extra-ordinary for the windy instruments”.

Violin I: Emilia Benjamin (leader) Hannah Tibell Wiebke Thormälen

Violin II: Persephone GibbsRebecca Rule

Viola: Rachel Byrt

Cello (and continuo, tracks 11–13 and 15):Joseph Crouch

Double-bass: Christine Sticher

Flute: Katy Bircher

Oboe: Katharina Spreckelsen (solo)Hannah McLaughlin

Bassoon: Peter Whelan

Trumpet: David Hendry Robert Vanryne

Organ: Andrew Gant (tracks 14, 22 and 23), Joseph Nolan (all other tracks)Organ supplied and tuned by Nigel Gardner

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Let God arise, HWV 256b 12:321 Chorus: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him fly before him. 3:202 Duet – Bass [AA] and Alto [JB]: Like as the smoke vanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away: 5:33

like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God.3 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB]: O sing unto God, and sing praises unto his name. 1:404 Chorus: Blessed be God. Alleluja. 1:59

I will magnify thee, HWV 250b 18:115 Solo – Alto [JB]: I will magnify thee, O God my King: and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3:516 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [MM]: O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 2:357 Chorus and quartet [JF-L, MM, JF, MO’S]: Glory and worship are before him: 1:55

power and honour are in his sanctuary.8 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB] and chorus: Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King: 3:49

and that he made the world so fast it cannot be moved.9 Solo – Alto [MM]: Righteousness and equity are the habitation of thy seat: 3:00

mercy and truth shall go before thy face.0 Duet – Bass [MO’S] and Alto [JB] and chorus: My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: 3:01

and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy name. Amen.

As Pants the hart, HWV 251d 11:54! Sextet [JF-L/AM, MM, JB, JF, MO’S, AA] and chorus: As pants the hart for cooling streams, 2:57

so longs my soul for thee, O God.@ Solo – Alto [MM] and quartet [JF-L, JB, JF, AA]: Tears are my daily food: while thus they say, 2:23

where is now thy God?Recit – Bass [AA] Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, and brought them out into the house of God.

# Chorus: In the voice of praise and thanksgiving: among such as keep holy day. 1:45$ Duet – Alto I [MM] and Alto II [JB]: Why so full of grief, O my soul: why so disquieted within me? 3:25% Chorus: Put thy trust in God: for I will praise him. 1:24

O Sing unto the Lord, HWV 249a 11:19^ Solo – Alto [JB] and chorus: O sing unto the Lord a new song, all the whole earth. 2:03& Solo – Alto [MM]: Sing unto the Lord, and praise his name: declare his honour unto the heathen, 2:59

and his wonders unto the people.



HANDELMusic for theChapel Royal Let God ariseI will magnify theeAs Pants the hartO Sing unto the Lord

Choir of the Chapel Royal

Andrew Gant

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Andrew Gant

Andrew Gant was a Choral Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge under George Guest. After several years as aprofessional singer, including two years as a Tenor Lay Vicar in the choir of Westminster Abbey, he has followeda career as a choirmaster and church musician, holding positions at Selwyn College, Cambridge, Worcester College,Oxford, and The Royal Military Chapel (The Guards’ Chapel), Wellington Barracks. In 2000 he took up his presentpost of Organist, Choirmaster and Composer at Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal. Under his direction the choir hasperformed at a number of State events and other occasions as required by Her Majesty, has broadcast on BBC Radioand television and Classic fm, performed at the Proms and worked closely with the Master of the Queen’s Music,Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who has written four works specially for the choir and two other large-scale choral andorchestral works in which the choir has taken part. Andrew Gant’s compositions include operas, (including May weborrow your husband?, an a cappella opera commissioned by the Lichfield Festival), an oratorio, The Vision of PiersPlowman, for the Three Choirs Festival, works for James Bowman and Catrin Finch, A Hymn for the Golden Jubileewith Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate (recorded by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral), church music, works for childrenand his British Symphony, commissioned for performances by the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and BarryWordsworth in February 2007. Current projects include a one-woman opera for Patricia Rozario, Don’t go down theElephant after Midnight.

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This recording restores some of Handel’s finest but least-known music to the choir forwhich he wrote it and to the building where he performed it, probably for the first timesince his own performances there. Forming one of the most impressive areas of Baroquemusic, Handel’s English church music spans his entire active career in London, from hisfirst anthem composed soon after his arrival, to his last works nearly forty years later.Most of it was stimulated by Handel’s creative contact with the English Chapel Royal, agroup of professional singers in a different tradition from the opera stars with whom heworked in the theatre.

George Frideric

HANDEL(1685–1759)

Music for the Chapel Royal

Choir of the Chapel RoyalMusicians Extra-ordinary

Andrew GantRecorded in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, London, UK, from 18th to 20th July 2005

by gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen Producer: Mark Brown • Engineer: Julian Milliard • Booklet Notes: Andrew Gant

Please see the booklet for a detailed track listCover Picture: The German Chapel, St James’s Palace from The History of Royal Residencies

engraved by Daniel Havell (1785-1826) (Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library)

1-4 Let God arise, HWV 256b 12:32

5-0 I will magnify thee, HWV 250b 18:11

!-% As Pants the hart, HWV 251d 11:54

^-¡ O Sing unto the Lord, HWV 249a 11:19

™-£ Two movements from As Pants the hart, HWV 251a 6:59

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8.557935 Andrew Gant - Naxos Music Library

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