PELICAN IN THE WILDERNESS:
SONGS FROM THE PSALMS
ENCHANTED VOICES & THE TIPPETT QUARTET
BUY IT HERE
Track listing information
Psalm 1 Lyke a freshly planted tree [iuxta rivulos aquarum]
Solo Rachel Major Singers: (Rachel Major), Elizabeth Drury, Charlotte Mobbs, Eloise Irving, Philippa Murray, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Jane Lea Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
English text version: Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
Psalm 4 Heare, O heare me [in tribulatione]
Solo Emilia Hughes Singers: (Emilia Hughes), Elizabeth Drury, Grace Davidson, Eloise Irving, Philippa Murray, Amy Wood, Rachel Major, Lucy Page Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
English text version: Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
Psalm 10 Why standest Thou so farr? [ut quid domine]
Solos Charlotte Mobbs & Lucy Page Singers: (Charlotte Mobbs), Elizabeth Drury, Philippa Murray, Eloise Irving, Lucy Page, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rachel Major Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
English text version: Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd [pascit me] – theme from The Vicar of Dibley
Solo: Amy Wood Singers: (Amy Wood), Elizabeth Drury, Emilia Hughes, Grace Davidson, Philippa Murray, Eloise Irving, Rachel Major, Susannah Vango Organ: Daisy Fancourt Double Bass: Mary Scully The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 51 Have mercy on me [miserere mei]
Solo: Grace Davidson (Grace Davidson), Amy Wood, Elizabeth Drury, Emilia Hughes, Philippa Murray, Eloise Irving, Rachel Major, Susannah Vango Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 72 He shall keep the simple folk [deus judicium]
Singers: Grace Davidson, Amy Wood, Elizabeth Drury, Emilia Hughes, Philippa Murray, Eloise Irving, Rachel Major, Susannah Vango Organ: Daisy Fancourt Double Bass: Mary Scully The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 84 How lovely are your dwellings [quam dilecta]
Solo: Grace Davidson Singers: (Grace Davidson), Amy Wood, Elizabeth Drury, Emilia Hughes, Philippa Murray, Eloise Irving, Rachel Major, Susannah Vango Organ: Daisy Fancourt Double Bass: Mary Scully The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 93 Though rivers roar [levaverunt flumina]
Solo: Charlotte Mobbs Singers: (Charlotte Mobbs), Rachel Major, Elizabeth Drury, Eloise Irving, Philippa Murray, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Jane Lea Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
English text version: Mary Sidney (1561-1621)
Psalm 102 A Pelican in the wilderness [pellicano solitudinis]
Solo: Elizabeth Drury Singers: (Elizabeth Drury), Charlotte Mobbs, Rachel Major, Eloise Irving, Philippa Murray, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Jane Lea Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
English text version: The Bay Psalm Book 1640
Psalm 111 A good man is merciful [in memoria aeterna]
Solo: Charlotte Mobbs Singers: (Charlotte Mobbs), Elizabeth Drury, Philippa Murray, Eloise Irving, Lucy Page, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rachel Major Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 122 O pray for the peace of Jerusalem [rogate pacem]
Solo: Grace Davidson Singers: (Grace Davidson), Emilia Hughes, Elizabeth Drury, Eloise Irving, Philippa Murray, Amy Wood, Rachel Major, Lucy Page Piano: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 130 Out of the Deep [de profundis]
Solos: Charlotte Mobbs & Philippa Murray Singers: (Charlotte Mobbs & Philippa Murray), Rachel Major, Elizabeth Drury, Eloise Irving, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rebecca Jane Lea Piano: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 137 By the waters of Babylon [super flumina]
Solo: Grace Davidson Singers: (Grace Davidson), Emilia Hughes, Elizabeth Drury, Eloise Irving, Philippa Murray, Amy Wood, Rachel Major, Lucy Page Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
Psalm 139 Thou walkest with me [tu cognovisti]
Solo: Eloise Irving Singers: (Eloise Irving), Charlotte Mobbs, Elizabeth Drury, Philippa Murray, Lucy Page, Helen Ashby, Kate Ashby, Rachel Major Organ: Daisy Fancourt The Tippett Quartet: John Mills & Jeremy Isaac (Violins) Julia O’Riordan (Viola), Bozidar Vukotic (Cello)
English text version: Mary Sidney (1561-1621)
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Psalm texts used on the CD here
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Composer’s note
I started singing psalms when I was a boy chorister aged 8, around the time I was discovering the Beatles. From the Beatles I learnt the power and directness of melody, a lesson I have never relinquished in all my subsequent years of composing. As for the psalms, they seemed in many ways to be the heart of the Anglican evensong, one passage for every day of the year as the seasons changed, with their slightly Shakespearian language and imagery, their slowly unfolding chants and their see-sawing emotions between despair and elation.
What is strange about the Anglican adoption of the psalms is that these are the ancient plaints of a displaced tribe, 3000 years before, in a far-off desert plain, where boy choristers in cassocks, winter evenings in a darkened, candlelit medieval chapel and the four-part harmony of collegiate voices would be – literally - unimaginable. In between those 1960s evensongs and the original Israelites lay other cultures and societies with an equally strong link to these colourful songs: the pilgrim founders of America who arrived off the Mayflower with psalters in their meagre bags (one of the psalms in this collection, Psalm 102, is sung to the translation from the Massachusetts colony's Bay Psalm Book compiled in 1640 – the oldest book in America) and who began the process of filling American English with phrases and idioms from the psalms, and the millions of Africans brought to the USA as slaves who identified – not surprisingly - with the enslavement of the Hebrew community as described movingly in Psalm 137 – By the waters of Babylon.
What has made them so universally compelling, I suspect, is what drew me to them for this third Enchanted Voices creation: they were, first and foremost, songs. The word ‘psalm’ comes from the Greek meaning to sing with harp accompaniment and here I am, in the 21st century, adding my voice to all those, over three millennia, who have imagined those melodies. It is like throwing oneself into a great river, being carried downstream as it flows through history. Several of the texts I have chosen come from Elizabethan versions in the form of poems by brother and sister Philip and Mary Sidney. They tell us more about 16th century England than they do about King David in 1000 BC, but they are beautiful and touching because of it. Some of them seem amazingly pertinent to us even now – who, in 2010, does not ‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ (Psalm 122)?
And the title? It comes from that Bay Psalm Book of 1640, with words that presumably crossed the Atlantic in someone’s satchel, full of hope, faith and not a little nervous loneliness: Like Pelican in wilderness, like owl in desert so am I; I watch, and like a sparrow am, on house top solitarily….
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Recording produced, arranged & conducted by Howard Goodall
Engineer Matt Lawrence Assistant Engineer Jarrad Hearman
Edited by Matt Lawrence & Howard Goodall
Recorded at Assault & Battery Studios, Willesden, London, with the acoustic space of the Cathédrale Saint Alain de Lavaur, Midi-Pyrénées, France (Audio Ease Altiverb 6 technology).
Mastered by Ben Turner at Fine Splice
Executive producer Tim Lihoreau
Session supervisor Val Fancourt
Session librarian Pru Bouverie
Enchanted Voices are represented by Val Fancourt Music Management
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