Malcolm Archer: At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners

I started to compose at the age of 11, and this has been an important musical force in my life ever since. Since I have spent most of my life working with choirs, the main part of my output has been choral music, however, I have also written music for the theatre, including three musicals, as well as choral and orchestral music and other instrumental works.

My composition teachers were Humbert Sumsion at the Royal College of Music and Alan Ridout at Cambridge. Both taught me the importance of musical economy and never using more notes than are necessary to convey a desired musical effect. My style is essentially lyrical and approachable, but with a distinctly individual harmonic character, and some of the greatest in influences on my music have been the English composers Vaughan Williams, Finzi and Howells, with a leaning at times toward the French composers Ravel and Debussy.

My love of poetry was inspired by my mother, who taught speech and drama, and from an early age I was acting in plays and going in for speech and drama classes in the Lytham St. Annes Music Festival, as well as many other classes in piano and violin. Those early years taught me to love words, and this has certainly shaped both my compositions and also my approach to choir training, where the importance of expressive diction and conveying the mood of the words is my constant creed.

At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners was commissioned by Stephen Parsons for the opening of Bristol Cathedral Choir School as the first new choir school Academy in 2010. The work received its first performance in February of that year in Bristol Cathedral, sung by the School Choir and Cathedral Choir under Eiron Bailey, with Mark Lee at the organ. It sets a text by John Donne, the priest and poet who was the Dean at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London at the time of the Great Fire.

There are two carol settings on this disc and both set my own words. The Carol of the Stable is a simple strophic setting with a memorable melody, sung at the start by sopranos. Its simple and understated mood develops in the final verse, where with a rich and full organ part and upper voices harmonic descant it reaches a powerful peak, before relaxing into the opening mood at the end. The other carol Sing of a Stable by an Inn, is rather more illusive and atmospheric with sustained writing and the melodic interest shared between the voices.

Suo Gân is an arrangement for upper voices of the beautiful and haunting Welsh tune by Alaw Werin. It is essentially a lullaby, sung here by a solo soprano in Welsh, with a distant descant at the end. The work may also be sung in English to a translation of my own with a Christmas flavour, which makes it effective as a carol.

An Irish Blessing sets a traditional Irish text, which I first heard some years ago in Wells Cathedral used by our Dean, the Very Reverend Richard Lewis as blessing at the end of Evensong. I was very taken with it, and determined to set it to music when the occasion arose. There are very few musical settings of these words, and this version is dedicated to my mother-in- law, Gwenneth Robinson.

In War, Resolution was commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s Cathedral for the dedication of the new Winston Churchill memorial gates, designed and built by James Horrobin for the crypt of St. Paul’s in 2004. The first performance was given by the Cathedral choir in the presence of three former British Prime Ministers and Churchill’s daughter, Lady Soames. It sets a text by Winston Churchill, and the solo trumpet quotes from ‘The Last Post’ during this reflective motet, which is particularly suitable for use on Remembrance Sunday.

Missa Montis Regalis was composed in 2010 and was commissioned by the Montreal Boys’ Choir Course, and received its rst performance in August of that year by the course participants, conducted by the composer in Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal with Patrick Wedd at the organ. It sets the traditional Latin Mass text, but with no Credo. It has a colourful organ part and the harmonic language has its astrigent moments, with dramatic mood changes; from the triumphant opening of the Gloria to the brooding and poignant soprano duet for the words ‘Domine Deus, Filius Patris’.

Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester was commissioned by The Royal School of Church Music publications for a tour of the Icon of Richard of Chichester around Sussex in 2003.

A Harvest Anthem (God in such love for us) sets a text by Fred Pratt Green, and was commissioned by Paul Hale for the choir of Southwell Minster, in memory of Kenneth Beard, a former Rector Chori (Organist and Choirmaster) at Southwell.

Anthem for Seafarers (Eternal Father, strong to save) was commissioned by Michael Drayton at the time of his retirement from The Baltic Exchange as their Chairman. It received its first performance in Vancouver, marking the International Year of the Seafarer and has since received several performances at seafaring centres around the world, including The Royal Naval Chapel in Greenwich and St. Paul’s Cathedral at the annual service for Seafarers. Another seafaring work on this disc is the arrangement of Nearer, my God, to Thee, which uses the American tune by Lowell Mason (1792-1872) with words by Sarah Flower Adams. This tune is said—perhaps apocryphally —to have been played on board the RMS Titanic in its final moments. This arrangement, which includes solos for soprano and tenor, is dedicated to Michael and Gail Drayton, who have given much valuable support for this disc and other Convivium projects.

Good Christians all, Rejoice and Sing is an extrovert piece with a lively organ part and crisp rhythmic vitality within the framework of alternating time signatures of 7/8 and 6/8. It was commissioned in loving memory of Lillian Roberts, by her husband, children and grandchildren.

All Creatures of our God and King was commissioned in 2011 by Magdalen College School, Oxford, the school where I held my first teaching appointment as Assistant Director of Music from 1976 to 1978. The work sets words by W.H. Draper based on the ‘Cantico di frate sole’ of St. Francis of Assisi. It received its first performance at the Magdalen College School Commemoration service in the University Church in Oxford in 2011, sung by the school choir under the direction of Peter Smith.

(Malcolm Archer, 2011)