The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace - Gibbons at the Chapel Royal - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

A new era in church music dawned with the creation of German-language sacred songs functioning as the counterpart to Latin Gregorian chant. The WESER-RENAISSANCE ensemble under it's experienced conductor Manfred Cordes is now presenting a colorful selection of the most beautiful hymn settings from the Wittenberg first edition of 1524-25. The Urkantor Johann Walter was a close associate of Martin Luther and the founding father of the important institutional and artistic tradition of the Protestant cantorate. In his music Walter followed the model of the German tenor song, a genre important in the development of German music history and of secular orientation in it's principal variant. The melody is in the tenor part of the song settings, all of them in four parts, and in formal respects differs only slightly from the monophonic tradition. With his Gesangk Buchleyn Walter marked the beginning of the significant tradition of Protestant chorale settings that would reach it's artistic high point in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace build on the tradition established by it's historic forebears of cradling new church music, with a programme of music for Advent, Christmas and the Epiphany featuring seven premiere recordings alongside new interpretations of more established repertory that has become embedded in the musical heritage at the Palace. The album features music by composers including Philip Moore, Andrew Carter, William Mathias, Martin Hindmarsh, David Willcocks and Francis Grier.

During his tenure as Organist at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, William Henry Harris composed much music for choir and for organ solo as well as larger pieces for the Three Choirs Festival and two premi'res at the London Proms.