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@ Bring us, O Lord God

Words by John Donne (1572-1631)
Sir William Henry
Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heav’n
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
HARRIS
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
Anthems
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; Faire is the Heav’n • Bring us, O Lord God
in the habitation of thy glory and dominion,
world without end. Amen. Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
Roger Judd, Organ
Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Director

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William Henry Harris (1883-1973): Anthems
William Henry Harris was born in Fulham on 28th
March 1883 and was named after his father. His mother
was Alice Mary (neé) Clapp. Theirs was a musical
family, and at fourteen the boy’s exceptional gifts had
attracted enough local attention to generate sufficient
financial help to send him to St David’s Cathedral,
South Wales, to assist its somewhat easy-going
organist, Herbert Morris. He was soon quite content to
let Harris take over at times, certainly when he
preferred to sleep in during a weekday matins. A
scholarship at sixteen to the Royal College of Music,
not to mention an FRCO, soon drew Harris to the
attention of its Director, Sir Hubert Parry. His long
association with St George’s Chapel, Windsor, dates
back to this time, since its organist Sir Walter Parratt
became his organ teacher. Composition was encouraged
by Stanford and Charles Wood, and by Walford Davies,
whom Harris would sometimes help out at the console
of the organ in the Temple church.
After eight years as assistant in Lichfield (1911),
and much encouragement from Sir Granville Bantock,
for whom he took on some teaching at the Birmingham
and Midland Institute, a surprise appointment to
succeed Sir Hugh Allen at New College Oxford (1919)
gave Harris his first taste of being in charge, but only
just, since his powerful predecessor did not find letting
go at all easy. Moreover even five years later, having
failed to prevent Harris founding the University Opera
Club, Allen did his best to stop him putting on a
pioneering production with Jack Westrup of
Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Mercifully, Allen was a good
loser, and handed over the stewardship of the Oxford
Bach Choir in 1926, although it cannot be said that
Harris was ever quite as effective with a large choir as
with a smaller one. Politics at New College were not
always kind to Harris, and he took the opportunity to
move to Christ Church Cathedral in 1929 where
conditions suited him better. In 1933, however, he was
head-hunted for the post of organist at St George’s
Chapel, where the early death of Charles Hylton
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Stewart after only six months in the position had created
the vacancy. Of all his Oxford duties not one was to
remain, but he did retain his post as Professor of Organ
and Harmony at the Royal College of Music until 1955,
an appointment made as long ago as 1921.
Harris was always happy at Windsor. His tenure
lasted almost three decades during which he composed
much music both for choir, for organ solo and larger
pieces too for the Three Choirs Festival and even two
premières at the London Proms. Amongst his duties was
the tutoring of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret
Rose, the musical direction of many royal occasions and
Garter Services, and the sub-conducting of both the
1937 and 1953 Coronation Services, all of which
eventually resulted in a well-earned KCVO in 1954.
As an organist Harris had inherited from Parratt a
wonderful sense of restraint, in complete contrast to Dr
Henry Ley, the much celebrated organ-playing Eton
Precentor, just down the road. During my five years as a
chorister, I doubt if I heard the Tuba stop drawn as
many times, whereas I have little doubt that Etonians
were hearing theirs as many times in a week. Nor have I
ever since heard psalms accompanied with such subtle
yet gentle imagination. Harris’s flawless technique
never seemed to fail him, even in later years when his
control of the pulse sometimes did. There would be
consternation down in the choir stalls as long
introductions to such anthems as Haydn’s ‘Insanae et
vanae curae’ inexorably gathered speed before the time
came for the choir to join in.
Sir William Harris retired to Petersfield in 1961
with his wife Kathleen Doris (neé) Carter. They were
married in 1913 and had two daughters. As early as
1925, Doris had all but lost her hearing, though experts
advised that hers was a condition that advancing
techniques might well some day remedy. Amazingly, in
1961, her hearing was partially restored. She died in
1968. Sir William lived on, reaching ninety in 1973 and
dying on 6th September.
Dr Sidney Watson, a distinguished younger
2 11
The Shepherd-men were able
To welcome Christ the Lord;
They found Him in a stable
And adored;
The town was dark and silent.
The Shepherds, only they,
When others slept, arose and kept
Christmas Day.
But we will quit our labour
And ev’ry one shall bring
A friend, a child, a neighbour
To the King;
Now we will give our praises
Before the manger-throne,
And He will take the gift we make
For His own.
9 Evening hymn, ‘O joyful light’
Words from the Greek (7th century)
Bass soloist: Giles White
O joyful light of the heavenly glory of the
everlasting Father which is in heaven.
Holy and blessed, Jesu Christ our Lord.
We are come unto the going down of the sun,
and at eventide we have seen light.
Therefore we give thanks and praise to the Father
and to the Son and to the Holy spirit of God.
Worthy are Thou at all times to be praised with
holy voices Son of God giver of life Therefore
doth the world glorify Thee.
O joyful light of the heavenly glory of the
everlasting Father which is in heaven.
Amen.
0 From a heart made whole
Words by A. C. Swinburne (1837-1909)
From a heart made whole
Take as Thou givest us blessing; never tear
Shall stain for shame, nor groan un-tune the song
That as a bird shall spread and fold its wings
Here in Thy praise for ever. There is no grief
Great as the Joy to be made one in will
With Him that is the heart and rule of life
And Thee, God born of God; Thy Name is ours
And Thy large grace more great than our desire.
! I said to the man
Bass soloist: Gareth Dayus-Jones
Words by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957)
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the
unknown’. And he replied ‘Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall
be to you better than a light, and safer than a known
way’.
from The Gate of the Year from The Desert
© Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908, is reproduced by
permission of Sheil Land Associates Ltd on behalf
of The Estate of M. Louise Haskins.
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them that fear him.
Look how wide also the east is from the west:
So far hath he set our sins from us.
Like as a father pitieth his own children: ev’n so
is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him.
For he knoweth whereof we are made:
he remembereth that we are but dust.
The days of man are but as grass: for he
flourisheth as a flower of the field.
For as soon as the wind goeth over it, it is gone:
and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the merciful goodness of the Lord endureth
for ever upon them that fear him: and his
righteousness upon children’s children;
Ev’n upon such as keep his covenant: and think
upon his commandments to do them.
The Lord hath prepared his seat in heaven: and
his kingdom ruleth over all.
O praise the Lord ye angels of his, ye that excel
in strength: ye that fulfil his commandment, and
hearken unto the voice of his words.
O praise the Lord all ye his hosts: ye servant of
his that do his pleasure.
O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his in
all places of his dominion: praise thou
the Lord, O my soul.
7 Evening Hymn ‘The night is come’
Bass soloist: James Birchall
Words by Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)
The night is come like to the day,
Depart not Thou, great God, away,
Let not my sins, black as the night,
Eclipse the lustre of Thy light.
Keep still in my horizon, for to me
The sun makes not the day, but Thee.
Thou whose nature cannot sleep,
On my temples sentry keep;
Guard me ‘gainst those watchful foes
Whose eyes are open while mine close,
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Let no dreams my head infest
But such as Jacob’s temples blest.
While I do rest, my soul advance,
Make my sleep a holy trance;
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought.
And with as active vigour run
My course, as doth the nimble sun.
Sleep is a death, O make me try
By sleeping what it is to die,
And as gently lay my head
On my grave, as now my bed.
Now ere I rest, great God, let me
Awake again at last with Thee.
And thus assured, behold I lie
Securely, or to wake or die.
These are my drowsy days, in vain
I do now wake to sleep again.
O come that hour, when I shall never
Sleep again, but wake for ever!
8 The shepherd-men
Words by Anthony C. Deane (b.1870)
The Shepherd-men were keeping
A little flock from ill,
When other folk were sleeping,
Lying still;
The Shepherds heard the music
Of Angels in the sky;
No other stirr’d, no other heard
The melody.
The Shepherds heard the singing,
Over the plain they trod,
While all the air was ringing
Glory to God;
Never a neighbour met them,
Never a one with them
Or knew the sign or sought the shrine –
Bethlehem.
10
contemporary of Sir William Harris (universally
nicknamed affectionately as Doc H), once expressed his
opinion that Harris’s only shortcoming as a composer
was his repeated inability to come up with a really
memorable melody. While this is perhaps true, I think it
was in fact intentional, for he chose his texts with much
care, often holding them in such veneration that he was
loath to distract attention away from them with his own
musical contributions. Certainly he particularly loved
not only ‘tudor music’ as he used to call it, but he was
equally drawn to the many poets of the period, of whom
no less than four, Edmund Spenser, John Donne,
George Herbert and Sir William Browne are
represented in this recital.
The anthem Strengthen ye the weak hands is an
extended, occasional, accompanied one, composed for
The Commemoration of the Science and Art of Healing
and first performed on 25th June 1949 at the Canterbury
Festival. As such, it is an anthem ‘suitable for St Luke’s
Day’ and its text comes from three quite separate
sources. The opening prologue, a recitative for solo
tenor, comes from Ecclesiasticus ch. 38, while the main
central movement in E major beginning and ending
with the work’s actual title ‘Strengthen ye the weak
hands and secure the feeble knees’ is taken from Isaiah
ch. 35. The closing epilogue is set to the famous prayer
‘O Saviour of the World, who by thy cross and precious
blood hast redeemed us’, from the Book of Common
Prayer. These texts have not been cobbled together so
much for their literary qualities but rather for their
medical relevance, and thus we find here no such
inhibition with regard to melody. ‘Strengthen ye’ is
indeed a cracking good tune, and proof enough - at least
for this writer - that Doc H was perfectly capable of
writing one if he wanted to. The longer central section
Andante con moto does not remain in E major
throughout. Rather, as Isaiah’s text becomes ever more
animated, so Harris ranges far and wide with his
frequently enharmonic changing tonalities, but once he
has re-established his tonic, and begun the epilogue,
Harris holds onto it, whether it is based in C major or
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C sharp minor, until it returns to its true home of
E major by means of a perfectly straight-forward plagal
cadence, sounding both inevitable and magical, a fine
example of art concealing art.
At St George’s Chapel all music in Lent was
unaccompanied, and the organ fell silent after evensong
on Shrove Tuesday until matins on Easter Sunday. It
was also silent on most Fridays throughout the year out
of deference to Good Friday. At such times Doc H’s
preference for ‘tudor music’ was quite obvious through
his choice of our repertoire.
Although the annual Garter Service in June was the
Chapel’s high point from a ceremonial point of view,
for which, in some years Doc H would contribute a
large new anthem of his own, I suspect that for him, and
so also for us choristers - such was our respect for his
musicianship, and our love of the man - that Good
Friday was his real high point. He would sometimes put
down for that evensong the great antiphonal motet for
double choir in eight parts ‘Stabat Mater Dolorosa’ by
Palestrina (who, of course, along with others like
Orlando di Lasso, definitely counts as an honorary
Tudor), and uniquely, so that it might benefit from the
superior acoustics of the nave, we would march in
solemn procession from the choir stalls to form a large
semicircle in front of the great doors beneath the huge
west window singing our Palestrina as the evening light
faded. The care Harris took in preparing us for this
performance, particularly of the final page ‘In
paradisum’ because it moved him so much, has always
singled it out to me as perhaps the model for so many of
the finer closing pages of Doc H’s own anthems and
motets. These eight-part motets for double choir are
usually judged to be his most significant contribution to
English Church Music.
Love of love and light of light was composed on
28th March 1935 “in memoriam Robert Bridges” and
dedicated to Bridges’s wife Monica. Here we can
hardly fail to notice the influence of Parry, for in it we
hear rather less of Harris’s enharmonic adventures into
remoter tonalities, and rather more of those sequential
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patterns, the hallmark of that older composer. The motet
falls into three sections, with a hint of recapitulation at
the end of the second where Bridges’s line ‘every
burden weigheth light’ recalls his opening line. The
final section Poco meno mosso has the feel of an
epilogue prayer, a feature found elsewhere in other
anthems on this disc.
From a heart made whole is a motet set to words by
Swinburne, composed the following year. The two
compositions are as different in style, however, as are
indeed the styles of their respective poets. Swinburne’s
is indeed a strange poem, and Harris’s music is
correspondingly intense, even lurid. Although he gives
us a key signature of one sharp, it cannot be said that the
piece either begins or ends in G major, or indeed its
relative minor, while at the climax ‘Thee, God born of
God’ inhabits (as He so often seems to with Harris) D
flat major, the glorious key of what are generally
considered to be his two finest eight-part motets Faire
is the heav’n and Bring us, O Lord God.
Praise the Lord, O my soul is a setting of Psalm 103
dedicated “to the memory of Sydney Charles Scott” in
1938. It is the most extended of the five motets here
recorded. We might perhaps be tempted to agree with
Dr Watson, for in some of the louder, more sequential
passages, the ghost of Parry is still peering over the
composer’s shoulder, while the initial material is hardly
memorable enough, when it returns somewhat
transformed at the final climax, to achieve the desired
effect of tying the whole structure together. There are,
however, some lovely moments along the way.
Following the bass soloist’s recitative (verse eight) ‘The
Lord is full of compassion and mercy’ the choir takes
over and continues this text in a gentle three in a bar.
Later, at verse fifteen ‘The days of man are but as grass’
another section marked Adagio is equally moving.
Faire is the Heav’n was composed in 1925, and
dedicated to his formidable predecessor at New
College, Sir Hugh Allen. In the first thirty bars Spenser
tells us of those Happy Souls resting in the Divine
Presence of Eternal Majestie, and Harris remains in
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D flat major. Then Spenser lifts his gaze to contemplate
even fairer Cherubim and Seraphim, whose more
exalted territory Harris reaches by transforming D flat
into C sharp thus slipping effortlessly into A major. But
beyond them the poet espies Angels and Archangels
‘attending on God’s own Person’, and yet again we
pivot enharmonically into tonalities which change and
change again, until the words ‘These then each other
farre excelling’ when Harris lifts us into recapitulation,
and home to D flat - clearly the key of heaven - to
confront that miraculous last page, indeed quite ‘the image
of such endless perfectnesse’. This anthem remains a
twentieth century tour de force in English Church Music.
Harris’s setting of John Donne’s prayer Bring us, O
Lord God at our Last Awakening into the House and
Gate of Heaven, though composed some thirty years
later, is in effect a sequel to the Spenser. Donne too uses
wonderful language in his description of Heaven, where
once again Harris moves us through the keys. At ‘No
ends nor beginnings’ he again confronts A major with
C major, but at ‘one equal eternity; in the habitation of
thy Glory and Dominion, World without end’ where
else can he take us but back to a glorious fortissimo
cadence of D flat major? But there is still one page to
go! The ensuing Amens drift off into space before
melting onto a last chord, which comes as a surprise yet
is the only possible right final chord, in that heavenly
key of D flat major. The author of these notes was
present at the evening boys’ choir practice when Doc H
first placed C.F. Simkin’s beautifully hand-scripted
photocopies of this inspired anthem in front of us. As
we approached that final bar, he slowed down the
pulse (a thing he would never dream of doing in
performance) to test the effect of it on us, as we sight-
read this work for the first time. A stifled gasp went
round the room and he knew full well that he had
achieved his purpose.
In contrast to his motets in eight parts, Doc H
produced a steady stream of more straight-forward,
technically less demanding choral pieces, suitable for
choirs with rather more limited vocal resources. A
4 9
4 Love of love and light of light
Tenor soloist: Ronan Busfield
Words by Robert Bridges (1844-1930)
Love of love, and Light of light
Heav’nly Father all maintaining
Wisdom hid in highest height,
To thy creature fondly deigning
Maker, wonderful and just,
Thou hast called my heart to trust.
What are life’s unnumbered cares,
Sorrow, torment passing measure?
O’er my short lived pains and fears,
Surely ruleth Thy good pleasure.
Boundless is Thy love for me,
Boundless then my trust shall be.
Every burden weigheth light,
Since in Thee my hope abideth;
Sweetly bright my darkest night,
While on Thee my mind confideth.
Give Thy gift I Thee implore,
Thee to trust for evermore.
5 King of glory
Words by George Herbert (1593-1633)
King of glory, King of peace, I will love Thee;
And that love may never cease, I will move Thee.
Thou hast granted my request, Thou hast
heard me;
Thou didst note my working breast, Thou hast
spared me.
Wherefore with my utmost art I will sing Thee,
And the cream of all my heart I will bring Thee.
Though my sins against Thee cried Thou didst
clear me;
And alone when they replied
Thou didst hear me.
Seven whole days, not one in seven
I will praise Thee
In my heart though not in heaven
I can raise Thee.
Thou grew’st soft and moist with tears,
Thou relentedst,
And when justice call’d for fears Thou dissentedst.
Small it is in this poor sort to enrol Thee,
Even Eternity’s too short to extol Thee.
King of glory, King of Peace, I will love Thee;
And that love may never cease, I will move Thee.
Wherefore with my utmost art I will sing Thee,
And the cream of all my heart I will bring Thee.
6 Praise the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 103)
Bass soloist: Giles White
Praise the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me
praise his holy Name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all
his benefits;
Who forgiveth all thy sin: and healeth all
thine infirmities;
Who saveth thy life from destruction: and crowneth
thee with mercy and loving kindness;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things: making
thee young and lusty as an eagle.
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgement:
for all them that are oppressed
with wrong.
He shewed his ways unto Moses: his works
unto the children of Israel.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy:
long suff’ring and of great goodness.
He will not always be chiding: neither keepeth
he his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor
rewarded us according to our wickednesses.
For look how high the heaven is in comparison of
the earth: so great is his mercy also toward
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1 Offertorium ‘O hearken Thou’
Words from Psalm 5 v 2
O hearken Thou unto the voice of my calling, my
King and my God: for unto Thee will I make my
prayer.
2 Strengthen ye the weak hands
Tenor soloist: Ben Alden
Words from Ecclesiasticus 38 vv 4, 6, 9, 10, 12;
Isaiah 35 vv 1-6 and Book of Common Prayer
The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth;
and he that is wise will not abhor them.
And he hath giv’n men skill, that he might be
honour’d in his marvellous works.
My son, in thy sickness Leave off from sin,
and order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy
heart from all wickedness.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm
the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart,
Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will
come; he will come and save you.
Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d, and
the ears of the deaf shall be unstopp’d.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the
wilderness shall waters break out, and
streams in the desert.
The wilderness and the solitary place shall
be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice,
and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice
with joy and singing:
the glory of Lebanon shall be giv’n unto it,
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon,
they shall see the glory of the Lord, and
the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm
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the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart,
Be strong, fear not: behold, your God
will come; he will come and save you.
O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross
and precious Blood hast redeem’d us,
Save us and help us, we humbly beseech
thee, O Lord.
3 Faire is the heav’n
Words from An hymne of heavenly beautie
by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
Faire is the heav’n,
Where happy soules have place
In full enjoyment of felicitie;
Whence they doe still behold the glorious face
Of the Divine, Eternall Majestie;
Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins
Which all with golden wings are overdight.
And those eternall burning Seraphins
Which from their faces dart out fiery light;
Yet fairer than they both and much more bright,
Be th’ Angels and Archangels
Which attend on God’s owne person
without rest or end.
These then in faire each other farre excelling
As to the Highest they approach more neare,
Yet is that Highest farre beyond all telling
Fairer than all the rest which there appeare.
Though all their beauties joynd together were;
How then can mortall tongue hope to expresse
The image of such endlesse perfectnesse?
Alastair Sampson was a chorister at St George’s Chapel from just before the coronation of 1953, and left as head chorister in 1958.
During that time he had organ lessons with Sir William Harris. He retired in 2005 after nearly 40 years organ teaching, as organist
of Eton College Chapel.
8 5
particularly charming example is an anthem for boys’
voices composed in 1925 and dedicated to “Cullis,
Gooderson and all other New College Choristers”. It is
a setting of the hymn King of glory, King of peace by
one of his favourite poets, George Herbert. It is both
immediately attractive, indeed tuneful, with a typical
organ accompaniment characterized by a tiny motive,
merely a dotted crotchet and quaver, reserved for organ
alone. It is allowed the luxury of having the last word -
just briefly – as the boys finish singing, providing an
affecting coda.
Eight years later came a simple setting of a carol by
Anthony Deane The shepherd-men were keeping a little
flock from ill. It is the sort of piece that any choir at all
capable of singing in four parts might reasonably hope
to bring off successfully.
The Evening Anthem O joyful light of the heavenly
glory was composed in 1939 and set to an anonymous
seventh-century text “from the Greek”. Starting as it
does with a bass soloist singing what sounds like
unaccompanied plainsong, followed by homophonic
chanting of antiphonal choirs, the influence of the
Eastern Orthodox Church is fairly obvious, yet the
overall effect remains essentially English. If elsewhere
we may have detected the influence of Parry, as so often
in the music of Harris’s more famous contemporary and
personal friend Ralph Vaughan Williams (who on more
than one occasion during my time at St George’s was
brought in to attend the trebles practice before
evensong), here we feel Doc H’s close affinity with the
early Tudor Reformation style of Tallis and his
contemporaries.
Of the three remaining pieces two have royal
connections. Of those, the earlier O hearken thou
entitled Offertorium is a setting of the second verse of
Psalm 5. It was composed to be the opening musical
contribution of the Communion Service within the 1937
Coronation of George VI, where it was performed with
orchestral accompaniment as well as organ. It is short,
mystical, a crescendo and a diminuendo in the shape of
a single arc.
Public speaking did not come easily to that monarch
on account of his speech impediment, but he moved the
nation nonetheless by his choice of words taken from
God Knows by M. Louise Haskins, when he made his
Christmas Day radio broadcast during the ‘phoney war’
of 1939. It was a broadcast of which Queen Elizabeth,
later the Queen Mother, was particularly proud. On
discovering this some thirty years later, when he was in
his late eighties, Sir William Harris set the text I said to
the man to music for unaccompanied men’s voices, and
dedicated the piece “by gracious permission” to Her
Majesty.
Finally, there is a second evening hymn but this
time an accompanied one. It is dedicated to an old
friend, Richard Latham and his St Paul’s Festival
Choir. Published in 1961, it is a setting of a poem by yet
another “Tudor”, Sir William Browne. This is vintage
Harris, but now with an added autumnal glow of old
age. The night is come is a dreamy contemplation of
sleep, but ‘that we do in vain, since we only wake to
sleep again’. In the last thirteen bars, however, Harris
jettisons his three flats, and in a cool, clear C major with
the hint of a sharpened fourth, Browne’s final prayer
that the hour might come ‘when I shall never sleep
again, but wake forever’, receives yet another of those
inspired closing pages of ‘endless perfectnesse’.
Alastair Sampson
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The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Timothy Byram-Wigfield

The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle has been in existence since the year 1348, and, with the The Choir’s Director of Music, Timothy Byram-Wigfield, received his formative training as a chorister at King’s
exception of the Commonwealth period (1649-60), has sung services in the Chapel continuously since then. The College, Cambridge. Following study at the Royal College of Music as organist, pianist and violist, he won an
choir is made up of 23 boy choristers, five of whom are probationers and twelve Lay Clerks, who provide the adult organ scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, before being appointed Sub-Organist of Winchester Cathedral. During
voices of alto, tenor and bass. The Choir still sings daily during term-time; members of the public are always this time he studied the organ with Richard Popplewell and David Sanger, and was a finalist in the Royal College of
welcome to attend. The Choir also sings regularly in the presence of the Queen and other members of the Royal Organist’s Performer of the Year competition. In 1991 he was appointed as the first full-time Master of the Music
Family. Outside Windsor the Choir has performed in many concerts, recordings, and on tour, in the United States, at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh. He also trained the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus and toured
Norway, France, Holland, Poland, Spain and Switzerland, and collaborating with ensembles such as the London widely as a recitalist. In 1999 he took up the newly-created post of Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge,
Handel Orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players. The Choir has also embarked on a where he combined his choral activities in the college with teaching and playing, before arriving in Windsor in
series of recordings with the Naxos label, for which it is grateful for financial assistance from the Windsor Festival January 2004. As a solo organist he has won considerable acclaim for both public performances and a number of
and Honda. The Choir will also be developing a number of recordings on the Delphian label, including a disc of recordings.
choral music by Pachelbel.
Roger Judd
Trebles Altos Basses Roger Judd began his musical training as a chorister at Winchester Cathedral. As an Organ Scholar at Pembroke
Oliver Banks Lawrence Halksworth Biraj Barkakaty James Birchall College, Cambridge, he studied the organ with Sir David Willcocks. He was Master of the Music at St Michael’s
Christian Bell Alexander Opoku Stephen Burrows Gareth Dayus-Jones College, Tenbury, until 1985, when he took up the post of Assistant Organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor
Hugo Bishop Edward Pinnegar Colin Cartwright James Holliday
Castle, combining this post with teaching and giving recitals. In this capacity he has been the organist for several
Rhys Brown Thomas Pinnegar Jeremy Filsell Giles White
John Carter Frederick Stanford royal occasions.
Oliver Dennes Jean-Michel Tokabi Tenors
Joseph Edwards Ben Alden
Daniel Evans-Jones Jonathan Bungard
Joe Gall Ronan Busfield
Alexander Halksworth David Manners

8.570148 6 7 8.570148
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The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Timothy Byram-Wigfield

The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle has been in existence since the year 1348, and, with the The Choir’s Director of Music, Timothy Byram-Wigfield, received his formative training as a chorister at King’s
exception of the Commonwealth period (1649-60), has sung services in the Chapel continuously since then. The College, Cambridge. Following study at the Royal College of Music as organist, pianist and violist, he won an
choir is made up of 23 boy choristers, five of whom are probationers and twelve Lay Clerks, who provide the adult organ scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, before being appointed Sub-Organist of Winchester Cathedral. During
voices of alto, tenor and bass. The Choir still sings daily during term-time; members of the public are always this time he studied the organ with Richard Popplewell and David Sanger, and was a finalist in the Royal College of
welcome to attend. The Choir also sings regularly in the presence of the Queen and other members of the Royal Organist’s Performer of the Year competition. In 1991 he was appointed as the first full-time Master of the Music
Family. Outside Windsor the Choir has performed in many concerts, recordings, and on tour, in the United States, at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh. He also trained the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus and toured
Norway, France, Holland, Poland, Spain and Switzerland, and collaborating with ensembles such as the London widely as a recitalist. In 1999 he took up the newly-created post of Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge,
Handel Orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players. The Choir has also embarked on a where he combined his choral activities in the college with teaching and playing, before arriving in Windsor in
series of recordings with the Naxos label, for which it is grateful for financial assistance from the Windsor Festival January 2004. As a solo organist he has won considerable acclaim for both public performances and a number of
and Honda. The Choir will also be developing a number of recordings on the Delphian label, including a disc of recordings.
choral music by Pachelbel.
Roger Judd
Trebles Altos Basses Roger Judd began his musical training as a chorister at Winchester Cathedral. As an Organ Scholar at Pembroke
Oliver Banks Lawrence Halksworth Biraj Barkakaty James Birchall College, Cambridge, he studied the organ with Sir David Willcocks. He was Master of the Music at St Michael’s
Christian Bell Alexander Opoku Stephen Burrows Gareth Dayus-Jones College, Tenbury, until 1985, when he took up the post of Assistant Organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor
Hugo Bishop Edward Pinnegar Colin Cartwright James Holliday
Castle, combining this post with teaching and giving recitals. In this capacity he has been the organist for several
Rhys Brown Thomas Pinnegar Jeremy Filsell Giles White
John Carter Frederick Stanford royal occasions.
Oliver Dennes Jean-Michel Tokabi Tenors
Joseph Edwards Ben Alden
Daniel Evans-Jones Jonathan Bungard
Joe Gall Ronan Busfield
Alexander Halksworth David Manners

8.570148 6 7 8.570148
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1 Offertorium ‘O hearken Thou’
Words from Psalm 5 v 2
O hearken Thou unto the voice of my calling, my
King and my God: for unto Thee will I make my
prayer.
2 Strengthen ye the weak hands
Tenor soloist: Ben Alden
Words from Ecclesiasticus 38 vv 4, 6, 9, 10, 12;
Isaiah 35 vv 1-6 and Book of Common Prayer
The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth;
and he that is wise will not abhor them.
And he hath giv’n men skill, that he might be
honour’d in his marvellous works.
My son, in thy sickness Leave off from sin,
and order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy
heart from all wickedness.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm
the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart,
Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will
come; he will come and save you.
Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d, and
the ears of the deaf shall be unstopp’d.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the
wilderness shall waters break out, and
streams in the desert.
The wilderness and the solitary place shall
be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice,
and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice
with joy and singing:
the glory of Lebanon shall be giv’n unto it,
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon,
they shall see the glory of the Lord, and
the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm
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the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart,
Be strong, fear not: behold, your God
will come; he will come and save you.
O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross
and precious Blood hast redeem’d us,
Save us and help us, we humbly beseech
thee, O Lord.
3 Faire is the heav’n
Words from An hymne of heavenly beautie
by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
Faire is the heav’n,
Where happy soules have place
In full enjoyment of felicitie;
Whence they doe still behold the glorious face
Of the Divine, Eternall Majestie;
Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins
Which all with golden wings are overdight.
And those eternall burning Seraphins
Which from their faces dart out fiery light;
Yet fairer than they both and much more bright,
Be th’ Angels and Archangels
Which attend on God’s owne person
without rest or end.
These then in faire each other farre excelling
As to the Highest they approach more neare,
Yet is that Highest farre beyond all telling
Fairer than all the rest which there appeare.
Though all their beauties joynd together were;
How then can mortall tongue hope to expresse
The image of such endlesse perfectnesse?
Alastair Sampson was a chorister at St George’s Chapel from just before the coronation of 1953, and left as head chorister in 1958.
During that time he had organ lessons with Sir William Harris. He retired in 2005 after nearly 40 years organ teaching, as organist
of Eton College Chapel.
8 5
particularly charming example is an anthem for boys’
voices composed in 1925 and dedicated to “Cullis,
Gooderson and all other New College Choristers”. It is
a setting of the hymn King of glory, King of peace by
one of his favourite poets, George Herbert. It is both
immediately attractive, indeed tuneful, with a typical
organ accompaniment characterized by a tiny motive,
merely a dotted crotchet and quaver, reserved for organ
alone. It is allowed the luxury of having the last word -
just briefly – as the boys finish singing, providing an
affecting coda.
Eight years later came a simple setting of a carol by
Anthony Deane The shepherd-men were keeping a little
flock from ill. It is the sort of piece that any choir at all
capable of singing in four parts might reasonably hope
to bring off successfully.
The Evening Anthem O joyful light of the heavenly
glory was composed in 1939 and set to an anonymous
seventh-century text “from the Greek”. Starting as it
does with a bass soloist singing what sounds like
unaccompanied plainsong, followed by homophonic
chanting of antiphonal choirs, the influence of the
Eastern Orthodox Church is fairly obvious, yet the
overall effect remains essentially English. If elsewhere
we may have detected the influence of Parry, as so often
in the music of Harris’s more famous contemporary and
personal friend Ralph Vaughan Williams (who on more
than one occasion during my time at St George’s was
brought in to attend the trebles practice before
evensong), here we feel Doc H’s close affinity with the
early Tudor Reformation style of Tallis and his
contemporaries.
Of the three remaining pieces two have royal
connections. Of those, the earlier O hearken thou
entitled Offertorium is a setting of the second verse of
Psalm 5. It was composed to be the opening musical
contribution of the Communion Service within the 1937
Coronation of George VI, where it was performed with
orchestral accompaniment as well as organ. It is short,
mystical, a crescendo and a diminuendo in the shape of
a single arc.
Public speaking did not come easily to that monarch
on account of his speech impediment, but he moved the
nation nonetheless by his choice of words taken from
God Knows by M. Louise Haskins, when he made his
Christmas Day radio broadcast during the ‘phoney war’
of 1939. It was a broadcast of which Queen Elizabeth,
later the Queen Mother, was particularly proud. On
discovering this some thirty years later, when he was in
his late eighties, Sir William Harris set the text I said to
the man to music for unaccompanied men’s voices, and
dedicated the piece “by gracious permission” to Her
Majesty.
Finally, there is a second evening hymn but this
time an accompanied one. It is dedicated to an old
friend, Richard Latham and his St Paul’s Festival
Choir. Published in 1961, it is a setting of a poem by yet
another “Tudor”, Sir William Browne. This is vintage
Harris, but now with an added autumnal glow of old
age. The night is come is a dreamy contemplation of
sleep, but ‘that we do in vain, since we only wake to
sleep again’. In the last thirteen bars, however, Harris
jettisons his three flats, and in a cool, clear C major with
the hint of a sharpened fourth, Browne’s final prayer
that the hour might come ‘when I shall never sleep
again, but wake forever’, receives yet another of those
inspired closing pages of ‘endless perfectnesse’.
Alastair Sampson
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patterns, the hallmark of that older composer. The motet
falls into three sections, with a hint of recapitulation at
the end of the second where Bridges’s line ‘every
burden weigheth light’ recalls his opening line. The
final section Poco meno mosso has the feel of an
epilogue prayer, a feature found elsewhere in other
anthems on this disc.
From a heart made whole is a motet set to words by
Swinburne, composed the following year. The two
compositions are as different in style, however, as are
indeed the styles of their respective poets. Swinburne’s
is indeed a strange poem, and Harris’s music is
correspondingly intense, even lurid. Although he gives
us a key signature of one sharp, it cannot be said that the
piece either begins or ends in G major, or indeed its
relative minor, while at the climax ‘Thee, God born of
God’ inhabits (as He so often seems to with Harris) D
flat major, the glorious key of what are generally
considered to be his two finest eight-part motets Faire
is the heav’n and Bring us, O Lord God.
Praise the Lord, O my soul is a setting of Psalm 103
dedicated “to the memory of Sydney Charles Scott” in
1938. It is the most extended of the five motets here
recorded. We might perhaps be tempted to agree with
Dr Watson, for in some of the louder, more sequential
passages, the ghost of Parry is still peering over the
composer’s shoulder, while the initial material is hardly
memorable enough, when it returns somewhat
transformed at the final climax, to achieve the desired
effect of tying the whole structure together. There are,
however, some lovely moments along the way.
Following the bass soloist’s recitative (verse eight) ‘The
Lord is full of compassion and mercy’ the choir takes
over and continues this text in a gentle three in a bar.
Later, at verse fifteen ‘The days of man are but as grass’
another section marked Adagio is equally moving.
Faire is the Heav’n was composed in 1925, and
dedicated to his formidable predecessor at New
College, Sir Hugh Allen. In the first thirty bars Spenser
tells us of those Happy Souls resting in the Divine
Presence of Eternal Majestie, and Harris remains in
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D flat major. Then Spenser lifts his gaze to contemplate
even fairer Cherubim and Seraphim, whose more
exalted territory Harris reaches by transforming D flat
into C sharp thus slipping effortlessly into A major. But
beyond them the poet espies Angels and Archangels
‘attending on God’s own Person’, and yet again we
pivot enharmonically into tonalities which change and
change again, until the words ‘These then each other
farre excelling’ when Harris lifts us into recapitulation,
and home to D flat - clearly the key of heaven - to
confront that miraculous last page, indeed quite ‘the image
of such endless perfectnesse’. This anthem remains a
twentieth century tour de force in English Church Music.
Harris’s setting of John Donne’s prayer Bring us, O
Lord God at our Last Awakening into the House and
Gate of Heaven, though composed some thirty years
later, is in effect a sequel to the Spenser. Donne too uses
wonderful language in his description of Heaven, where
once again Harris moves us through the keys. At ‘No
ends nor beginnings’ he again confronts A major with
C major, but at ‘one equal eternity; in the habitation of
thy Glory and Dominion, World without end’ where
else can he take us but back to a glorious fortissimo
cadence of D flat major? But there is still one page to
go! The ensuing Amens drift off into space before
melting onto a last chord, which comes as a surprise yet
is the only possible right final chord, in that heavenly
key of D flat major. The author of these notes was
present at the evening boys’ choir practice when Doc H
first placed C.F. Simkin’s beautifully hand-scripted
photocopies of this inspired anthem in front of us. As
we approached that final bar, he slowed down the
pulse (a thing he would never dream of doing in
performance) to test the effect of it on us, as we sight-
read this work for the first time. A stifled gasp went
round the room and he knew full well that he had
achieved his purpose.
In contrast to his motets in eight parts, Doc H
produced a steady stream of more straight-forward,
technically less demanding choral pieces, suitable for
choirs with rather more limited vocal resources. A
4 9
4 Love of love and light of light
Tenor soloist: Ronan Busfield
Words by Robert Bridges (1844-1930)
Love of love, and Light of light
Heav’nly Father all maintaining
Wisdom hid in highest height,
To thy creature fondly deigning
Maker, wonderful and just,
Thou hast called my heart to trust.
What are life’s unnumbered cares,
Sorrow, torment passing measure?
O’er my short lived pains and fears,
Surely ruleth Thy good pleasure.
Boundless is Thy love for me,
Boundless then my trust shall be.
Every burden weigheth light,
Since in Thee my hope abideth;
Sweetly bright my darkest night,
While on Thee my mind confideth.
Give Thy gift I Thee implore,
Thee to trust for evermore.
5 King of glory
Words by George Herbert (1593-1633)
King of glory, King of peace, I will love Thee;
And that love may never cease, I will move Thee.
Thou hast granted my request, Thou hast
heard me;
Thou didst note my working breast, Thou hast
spared me.
Wherefore with my utmost art I will sing Thee,
And the cream of all my heart I will bring Thee.
Though my sins against Thee cried Thou didst
clear me;
And alone when they replied
Thou didst hear me.
Seven whole days, not one in seven
I will praise Thee
In my heart though not in heaven
I can raise Thee.
Thou grew’st soft and moist with tears,
Thou relentedst,
And when justice call’d for fears Thou dissentedst.
Small it is in this poor sort to enrol Thee,
Even Eternity’s too short to extol Thee.
King of glory, King of Peace, I will love Thee;
And that love may never cease, I will move Thee.
Wherefore with my utmost art I will sing Thee,
And the cream of all my heart I will bring Thee.
6 Praise the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 103)
Bass soloist: Giles White
Praise the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me
praise his holy Name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all
his benefits;
Who forgiveth all thy sin: and healeth all
thine infirmities;
Who saveth thy life from destruction: and crowneth
thee with mercy and loving kindness;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things: making
thee young and lusty as an eagle.
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgement:
for all them that are oppressed
with wrong.
He shewed his ways unto Moses: his works
unto the children of Israel.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy:
long suff’ring and of great goodness.
He will not always be chiding: neither keepeth
he his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor
rewarded us according to our wickednesses.
For look how high the heaven is in comparison of
the earth: so great is his mercy also toward
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them that fear him.
Look how wide also the east is from the west:
So far hath he set our sins from us.
Like as a father pitieth his own children: ev’n so
is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him.
For he knoweth whereof we are made:
he remembereth that we are but dust.
The days of man are but as grass: for he
flourisheth as a flower of the field.
For as soon as the wind goeth over it, it is gone:
and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the merciful goodness of the Lord endureth
for ever upon them that fear him: and his
righteousness upon children’s children;
Ev’n upon such as keep his covenant: and think
upon his commandments to do them.
The Lord hath prepared his seat in heaven: and
his kingdom ruleth over all.
O praise the Lord ye angels of his, ye that excel
in strength: ye that fulfil his commandment, and
hearken unto the voice of his words.
O praise the Lord all ye his hosts: ye servant of
his that do his pleasure.
O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his in
all places of his dominion: praise thou
the Lord, O my soul.
7 Evening Hymn ‘The night is come’
Bass soloist: James Birchall
Words by Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)
The night is come like to the day,
Depart not Thou, great God, away,
Let not my sins, black as the night,
Eclipse the lustre of Thy light.
Keep still in my horizon, for to me
The sun makes not the day, but Thee.
Thou whose nature cannot sleep,
On my temples sentry keep;
Guard me ‘gainst those watchful foes
Whose eyes are open while mine close,
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Let no dreams my head infest
But such as Jacob’s temples blest.
While I do rest, my soul advance,
Make my sleep a holy trance;
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought.
And with as active vigour run
My course, as doth the nimble sun.
Sleep is a death, O make me try
By sleeping what it is to die,
And as gently lay my head
On my grave, as now my bed.
Now ere I rest, great God, let me
Awake again at last with Thee.
And thus assured, behold I lie
Securely, or to wake or die.
These are my drowsy days, in vain
I do now wake to sleep again.
O come that hour, when I shall never
Sleep again, but wake for ever!
8 The shepherd-men
Words by Anthony C. Deane (b.1870)
The Shepherd-men were keeping
A little flock from ill,
When other folk were sleeping,
Lying still;
The Shepherds heard the music
Of Angels in the sky;
No other stirr’d, no other heard
The melody.
The Shepherds heard the singing,
Over the plain they trod,
While all the air was ringing
Glory to God;
Never a neighbour met them,
Never a one with them
Or knew the sign or sought the shrine –
Bethlehem.
10
contemporary of Sir William Harris (universally
nicknamed affectionately as Doc H), once expressed his
opinion that Harris’s only shortcoming as a composer
was his repeated inability to come up with a really
memorable melody. While this is perhaps true, I think it
was in fact intentional, for he chose his texts with much
care, often holding them in such veneration that he was
loath to distract attention away from them with his own
musical contributions. Certainly he particularly loved
not only ‘tudor music’ as he used to call it, but he was
equally drawn to the many poets of the period, of whom
no less than four, Edmund Spenser, John Donne,
George Herbert and Sir William Browne are
represented in this recital.
The anthem Strengthen ye the weak hands is an
extended, occasional, accompanied one, composed for
The Commemoration of the Science and Art of Healing
and first performed on 25th June 1949 at the Canterbury
Festival. As such, it is an anthem ‘suitable for St Luke’s
Day’ and its text comes from three quite separate
sources. The opening prologue, a recitative for solo
tenor, comes from Ecclesiasticus ch. 38, while the main
central movement in E major beginning and ending
with the work’s actual title ‘Strengthen ye the weak
hands and secure the feeble knees’ is taken from Isaiah
ch. 35. The closing epilogue is set to the famous prayer
‘O Saviour of the World, who by thy cross and precious
blood hast redeemed us’, from the Book of Common
Prayer. These texts have not been cobbled together so
much for their literary qualities but rather for their
medical relevance, and thus we find here no such
inhibition with regard to melody. ‘Strengthen ye’ is
indeed a cracking good tune, and proof enough - at least
for this writer - that Doc H was perfectly capable of
writing one if he wanted to. The longer central section
Andante con moto does not remain in E major
throughout. Rather, as Isaiah’s text becomes ever more
animated, so Harris ranges far and wide with his
frequently enharmonic changing tonalities, but once he
has re-established his tonic, and begun the epilogue,
Harris holds onto it, whether it is based in C major or
3 8.570148
C sharp minor, until it returns to its true home of
E major by means of a perfectly straight-forward plagal
cadence, sounding both inevitable and magical, a fine
example of art concealing art.
At St George’s Chapel all music in Lent was
unaccompanied, and the organ fell silent after evensong
on Shrove Tuesday until matins on Easter Sunday. It
was also silent on most Fridays throughout the year out
of deference to Good Friday. At such times Doc H’s
preference for ‘tudor music’ was quite obvious through
his choice of our repertoire.
Although the annual Garter Service in June was the
Chapel’s high point from a ceremonial point of view,
for which, in some years Doc H would contribute a
large new anthem of his own, I suspect that for him, and
so also for us choristers - such was our respect for his
musicianship, and our love of the man - that Good
Friday was his real high point. He would sometimes put
down for that evensong the great antiphonal motet for
double choir in eight parts ‘Stabat Mater Dolorosa’ by
Palestrina (who, of course, along with others like
Orlando di Lasso, definitely counts as an honorary
Tudor), and uniquely, so that it might benefit from the
superior acoustics of the nave, we would march in
solemn procession from the choir stalls to form a large
semicircle in front of the great doors beneath the huge
west window singing our Palestrina as the evening light
faded. The care Harris took in preparing us for this
performance, particularly of the final page ‘In
paradisum’ because it moved him so much, has always
singled it out to me as perhaps the model for so many of
the finer closing pages of Doc H’s own anthems and
motets. These eight-part motets for double choir are
usually judged to be his most significant contribution to
English Church Music.
Love of love and light of light was composed on
28th March 1935 “in memoriam Robert Bridges” and
dedicated to Bridges’s wife Monica. Here we can
hardly fail to notice the influence of Parry, for in it we
hear rather less of Harris’s enharmonic adventures into
remoter tonalities, and rather more of those sequential
570148bk Harris USA 18/10/06 2:15 pm
William Henry Harris (1883-1973): Anthems
William Henry Harris was born in Fulham on 28th
March 1883 and was named after his father. His mother
was Alice Mary (neé) Clapp. Theirs was a musical
family, and at fourteen the boy’s exceptional gifts had
attracted enough local attention to generate sufficient
financial help to send him to St David’s Cathedral,
South Wales, to assist its somewhat easy-going
organist, Herbert Morris. He was soon quite content to
let Harris take over at times, certainly when he
preferred to sleep in during a weekday matins. A
scholarship at sixteen to the Royal College of Music,
not to mention an FRCO, soon drew Harris to the
attention of its Director, Sir Hubert Parry. His long
association with St George’s Chapel, Windsor, dates
back to this time, since its organist Sir Walter Parratt
became his organ teacher. Composition was encouraged
by Stanford and Charles Wood, and by Walford Davies,
whom Harris would sometimes help out at the console
of the organ in the Temple church.
After eight years as assistant in Lichfield (1911),
and much encouragement from Sir Granville Bantock,
for whom he took on some teaching at the Birmingham
and Midland Institute, a surprise appointment to
succeed Sir Hugh Allen at New College Oxford (1919)
gave Harris his first taste of being in charge, but only
just, since his powerful predecessor did not find letting
go at all easy. Moreover even five years later, having
failed to prevent Harris founding the University Opera
Club, Allen did his best to stop him putting on a
pioneering production with Jack Westrup of
Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Mercifully, Allen was a good
loser, and handed over the stewardship of the Oxford
Bach Choir in 1926, although it cannot be said that
Harris was ever quite as effective with a large choir as
with a smaller one. Politics at New College were not
always kind to Harris, and he took the opportunity to
move to Christ Church Cathedral in 1929 where
conditions suited him better. In 1933, however, he was
head-hunted for the post of organist at St George’s
Chapel, where the early death of Charles Hylton
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Stewart after only six months in the position had created
the vacancy. Of all his Oxford duties not one was to
remain, but he did retain his post as Professor of Organ
and Harmony at the Royal College of Music until 1955,
an appointment made as long ago as 1921.
Harris was always happy at Windsor. His tenure
lasted almost three decades during which he composed
much music both for choir, for organ solo and larger
pieces too for the Three Choirs Festival and even two
premières at the London Proms. Amongst his duties was
the tutoring of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret
Rose, the musical direction of many royal occasions and
Garter Services, and the sub-conducting of both the
1937 and 1953 Coronation Services, all of which
eventually resulted in a well-earned KCVO in 1954.
As an organist Harris had inherited from Parratt a
wonderful sense of restraint, in complete contrast to Dr
Henry Ley, the much celebrated organ-playing Eton
Precentor, just down the road. During my five years as a
chorister, I doubt if I heard the Tuba stop drawn as
many times, whereas I have little doubt that Etonians
were hearing theirs as many times in a week. Nor have I
ever since heard psalms accompanied with such subtle
yet gentle imagination. Harris’s flawless technique
never seemed to fail him, even in later years when his
control of the pulse sometimes did. There would be
consternation down in the choir stalls as long
introductions to such anthems as Haydn’s ‘Insanae et
vanae curae’ inexorably gathered speed before the time
came for the choir to join in.
Sir William Harris retired to Petersfield in 1961
with his wife Kathleen Doris (neé) Carter. They were
married in 1913 and had two daughters. As early as
1925, Doris had all but lost her hearing, though experts
advised that hers was a condition that advancing
techniques might well some day remedy. Amazingly, in
1961, her hearing was partially restored. She died in
1968. Sir William lived on, reaching ninety in 1973 and
dying on 6th September.
Dr Sidney Watson, a distinguished younger
2 11
The Shepherd-men were able
To welcome Christ the Lord;
They found Him in a stable
And adored;
The town was dark and silent.
The Shepherds, only they,
When others slept, arose and kept
Christmas Day.
But we will quit our labour
And ev’ry one shall bring
A friend, a child, a neighbour
To the King;
Now we will give our praises
Before the manger-throne,
And He will take the gift we make
For His own.
9 Evening hymn, ‘O joyful light’
Words from the Greek (7th century)
Bass soloist: Giles White
O joyful light of the heavenly glory of the
everlasting Father which is in heaven.
Holy and blessed, Jesu Christ our Lord.
We are come unto the going down of the sun,
and at eventide we have seen light.
Therefore we give thanks and praise to the Father
and to the Son and to the Holy spirit of God.
Worthy are Thou at all times to be praised with
holy voices Son of God giver of life Therefore
doth the world glorify Thee.
O joyful light of the heavenly glory of the
everlasting Father which is in heaven.
Amen.
0 From a heart made whole
Words by A. C. Swinburne (1837-1909)
From a heart made whole
Take as Thou givest us blessing; never tear
Shall stain for shame, nor groan un-tune the song
That as a bird shall spread and fold its wings
Here in Thy praise for ever. There is no grief
Great as the Joy to be made one in will
With Him that is the heart and rule of life
And Thee, God born of God; Thy Name is ours
And Thy large grace more great than our desire.
! I said to the man
Bass soloist: Gareth Dayus-Jones
Words by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957)
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the
unknown’. And he replied ‘Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall
be to you better than a light, and safer than a known
way’.
from The Gate of the Year from The Desert
© Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908, is reproduced by
permission of Sheil Land Associates Ltd on behalf
of The Estate of M. Louise Haskins.
8.570148
570148bk Harris USA 18/10/06 2:15 pm Page 12

@ Bring us, O Lord God

Words by John Donne (1572-1631)
Sir William Henry
Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heav’n
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
HARRIS
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
Anthems
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity; Faire is the Heav’n • Bring us, O Lord God
in the habitation of thy glory and dominion,
world without end. Amen. Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
Roger Judd, Organ
Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Director

8.570148 12
 570148 Inlay USA 20/10/06 5:13 pm Page 1

NAXOS Sir WILLIAM HENRY HARRIS: Choral Music During his tenure as Organist at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, William Henry Harris composed

NAXOS Sir WILLIAM HENRY HARRIS: Choral Music

much music for choir and for organ solo as well as larger pieces for the Three Choirs Festival and two
premières at the London Proms. In addition to music previously unrecorded, this disc includes Harris’
two best known works: Faire is the heav’n, and Bring us O Lord God, both pinnacles of twentieth-
century English Church Music, recorded in the Chapel by the Choir of boys and men with which he
was associated for almost thirty years. 8570148

Sir William Henry DDD

HARRIS Playing Time

65:45
(1883-1973)

7
Anthems where indicated by *

47313 01487
1 O hearken thou 2:32
2 Strengthen ye the weak hands 7:47
3 Faire is the heav’n 5:47
4 Love of love 5:43
5 King of glory 5:24
6 Praise the Lord 10:30

3
7 The night is come * 10:23

www.naxos.com
Made in Canada
http://www.naxos.com/libretti/570148.htm
Includes sung texts, which are also available at:
Booklet notes in English

&  2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd.
8 The shepherd-men * 2:50
9 O joyful light 4:45
0 From a heart made whole 3:23
! I said to the man * 2:20
@ Bring us, O Lord God 4:24
Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle • Roger Judd, Organ
Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Director
Publishers: Chester Novello (track 1, 2, 6 and 12) • Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew Ltd. (tracks 3 and 7)
Oxford University Press (tracks 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11) • Stainer & Bell Ltd. (track 8)
Recorded in St George’s Chapel, Windsor from 23rd to 25th January, 2006 (by kind permission of the Dean
8 570 14 8

8 570 14 8
and Canons of Windsor) • Producer: Anna Barry • Engineer: Mike Hatch • Booklet Notes: Alastair Sampson
Cover photograph: St George’s Chapel, Windsor, from the South West
(by kind permission of the Dean and Canons of Windsor and Jarrold Publishing)
This recording was sponsored by Windsor Festival in partnership with Honda