Voices of Connection: 12/01 Vaughan Williams Antiphon

FROM GUEST CURATOR WESLEY CHINN

For today’s selection, we turn to the opening of our 2019 holiday concert, and the glorious sound of the Manton Memorial Organ below the soaring trumpet line of Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Antiphon. The instrumental sets the mood as Dennis and the chorus proceed to their places, followed immediately by “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing,” Vaughn Williams’ setting of the words of George Herbert’s 17th-century text. The atheist Vaughn Williams originally set this text for baritone with a choice of accompaniments as the opening of his Five Mystical Songs—and in fact I first encountered this song in the version for baritone and piano as a college freshman. The version for SATB choir and organ is a familiar part of the Anglican choral tradition, a tradition I personally first encountered in college around that same time.

- Wesley Chinn, Artistic Administrator

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Ralph Vaughan Williams: Antiphon and "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing" from Five Mystical Songs

Voices of Ascension
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director
Kevin Cobb, Trumpet
David Enlow, Organ

Recorded live at the CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Wednesday, December 12, 2018, The Church of the Ascension, New York City
The singers in this performance are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO.

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