You would think that setting the native tongue would come naturally to all composers; but, alas, it isn’t so. Whether from over-familiarity [breeding contempt or boredom] or from a simple preference for the power of sound over the power of syntax, a great deal of music for the church, in English by British composers especially, is pedestrian, awkward, angular or a little bit of each. I’m pleased to offer three very happy exceptions to this embarrassing truth – three vocal pieces where the words take proper precedence and drive the very soul of the music, making the language sound, in its declamation, organic and true.

To set up this mini-festival of British song, Matthew begins with a Voluntary by John Blow (1649-1708), a musician who spent his whole life in the rarefied world of the Court, eventually creating the position of ‘Composer of the Chapel Royal,’ in 1699. The term ‘Double’ refers to the use of two contrasting sounds on two different divisions of the organ.

Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) had an elegant way with words, and his simple, lush setting of a couple of Psalm verses strikes my ear with a natural, easy, truthful pacing. The choir harmonizes Robin’s statements of the melody…

King David, a song of Herbert Howells (1892-1982), is, I think, important. Howells takes de la Mare’s poem – a touching reflection on the power of introspection and self-compassion in dealing with internal pain – and not only frames and sets the words carefully and well, but paints them large and long and lovingly with a real synergy between vocal line and piano, the combination of which adds up to a great deal more than a sum of the parts. My favorite moment comes at the words: “He rose…” The texture is reduced to just the vocal line, holding an A-flat…. Which, while it is being sung, changes not note but name – now a G-sharp – and ushers in a perfectly subtle but striking change of key. This, as well as any of hundred other details, makes this song an example of highly-refined lyricism of the first order. Please take time to get to know the poem before you hear it; this familiarity will open your ears to the magic of Howells’ writing.

Songs like this benefit from singers like Heidi Scanio, visiting St. Philip for the first time. A graduate of the University of Houston, Heidi, gifted with intelligence, flexibility, color and tonal sense, was gone to Maryland for a few years but is now back – to the delight of many… Please welcome her.

Heidi also offers a song from the tragically small body of work of the gifted dandy Pelham Humfrey (1647-1674), whose death at the age of 27 was a real loss to English Music. He managed, though, in his short time, to have had a strong impact on his peers, including both Henry Purcell and John Blow.

And finally, if you’ve got two syllables to set [Sir John Stainer’s ‘Sevenfold Amen’], this is the way to do it – with utter grace and colorful, linear care.

-Keith Weber