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The four pieces on this disc span three decades of Giles Swayne’s choral music, their striking echoes of Latin plainchant, Tudor polyphony and traditional African music providing contrasting and complementary strands characteristic of this much-travelled composer.
“The Dmitri Ensemble bring the work of this neglected master into focus for the first time and do so with virtuosic swagger.” John Rutter (Producer on this disc)
Magnificat I draws on the music of the Senegalese Jola people and the Ba-Benezele of the Congo. Swayne’s moving threnody, The silent land, scored for 40-part chorus and solo cello, combines words from the Requiem Mass and Christina Rossetti’s poetry, while Stabat mater is dedicated to the grieving mothers of Israel and Palestine.
Traditional: O Lulum (Senegalese Song)
O Lulum (Senegalese Song)
Giles Swayne: Magnificat I, Op. 33
Magnificat I, Op. 33
Giles Swayne: The silent land, Op. 70
The silent land, Op. 70
Giles Swayne: Ave verum corpus, Op. 94
Ave verum corpus, Op. 94
Giles Swayne: Stabat mater, Op. 95
Stanza I - Chant I - Muslim praise of God
Stanza II - Chant II
Jewish praise of God
Stanza III-IV - Chant III - Muslim blessing of the Dead
Stanza V-VII
Motet I - Death of the son
Chant IV
Jewish blessing of the Dead
Motet II
Chant V
Prayer for Reconciliation
Motet III
Motet IV: Prayer for Peace
January 2011
“As a self-confessed outsider to the "English choral tradition", Swayne nevertheless draws on a trio of stylistic influences: Latin plainchant, Tudor polyphony and traditional African music.”
January 2011
*****
“If this arouses the expectation (or dread) that we're in for another incautiously blended World Music buffet, then prepare to be agreeably surprised...Swayne is expert in his handling of unaccompanied choral resources...everything is held together by a sense of sustained, muscular line rare among modern British composers. A very worthwhile disc”
March 2011
“Throughout, the four soloists and the Dmitri Ensemble under Graham Ross give passionate, committed performances. The stabbing staccatos and syncopated rhythms of Magnificat I bounce off the original Senegalese material with tremendous vigour...[Stabat Mater] rings with solo and choral singing of raw, magnificent power and sympathetic eloquence. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a better performance.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
O Lulum (Senegalese Song)
