Purcell: Z 231/2. Nunc dimittis (Evening Service in G minor) - Preston

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Evening Service in G minor, Z 231

2. Nunc dimittis (Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace),
also known as 'the Song of Simeon'

Canticle for soloists (SSAATB) and chorus (SATB)

Text: Luke, II, 29-32 in 'The Holy Bible' (1611)

Music: Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
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Gloria (Glory be to the Father)

Hymn for soloists (SATB) and chorus (SATB)

Text: Minor Doxology in 'The Book of Common Prayer' (1662)

Music: Thomas Roseingrave (1688-1766)
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Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford,
conducted by Simon Preston

Francis Grier, organ

Recorded in November 1980

Pitch: A = 466 Hz
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This evening service (composed of a Magnificat and a Nunc dimittis, both ending with a Gloria) only survives in 18th-century manuscripts, and its ascription to Henry Purcell has sometimes been questioned. In the sources and in the Purcell Society Edition, the Nunc dimittis is followed with a Gloria composed by Thomas Roseingrave, although Purcell probably intended the Gloria to the Magnificat to be repeated after the Nunc dimittis.

Sources:
- Magnificat
- Gloria I
- Nunc dimittis
- Gloria II (by Roseingrave)

Probable original plan:
- Magnificat
- Gloria I
- Nunc dimittis
- Gloria I (reprise)

Roseingrave's Gloria, composed much later and in a different style, does not follow the same scheme in the verse sections as Purcell, who alternates trios (SSA and ATB). I decided to include it in this video to be comprehensive, but I would recommend to ignore it in performance, and to repeat the first Gloria instead.

Marc D.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Henry Purcell
• Nunc dimittis
• Evening Service
• Simon Preston

[peddletoneG]

@Murgy56 In my score, the Gloria is actually attributed to a 'Mr Rosengrave, junior', so it looks doubtful Mr Purcell composed that tag to the Mag/Nunc.....I do not deny it is sublime, however, and the whole Service a Beautiful work....I feel God and Mr Purcell smiling every time we get the blessed opportunity to add this to our Evensongs.

[peddletoneG]

Please enlighten on this 'score'; was the piece raised in pitch to accommodate the boy altos? To go higher than A= 440 is the opposite of what I understood was more 'period' as to pitch, with the A of the period (while not standardized) was more like 415-425 or so. Raising it makes it brighter maybe, but singing along with you, while fun, may be dangerous in muscle memory if working for a performance next month. Very pretty sound, though, all those proper kids' pronunciations, very precious.

[Murgy56]

What a wonderful Gloria. Purcell at his sublime best ....Amen!

[MehdiCapsI]

@irishmaestro Yes, sorry. You are right. 466 Hz actually (466.164 Hz). I will fix that. Same for the 'Magnificat' from the same service. Thanks for letting me know about it.

[irishmaestro]

Oh yeah - isn't it being sung at A=465 Hz?

[irishmaestro]

@Triduana1 It *is* good - but only about 3 of the 20 or so sources that exist for the Purcell G minor service actually include it. The rest just repeat the first Gloria, I think. Interestingly, only one of the sources ascribe the "Roseingrave" Gloria to anyone, as far as I know...

[Triduana1]

How can you recommend that choirs be deprived of the pleasure of the Rosengrave Gloria? Purist killjoy!

:)

[bethhhhhh123456789]

A boys choir at its finest in this recording, beautiful. 

[MehdiCapsI]

@jrankney I capture, rotate, clean from stains, resize and often edit the scores with several image editing softwares (final format: 640x480 .bmp or lossless .jpg files), I edit the audio file with Nero Wave Editor (saved as a .wav file because of next step, done with a software which does not work well with .mp3 files), then I synchronize them with Windows Movie Maker (640x480 .wmv video at 2 mbps, which preserves decent sound quality).

[jrankney]

Thank you for posting this. A technical question; What techniques/software do you use to create the score and music moving together? I'm a choir teacher and think it would be a great way for my kids to learn their music.