We’ll be working our way backwards in time today – with music mostly British…

Richard Webster, while born in the U.S.A, might as well be British… He is as finely-tuned an Anglophile as there ever was, who in his 30 years as Organist/Choirmaster of St. Luke’s Church in Evanston, IL established a vibrant, English-style [boy choirs, Victorian choral literature, prim and proper everything…] program, including a great deal of work with the Royal School of Church Music, helping that august organization establish a strong foothold in the educational life of many Americans. He is currently on the staff at Trinity Church, Copley Square, in Boston – where he writes music and runs marathons.

‘O Taste and See’ was written for the Coronation service of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, a simple and lucid bidding to open all of our senses to the glories of God…

And now – back a few decades in time, but a century in sound to the post-Victorian elegance of C. Hubert H. Parry, an Eton and Oxford product that ended his days as Director of the Royal College of Music. A word about the Whittier text and its inherent sexism… We try not to judge previous generations their lack of gender sensitivity; when we sing ‘Man’ and ‘Mankind,’ we mean, of course, all people. The poem is, nevertheless, immortal in its poignancy.

Thomas Campion, Elizabethan composer and physician, left us over 100 ‘lute songs,’ delightful, limpid, strophic songs – usually bucolic or lusty, or both – meant to be accompanied by the Lute. There is irresistible earthiness here…

Today marks the beginning of the work of Staff Singer Stacey Weber – a Houston resident who, when not singing around town with a sterling clarity, is playing the harp at the St. Regis High Tea…! And no, she is no relation – as far as we can tell – but she certainly spells her name correctly.

And finally, one of the ridiculously over-performed Trumpet Tunes of Henry Purcell… This C Major Tune is variously and viciously butchered whilst being soundly ignored at ninety percent of American wedding celebrations. I thought it would be nice if we stood and listened to it and paid some attention to its many merits…

-Keith Weber