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Simple Gifts / Fullington, The Tudor Choir
Gothic

Simple Gifts / Fullington, The Tudor Choir

$18.99

Details

Composer
VARIOUS
Artist
Fullington
Format
CD
Label
Gothic
Released
Apr 01, 2009
Catalog #
G-49265
UPC
000334926526

About



SIMPLE GIFTS • Doug Fullington, cond; Tudor Ch • GOTHIC 49265 (59:35 &)


Choruses and arrangements by BRACKETT, HAMMOND, jr., BRADY, SIEGFRIED, BILLINGS, NEAUM, POSTON, THOMSON, COPLAND, fine, Ireland, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, PERCIVAL, RUTTER, FULLINGTON, CHILCOTT, TRAD


The Tudor Choir is a Seattle-based chamber chorus of 12 voices, whose recording on Loft of Shaker music, in arrangements by Kevin Siegfried, Craig Zeichner “implored” us to buy (25:1). This recording is intended as a complement to that earlier one, and offers slightly more varied fare, all of it from the same musical and emotional neighborhood, however. The choir uses little vibrato and its fairly bright sound lets the sopranos stick out at the cost of the altos, though this is in part because there are only two altos but four sopranos. The choir sings cleanly and articulates clearly, and that is always a plus, even if one wishes there were a bit more heft now and then.


The core of this program is Shaker music, though only one Shaker piece is done in the unison we take to be the Shaker style, and that is the title piece (which, however, uses a variant of the melody we best know in Aaron Copland’s use of it in Appalachian Spring ). These words, and three different arrangements of it, by Kevin Siegfried, Copland (as further arranged by Irving Fine), and Bob Chilcott (for the King’s Singers), recur throughout the program. These are certainly more polished versions of Shaker tunes than those exhibited on Joel Cohen’s more scholarly recording with the same title (on Erato), done in the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community.


The major piece on the program is At the water’s edge , a setting by Kevin Siegfried of four poems by Sarah Orne Jewett. Commissioned in 2005 by the community chorus of South Berwick, Maine, where Jewett lived, these are gentle, largely consonant, nature settings, though the third, in five parts, ventures some discreet dissonance. They are similar in style with the rest of the program.


This matter of stylistic coherence is one of the striking features of this recording. Most of the arrangements are by Siegfried, and those by others share similar traits. That is, they tend to adopt the scale-structure of the melody being arranged. This was a technique demonstrated to great effect by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker in their arrangements of spirituals, which, like a number of the tunes here, have “gapped scales,” that is, scales that are incomplete somewhere within them.


This is a fine recording and I think Siegfried’s unfussy Jewett settings are certainly worth getting to know. They are a solid, mainstream, contribution to the modern American choral repertoire.


FANFARE: Alan Swanson

Tracklist 22 tracks

  1. 1 Simple Gifts, "'Tis the Gift To Be Simple" 01:32
    Track
    1
    Title
    Simple Gifts, "'Tis the Gift To Be Simple"
    Duration
    01:32
    Composer
    Joseph Brackett Jr.
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  2. 2 The Humble Heart (arr. K. Siegfried) 02:36
    Track
    2
    Title
    The Humble Heart (arr. K. Siegfried)
    Duration
    02:36
    Composer
    Thomas Hammond Jr.
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  3. 3 Star of Purity (arr. K. Siegfried) 01:40
    Track
    3
    Title
    Star of Purity (arr. K. Siegfried)
    Duration
    01:40
    Composer
    Susannie M. Brady
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  4. 4 All at Home [Shaker Song] (arr. K. Siegfried) 01:29
    Track
    4
    Title
    All at Home [Shaker Song] (arr. K. Siegfried)
    Duration
    01:29
    Composer
    Anonymous
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  5. 5 Simple Gifts (arr. K. Siegfried) 02:33
    Track
    5
    Title
    Simple Gifts (arr. K. Siegfried)
    Duration
    02:33
    Composer
    Joseph Brackett Jr.
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  6. 6 I Am the Rose of Sharon 04:14
    Track
    6
    Title
    I Am the Rose of Sharon
    Duration
    04:14
    Composer
    William Billings
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  7. 7 I Wish I Was a Child Again (arr. M. Neaum) 02:18
    Track
    7
    Title
    I Wish I Was a Child Again (arr. M. Neaum)
    Duration
    02:18
    Composer
    Traditional
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  8. 8 Jesus Christ the Apple Tree 03:10
    Track
    8
    Title
    Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
    Duration
    03:10
    Composer
    Elizabeth Poston
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  9. 9 My Shepherd Will Supply My Need (arr. V. Thomson) 03:49
    Track
    9
    Title
    My Shepherd Will Supply My Need (arr. V. Thomson)
    Duration
    03:49
    Composer
    Traditional
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  10. 10 Simple Gifts (arr. A. Copland) 01:34
    Track
    10
    Title
    Simple Gifts (arr. A. Copland)
    Duration
    01:34
    Composer
    Joseph Brackett Jr.
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  11. 11 Zion's walls (arr. A. Copland) 02:47
    Track
    11
    Title
    Zion's walls (arr. A. Copland)
    Duration
    02:47
    Composer
    John G. McGurry
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  12. 12 The Hills 02:47
    Track
    12
    Title
    The Hills
    Duration
    02:47
    Composer
    John Ireland
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  13. 13 I. Top of the Hill 03:46
    Track
    13
    Title
    I. Top of the Hill
    Duration
    03:46
    Composer
    Kevin Siegfried
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  14. 14 II. Boat Song 03:38
    Track
    14
    Title
    II. Boat Song
    Duration
    03:38
    Composer
    Kevin Siegfried
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  15. 15 III. In Restless Waves 01:17
    Track
    15
    Title
    III. In Restless Waves
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Kevin Siegfried
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  16. 16 IV. The Eagle Trees 05:19
    Track
    16
    Title
    IV. The Eagle Trees
    Duration
    05:19
    Composer
    Kevin Siegfried
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  17. 17 He That is Down Need Fear No Fall (arr. B. Judge) 02:49
    Track
    17
    Title
    He That is Down Need Fear No Fall (arr. B. Judge)
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  18. 18 O Taste and See 01:24
    Track
    18
    Title
    O Taste and See
    Duration
    01:24
    Composer
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  19. 19 The Call (arr. A. Percival) 02:05
    Track
    19
    Title
    The Call (arr. A. Percival)
    Duration
    02:05
    Composer
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  20. 20 Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep 03:17
    Track
    20
    Title
    Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep
    Duration
    03:17
    Composer
    John Rutter
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  21. 21 One Thing Have I Desired 04:11
    Track
    21
    Title
    One Thing Have I Desired
    Duration
    04:11
    Composer
    Doug Fullington
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington
  22. 22 Simple Gifts (arr. B. Chilcott) 01:41
    Track
    22
    Title
    Simple Gifts (arr. B. Chilcott)
    Duration
    01:41
    Composer
    Joseph Brackett Jr.
    Ensemble
    The Tudor Choir
    Conductor
    Doug Fullington