The Cantate Boys Choir - Evening Hymn(Gardiner)

Henry Balfour Gardiner ( 1877 1950) was an English musician, composer, and teacher. Between his conventional education at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford, where he obtained only a pass degree, Gardiner was a piano student at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main where he was taught by Knorr and Uzielli, who had been a pupil of Clara Schumann. He belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s. Gardiner collected folk songs in Hampshire (1905-1906), taught music briefly at Winchester College (1907), and composed. His works included compositions in a variety of genres, including two symphonies, but many of his scores are lost and only a very limited amount of his music survives.
His best-known work Evening Hymn (1908), a setting of the Compline text Te lucis ante terminum, is a lush, romantic work for eight-part choir and organ, of dense harmonies. For most of the time, it sits in four parts, though the treble, alto, tenor, and bass parts all subdivide at various points. It is considered a classic of the English choral repertoire and is still regularly performed as an anthem at evensong in Anglican churches.
The fame of this work has overshadowed his surviving orchestral works, which include Overture to a Comedy and the Delius-like A Berkshire Idyll.
Gardiner's most important work, arguably, was his promotion as a conductor of contemporary British composers, notably in a series of concerts at Queen's Hall London in 1912-1913. The composers represented included Arnold Bax, Frederic Austin, Gustav Holst, Percy Grainger, Roger Quilter, Cyril Scott and Norman O'Neill. (The last four had also studied with him at Frankfurt.) He financed these concerts himself; he continued to be notably generous with his personal fortune, paying for a private benefit performance of The Planets for Gustav Holst in 1918, and purchasing Frederick Delius's house at Grez-sur-Loing to enable him to continue living in it at the end of his life.
Gardiner gave up composing in 1925 largely because he was intensely self-critical: much of his lost music was probably destroyed by him. Thereafter, he devoted himself to a pioneering afforestation programme on his Dorset farm.
He was the great-uncle of the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• boys
• choir
• cantate
• trebles
• evening
• hymn
• gardiner

[bigbadredsox]

Where did you find this wonderful recording treblechoir?

[treblechoir99]

@bigbadredsox One luck in ebay

[choirboyfromhell1]

Very, very nice, and the tempo is just right for the acoustics. Where were the interior cathedral shots? It looks like St. John the Divine in NYC.

[treblechoir99]

Wow Yes It's this church.

[Buggaton]

Finally a version on YouTube in Latin. Absolutely beautiful. This is a great choir and a great recording. The balance between organ and choir is perfect.

[eoinsac]

The opening of this 7-minute piece always sounds to me as though it has come from the end of a huge symphony. It's like the Alles Vergangliches at the end of Mahler 8 - they don't sound alike, but I feel they share an emotional connection. It's fitting, really, if this piece is meant for the end of the day.

[cyorgan]

We did this at St. John the Divine a few weeks ago before de-robing the graduating choristers....best environment for this piece...ever...

[K66NAN]

The choir sound is superb however I agree totally with nickoicool as the tempo needs to be so much faster in this wonderful piece of music.

[treblechoir99]

@ifuliki Very nice comment, appreciat. Welcome my friend and be happy.

[ifuliki]

@treblechoir99 Idris must have had two chairs because the Cadair Idris I know is in Central Wales walking distance of Aberystwith. This is lovely; I adore the close harmonies. Would be lovely to see the boys as they sing. Thank you my friend.

Aled

[bulentie2005]

This is also very good but I think everyone should listen first the one performed by the Christ Church Cathedral Oxford I think they are way better than any other!

[nickoicool]

@JenseninBrizo You'll change your mind if you listen to Kings College version of this.

[nickoicool]

IT drags, but its beautiful