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Wondrous Love |
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TRACKS Windows Media Player QuickTime Player Total Album Time 53:26 1 - 5 Love Songs For Springtime Words: Anon. Music: P. Halley 1. ◙♫ The Maypole 2. ◙♫ The Bailiff's Daughter 3. ◙♫ Soldier, Won't You Marry Me? 4. ◙♫ The Despairing Lover 5. ◙♫ The Lover's Arithmetic
Gloria In Excelsis Deo Words: 6th cent. Roman rite Music: P. Halley (PEL2001) 7. ◙♫ Christe Qui Lux Es Et Dies Words: 6th cent. Latin and E.N. West. Music: P. Halley (PEL2019) Soloists, in order: Floyd Higgins Nathaniel Rogers Bruce Fifer Peter Coulianos Marilyn Holcomb Julie Bickford 8. ◙♫ Jesu, The Very Thought of Thee Words: 12th cent. Latin, trans. E. Caswall Music: G. Slater arr. P. Halley (PEL2007) 9. ◙♫ Verbum Caro Factum Est Words: John 1:14 Music: P. Halley (PEL2012) Soloist: Vanessa Halley 10. ◙♫ What Stood Will Stand Words: W. Berry Music: P. Halley (PEL2047) Soloists, in order: Wilbur Pauley Bruce Fifer Samantha Halley Emily Werne 11. ◙♫ Wondrous Love Words & Music: Southern Harmony arr. P. Halley (PEL2006)
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REVIEWS from The American Organist Magazine (Excerpt) Paul Halley as a choral composer comes to the fore on the third disc, Wondrous Love (1996). Featuring five settings of anonymous English love songs scored for choir and brass quintet followed by six mostly a cappella settings of sacred texts, this recording manages to showcase the blended choirs in a range of moods without the jarring segues of the first disc. Of the six recordings here under review, this and the preceding title are perhaps the most consistently on-target in meeting the stated goal of "superlative performance of classical choral masterworks." Particularly successful on Wondrous Love are the humorous "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" and Halley's unforgettable setting of the text, What Stood Will Stand," by America's favorite pastoral poet and philosopher, Wendell Berry. The ease with which the composer moves between styles as disparate as Gregorian chant and shape-note hymnody - all the while tying it together with his own unique sound - is most impressive. Organists interested in tracking the development of one of their own rising stars will certainly want to give this disc a listen. - Jennifer Kolmes |
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from The Journal
of the Association of Anglican Musicians "The children and adults sing not only with coherence but with admirable freshness of sound." - Victor Hill |
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from Bob Zeidler,
Music Critic Amazon.com Reviews and New York Times On The Web Classical Music Forum Most of the choral music in this excellent anthology is new to me. The musicians, however are not. Paul Halley, for many years both the Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and a member, composer and arranger of the Paul Winter Consort, is very much a known - and talented - musician. And his Gaudeamus adult choir have performed with great skill on "Sacred Feast" and with humor and moving vocalism on "Pete" (the quintessential Pete Seeger album), both reviewed elsewhere at Amazon.com by me. One of the songs in this album is, on the other hand, something I've come to treasure for sentimental reasons; I'll leave that one for the end of this commentary. The opening suite of five songs ("Love Songs for Springtime") is alternately sweet and droll. Particularly humorous is "The Lover's Arithmetic"; you won't have any difficulty following the mathematics set out therein, given the crystal-clear enunciation of these singers. The more liturgical pieces in the center of the album are all fine, and beautifully done. Of these, one stands out in particular relief: "Jesu, The Very Thought of Thee." It is simply drop-dead gorgeous, with Halley's pipe organ providing a stunning backdrop and underpinnings to the chorus. The album ends with two selections in a more "heroic" mode: "What Stood Will Stand," set to words by Wendell Berry, the famous poet and social critic, and the title song, "Wondrous Love" (from The Southern Harmony hymn book). This title song, with its dramatically open harmonies, had been a favorite of the late, great Robert Shaw. (In fact, at the memorial tribute given to Shaw in Atlanta shortly after his passing, this song had been prominently featured in the tribute.) Halley's arrangement, utterly dramatic in contradistinction to Shaw's a capella setting, is a tour de force and - if one is needed - the one single reason for acquiring this album. Stunningly set for chorus, brass quintet, timpani and percussion, and organ, Halley's arrangement brings forth the heroic dimension of this work. The Battell Brass are uniformly excellent in the work, Gordon Gottlieb (long a Paul Winter Consort "regular") is his usual astounding self in the vital percussion parts, and Halley of course underpins the whole work, once again, with his organ work. I don't think there's a track on this album you won't like. But get it for its title work; it's more than worth it for that alone. - Bob Zeidler |
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CREDITS
Paul Halley, pipe organ
Production Margaret Race, Executive Producer
Tom Bates,
Recording Engineer
Choirs and brass recorded at
Salisbury School Chapel,
Salisbury, CT
Choirs
Altos
Tenors
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