Magna Carta Te Deum

Vocal score

Forces or Category: SATB & organ

for SATB and organ
This setting of the Te Deum features powerful choral lines and jubilant organ flourishes, married perfectly with the ...

Magna Carta Te Deum

Vocal score

Description

for SATB and organ
This setting of the Te Deum was written for the Choir of Lincoln Cathedral Choir to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. It opens with a dialogue between the organ and strident unison choral lines, before moving on to the Sanctus, with alternating tutti and solo passages. Powerful choral lines and jubilant organ flourishes marry perfectly with the well-known text to result in a truly laudatory work.

Magna Carta Te Deum

Vocal score

Michael Berkeley

Composer Information

Michael Berkeley (b.1948)

Berkeley uses the traditional chant melody identifiably as a basis for the choral line, and when he deviates from the plainsong, he does so with dramatic flair. Strongly dissonant lines contrast beautifully with the unison chant-based passages. Parts divide freely throughout, allowing harmonies to fill out as needed. Brief solo phrases vary the texture without exhausting singers or requiring professional guest singers. |s Jason Overall, Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians (US), Sept 2016 |a 23/02/2017

Michael Berkeley was born in 1948. He studied composition, singing, and piano at the Royal Academy of Music but it was not until his late twenties, when he went to study with Richard Rodney Bennett, that Berkeley began to concentrate exclusively on composing. In 1977 he was awarded the Guinness Prize for Composition; two years later he was appointed Associate Composer to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since then Michael's music has been played all over the globe and by some of the world's finest musicians. Most of Michael's significant orchestral work, much of his chamber music and his operas are available on CD as part of the Chandos Berkeley Edition. For ten years from 1995 Michael was artistic director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music. He currently presents Radio 3's Private Passions, which won the Broadcasting Press Guild's Radio Programme of the Year Award in 1996, and is Chairman of the Governors of The Royal Ballet.

Michael Berkeley's website

Magna Carta Te Deum

Vocal score

Michael Berkeley

Reviews and Awards

"The choice of mode gives the text a great solemnity, and this is the mood attained by Berkeley, who uses plenty of unison writing from both singers and organ alike in his often simple but rhythmicised presentation of the chant . . . Berkeley does provide contrast with some lush chords using false relations and some toccata-style writing for the organ, though the overall mood remains solemn throughout. This 12-minute, Latin setting of the Te Deum thus provides a very welcome alternative to other modern settings." - Geoffrey Webber, Choir & Organ, November 2016