Malcolm Archer’s At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners, featuring Convivium Singers.
Malcolm Archer: At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
£5.99 – £9.99
Description
About this release
The Royal School of Church Music presents, in Association with Convivium Records, an exclusive Malcolm Archer recording At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners. This is the first single composer disc of Malcolm’s music to be released in a decade, and includes many recently commissioned works.
Composer’s Notes
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. Read more
About the artists
Convivium Singers
Convivium Singers is an award-winning, critically acclaimed choral ensemble. They provide opportunities for young singers at the early stages of performing careers. In addition, talented musicians who have chosen not to pursue careers in music form part of the ensemble. Above all, the ensemble specialises in performing and recording sacred and secular music by living European and American composers. BBC Radio 3’s ‘CD Review’ recently described them as ‘an extraordinarily good choir to listen to’. Read more
Malcolm Archer
Malcolm Archer has had a distinguished career in church music. He held the post of Organist and Director of Music at Bristol, Wells and St Paul’s Cathedral. He was subsequently Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College for eleven years.
Malcolm studied as an RCO scholar at the Royal College of Music and was Organ Scholar at Jesus College Cambridge. His organ teachers were Ralph Downes, Gillian Weir and Nicolas Kynaston.
As an organist and harpsichordist he is in frequent demand. He has given solo concerts all over the world, including the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Europe. His performances with orchestra have included Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony, Brandenburg Concerto No.5 and the Bach keyboard concertos. Malcolm has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra in a classic rock concert in the Royal Albert Hall. Moreover, he has an extensive concert repertoire and has recorded a wide variety of works including J.S. Bach organ works and Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur. Read more
Credits
Catalogue number: CR014
Choir Convivium Singers
Additional Choir (Anthem for Seafarer’s) Portsmouth Cathedral Choir
Trumpet (In war, resolution) Samuel Moffitt
Organist David Price
Conductor Malcolm Archer
Photography Jacqui Marie Photography, Peter Langdown, Portsmouth Cathedral, Russell Falkingham
Engineering Adaq Khan, Kevin Hodgson
Mastering Adaq Khan
Producer Alexander Norman
Creative Director John Bevan
Executive Producer Adrian Green
Recorded 15, 16, 17 April, 9, 10 July, 2012
Venue Portsmouth Cathedral
Total Duration 62 mins