Desert Island Discs no.5

Hello everyone,

It's been WAY too long since my last Desert Island Discs and I apologise for that! If you've read my previous posts, you'll know I attended the Eton Choral Course in Oxford this summer which has inspired me to do this particular DID. We sang an array of INCREDIBLE choral works but I couldn't possible include all of them in one post! I'll spread them out! I chose a piece that really stood out for me: 'Greater love hath no man' by John Ireland.

I love John Ireland. He had a rather difficult life, always feeling inadequate, he was very introverted, had few friends and had a disastrous marriage which was eventually annulled. One of his pupils Benjamin Britten (A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra) gave up on him after a year, deeming him 'drunk, hungover or absent' during tutorials. I can't help but feel huge sympathy for him. Nevertheless, he gained honorary degrees from RAM and RCM (Royal Academy and College of Music) and a doctorate from Durham, so not all bad. Ireland was a composer that is branded as an 'English Impressionist' whose works were more redolent of French and Russian music like Ravel and Stravinsky; two of my favourite genres of music are French Impressionism and English music of the early 20th Century so John Ireland is the perfect mix! Unfortunately, Ireland destroyed a lot of his early works thinking they weren't good enough, but I'm hoping that after listening to this piece you'll feel an element of disappointment that he did it, because 'Greater Love' is so beautiful. Can you imagine what treats we would have been granted if he had faith in himself?

'Greater love' was written in 1912 for choir and organ and the words are taken from the Song of Solomon, the Gospel of John and various letters of Peter and Paul:

Many waters cannot quench love,

neither can the floods drown it. Love is strong as death.

Greater love hath no man than this,

that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,

That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.

Ye are washed, ye are sanctified,

ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation;

That ye should show forth the praises of him

who hath call'd you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

 

I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God,

that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy,

acceptable unto to God, which is your reasonable service.

The piece goes through a number of keys, moods and tempi that make so interesting to listen to. The harmonies created are absolutely stunning, particularly when created by many voices uniting as one.The piece explores the faith and love of God in a way that is so intimate and delicate as well as demonstrating the power of their faith and God's power to raise people out of darkness; and the lovely quiet prayer that ends the piece. The solos are beautifully constructed with a mixture of sweet scalic passages and powerful sweeping leaps - the baritone solo is gorgeous, but I'm a sucker for a bass :P I love how the tonality changes to a lovely delicate minor for the treble solo, ending on a warm Tierce de Picardie (this is when the 3rd note of a chord is changed to make the chord sound major after being in a minor key).Moreover, the shift of tonalities of the baritone solo set up the next section which sees the choir preaching in such a glorious manner to end with the burst of 'marvellous light'. One part that gets to me everytime is 'that you present your bodies, holy, acceptable unto God'. The harmonies are so beautiful it's heartbreaking, and singing it made me want to cry everytime. The piece is supported with huge power from the wonderful organ which gives it so much depth and substance, particularly the roaring bass! Although it sounds incredible and this is now one of my favourite pieces, I can't help thinking that it's much more enjoyable to sing with other wonderful singers as I had the pleasure of doing.

Anywho, I hope you love this piece as much as I do or can appreciate it's beauty. I'm not religious and I can appreciate its message for what it is and how faith has inspired it, so I really hope religious factors don't hinder your listening to it! Here's two youtube recordings which inevitably don't do the piece justice but I'm sure you can find a recording on itunes for 84p or whatever!

 

This first recording is sung by the choir of All Saints' Church, Northampton. I prefer the baritone solo in this one.

 

This second recording is sung by the choir of St Paul's Cathedral; the treble solo in this one is lovely and personally I like it better than the first one.

That's it for this Desert Island Disc! I hope you enjoy the piece and I'm not gonna say that the next one will be soon because I might be lying! :P Until next time my lovely peoples!

 

Lots of love xxx

 

Alice