Henry Aldrich: Sacred Choral Music – Review by Fanfare

“The performances here are first-rate and put the music’s best foot forward at every turn”

2nd July 2020

Henry Aldrich: Sacred Choral Music – Review by Fanfare

Listen or buy this album:

Henry Aldrich: Sacred Choral Music – Review by Fanfare

“The performances here are first-rate and put the music’s best foot forward at every turn”

2nd July 2020

Henry Aldrich Sacred Choral Music

Listen or buy this album:

The genius of Henry Purcell (1659–1695), much lauded as a lonely pinnacle of excellence in the musical scene of the English Restoration era, has tended to eclipse knowledge of other composers. John Blow gets a nod by virtue of his Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell; Jeremiah Clarke had the good fortune to have one of his pieces gain widespread currency by it being misattributed to Purcell. William Croft, the brief-lived Pelham Humfrey, and a few other figures get a nod from cognoscenti of the period. But, as the extremely useful website “Henry Purcell and His Contemporaries” by Chris Whent (host of the long-running public radio early music program Here of a Sunday Morning) documents in detail (hoasm.org/VIIA/VIIAPurcellContemporaries.html), there are a plethora of lesser-known figures who were active on the scene and merit varying degrees of attention.

One such figure, not noted by Whent but whose music here makes its recording debut, is Henry Aldrich (1648–1710). For Aldrich, music was an avocation rather than a vocation. A cleric in the Church of England, he attained fairly high offices, being made a dean of Christ Church, Oxford from 1689 to his death, and serving as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1692 to 1695. A classics scholar of solid attainments, his logic textbook Artis Logicæ Compendium(1691) remained a standard resource for generations of the university’s students. A first-rate architect, he designed the Peckwater Quadrangle of Christ Church, and also All Saints Church, Oxford (now converted in use to the library building of Lincoln College). He also had a reputation for sociability and penned witty Latin verses.

Aldrich’s musical legacy is, unsurprisingly given his manifold commitments, not extensive: It comprises seven full anthems, 16 verse anthems, and four sets of service music for the Anglican liturgy, plus English adaptations (often involving considerable recomposition) of the Litany of Thomas Tallis and 35 Latin motets by Tallis, Byrd, Carissimi, Palestrina, and other well-known figures. This disc presents all seven of the full anthems, five of the verse anthems, one adaptation (Be not wroth, after Byrd), and Aldrich’s only surviving pieces of purely instrumental music, the Music for the Oxford Act 1682, an annual event held each July in the university’s famous Sheldonian Theatre. While stylistically conservative for its time, thoroughly conventional and not original, Aldrich’s music is well crafted and technically competent in every way, with his motet adaptations being admired by contemporaries for their skillfulness. The settings, well suited for their intended devotional purpose, are text-sensitive; the booklet notes point out that Aldrich eschewed use of bar lines in favor of the older practice of employing syllabic stress to shape rhythmic and melodic contours.

The performances here are first-rate and put the music’s best foot forward at every turn. The soloists in the verse anthems—soprano Lucinda Cox, tenor Benjamin Durrant, and bass Thomas Lowen—have lovely voices and are not afraid to employ some discreet vibrato for expressive effects. One wishes that a complete roster of the choristers and instrumentalists had been provided. The recorded sound is clear and well focused. My one complaint is that the booklet notes, while informative, show considerable signs of sloppiness: Poor organization of content results in a good deal of needless repetition, the prose is sometimes clunky, and a list of the full anthems partway through omits All people that on earth do dwell.

But that fortunately does not interfere with one’s pleasure here in listening. While not essential repertoire, it falls easily and gratefully upon the ear, and those with an interest in the music of the English Restoration definitely will wish to seek it out.

Review written by:

Review published in:

Other reviews by this author:

No other reviews found

The genius of Henry Purcell (1659–1695), much lauded as a lonely pinnacle of excellence in the musical scene of the English Restoration era, has tended to eclipse knowledge of other composers. John Blow gets a nod by virtue of his Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell; Jeremiah Clarke had the good fortune to have one of his pieces gain widespread currency by it being misattributed to Purcell. William Croft, the brief-lived Pelham Humfrey, and a few other figures get a nod from cognoscenti of the period. But, as the extremely useful website “Henry Purcell and His Contemporaries” by Chris Whent (host of the long-running public radio early music program Here of a Sunday Morning) documents in detail (hoasm.org/VIIA/VIIAPurcellContemporaries.html), there are a plethora of lesser-known figures who were active on the scene and merit varying degrees of attention.

One such figure, not noted by Whent but whose music here makes its recording debut, is Henry Aldrich (1648–1710). For Aldrich, music was an avocation rather than a vocation. A cleric in the Church of England, he attained fairly high offices, being made a dean of Christ Church, Oxford from 1689 to his death, and serving as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1692 to 1695. A classics scholar of solid attainments, his logic textbook Artis Logicæ Compendium(1691) remained a standard resource for generations of the university’s students. A first-rate architect, he designed the Peckwater Quadrangle of Christ Church, and also All Saints Church, Oxford (now converted in use to the library building of Lincoln College). He also had a reputation for sociability and penned witty Latin verses.

Aldrich’s musical legacy is, unsurprisingly given his manifold commitments, not extensive: It comprises seven full anthems, 16 verse anthems, and four sets of service music for the Anglican liturgy, plus English adaptations (often involving considerable recomposition) of the Litany of Thomas Tallis and 35 Latin motets by Tallis, Byrd, Carissimi, Palestrina, and other well-known figures. This disc presents all seven of the full anthems, five of the verse anthems, one adaptation (Be not wroth, after Byrd), and Aldrich’s only surviving pieces of purely instrumental music, the Music for the Oxford Act 1682, an annual event held each July in the university’s famous Sheldonian Theatre. While stylistically conservative for its time, thoroughly conventional and not original, Aldrich’s music is well crafted and technically competent in every way, with his motet adaptations being admired by contemporaries for their skillfulness. The settings, well suited for their intended devotional purpose, are text-sensitive; the booklet notes point out that Aldrich eschewed use of bar lines in favor of the older practice of employing syllabic stress to shape rhythmic and melodic contours.

The performances here are first-rate and put the music’s best foot forward at every turn. The soloists in the verse anthems—soprano Lucinda Cox, tenor Benjamin Durrant, and bass Thomas Lowen—have lovely voices and are not afraid to employ some discreet vibrato for expressive effects. One wishes that a complete roster of the choristers and instrumentalists had been provided. The recorded sound is clear and well focused. My one complaint is that the booklet notes, while informative, show considerable signs of sloppiness: Poor organization of content results in a good deal of needless repetition, the prose is sometimes clunky, and a list of the full anthems partway through omits All people that on earth do dwell.

But that fortunately does not interfere with one’s pleasure here in listening. While not essential repertoire, it falls easily and gratefully upon the ear, and those with an interest in the music of the English Restoration definitely will wish to seek it out.

Review written by:

Review published in:

Other reviews by this author:

No other reviews found

Featured artists:

Featured composers: