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The music composed for New College Choir in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries provides a compelling historical tour of changing musical styles and liturgical practices. On this disc we survey New College commissions from the 1920s to the 2020s, beginning with William Harris’s evergreen Faire is the heaven, composed while he was Organist of New College, and ending with two recent commissions from Caitlin Harrison and Deborah Pritchard.  The disc is built round three settings of the Evensong canticles, by Paul Drayton, Herbert Howells, and Deborah Pritchard.  For Kenneth Leighton’s heart-wrenching cantata Crucifixus pro nobis, written in 1961, the choir is joined by tenor Nick Pritchard, a former academical clerk at New College. 

Release Date:  10 June 2022

Dónal McCann releases his debut CD of Concerto transcriptions by J. S. Bach and his contemporary J. G. Walther.  This is the first solo organ recording on the Novum label and showcases the iconic New College organ.

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This debut release with Linn Records features the works of the English Renaissance composer John Sheppard, including his most celebrated work, Media Vita, and four motets which receive their premiere recordings.

New College Choir was already 150 years old when Sheppard arrived in Oxford. His boundary-pushing polyphony requires the skill and precision of liturgical professionals, and under Robert Quinney’s direction the choir gives compelling performances. Described by Linn Records as ‘another distinctive and stylish performance from this acclaimed choir’, this disc marks the first in a new series of recordings for the Linn label.

Sunday Times: best 3 new releases 18 October 2020

John Sheppard: Media Vita/Choir of New College, Oxford/Quinney; Linn Records CKD 632
‘These seven beguiling pieces by John Sheppard were written late in his career, in Mary Tudor’s reign.  Four receive significant first recordings.  And the immense hymn setting Media vita makes for a glorious finale. Robert Quinney shapes graceful performances, with Sheppard’s often dense textures never feeling congested, and the New College boys’ sound is pleasingly open and natural.’ Stephen Pettitt, The Sunday Times, 18 October 2020

Click on the link below to listen to a track from the Album.

Selected as one of the top releases in the December issue of Gramophone in 2020: click on the link below to read the full review. 

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Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) was a dominant force in British music-making in the four decades between the premiere of Prometheus Unbound in 1879 and his death in October 1918. His music, with that of his contemporary Charles Villiers Stanford, brought his native land into the European musical mainstream, through its assimilation of continental—specifically German—models.

This disc situates Parry’s music in its European context. Parry was a social and political liberal, and crucially—like all the leading British musicians of his time—his horizons extended beyond the island of his birth. His late set of six motets, Songs of Farewell, are among his greatest achievements in any musical genre, demonstrating his capacity for deeply affecting introspection. In this recording, they are prefaced by another sextet: the pithy Sechs Sprüche by Mendelssohn, which make clear the debt Parry owed to his continental forebears and contemporaries.

Moreover, this recording presents, for the first time, an early version of ‘There is an old belief’, edited by Robert Quinney from the autograph manuscripts in Oxford’s Bodleian Library and a printed proof copy. The compositional history of the motet is unclear, but the evidence suggests Parry vacillated between two strikingly different versions of the section ‘serene in changeless prime’ until shortly before publication.

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The revival of British music in the late nineteenth century coincided with two profound religious changes: the so-called Oxford Movement, the influence of which on standards of liturgy and music in the Church of England reached far beyond the ‘Anglo-Catholic’ churches it spawned; and the Roman Catholic Church, whose presence in the religious and cultural life of the country had grown since its emancipation in 1829. The musical influence of the latter was, by the turn of century, focussed on the new Westminster Cathedral, whose first public liturgies were held in 1903, featuring both plainchant and a good deal of polyphonic music of the sixteenth century - much of the latter heard for the first time since the Reformation.

Meanwhile, the standard of music in the Anglican Cathedrals and collegiate foundations was improving, following reforms to choir schools and professional singers’ terms; and the influence of contemporary continental European music and education, seen in the foundation of the Royal College of Music in 1882, equipped a new generation of composers with a methodical and comprehensive training. These various influences may be detected in the repertoire presented on this disc.

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The words of Psalm 42, at once desperate and yet full of yearning for God’s presence and love, are the recurring theme of Catherine Clover's novel The Templar’s Garden. But is it possible to create an album of the same text without each track sounding as if it is on a continual loop? In fact, it is. As the listener will hear, each composer has his own distinct way of setting the psalm. From plainchant, to unaccompanied and accompanied motets, to hymns, the words and melodies flow gracefully from one into the next, creating a seamless progression of styles covering nearly six centuries of  musical composition without a hint of repetition. Some composers highlight the pathos in the opening verses; others take a more upbeat approach; while others plot a course from desolation to hope.

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A Novum charity release in aid of Sarcoma UK
The Rose Singers
Conductor Peter Foggitt
Organist Paul Plummer

" This outstanding recording, made by singers who loved and respected him...makes an uplifting and poignant tribute "

Observer, 23 April 2017

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William Petter was a Chorister with New College Choir, and thereafter maintained a long relationship with New College, its choir and its school. The compelling body of sacred choral works left at his death in October 2016, presented here, reveals a distinctive personal idiom influenced by a deep connection with the European choral tradition via his rigorous choral training, and his natural tendency towards romantic intensity and a deeply expressive performance style. The St. Magnus Mass for six unaccompanied voices calls to mind stylistic traits of Frank Martin, Walton and Kodály, and Leonard Bernstein; while the Vigil Mass places the plainsong Missa de Angelis alongside a richly-varied organ texture. The three motets show further aspects of the composer's aesthetic in writing both for large-scale choral forces and for a more intimate dynamic.

Recorded in the beautiful acoustic of the Chapel of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, Ablaze with Light is performed by musicians who represent many of London and the UK's finest chamber choirs and vocal ensembles. All close friends of William, the choir was hand-picked by the composer, and the disc recorded just two weeks after his death. All proceeds from this recording will go to Sarcoma UK.

Recorded in New College Chapel,
Oxford, December 2015
Released November 2016
Novum: NCR 1390

" model of how a traditional choral foundation should sound" - William Gatens 
American Record Guide, Dec 2017
 

This recording follows the trajectory of the last weeks of Michaelmas term at New College. On Advent Sunday (at the very end of November or just into December), the chapel is packed with members of college, alumni, families and visitors, for the annual Advent service. Over the following week we move at high speed – we haven’t the luxury of four weeks of Advent to explore its rich themes in much detail – and arrive in the second week of December, more-or-less in the season of Christmas. This artificial compression of proper liturgical time makes sense within the life and community of an Oxford college, since by the third week of December, almost all the students have gone down, and the fellows are deep into interviews and meetings for the admission of next year’s students. And, in any case, out in the ‘real world’ the Christmas decorations have been twinkling for weeks already... 

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"All the works are given splendid performances which not only remind us that there is more to Blow than merely being Purcell’s mentor but also confirm that New College’s famous choir is in very good hands." - David Vickers
Gramophone Magazine, September 2016

"It's wonderful to hear New College Choir - for 38 years led by Edward Higginbottom - in equally excellent form on this first disk under Robert Quinney."
Editor's Choice, Gramophone

"It is a must for admirers of Restoration church music."   - William Gatens 
American Record Guide, Jan 2017

John Blow – mentor, colleague and friend of Purcell – deserves recognition as a major figure in the flourishing of music that followed the Restoration in 1660. This new recording by New College Choir – its first under the direction of Robert Quinney – includes three previously unrecorded symphony anthems, together with ceremonial works written for the coronation of James II and the consecration of the rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral. Alongside these, Quinney presents the first performance in 400 years of a newly reconstructed verse anthem. New College Choir and St James’ Baroque, playing period instruments, bring Blow’s innovative and strikingly individual voice vividly to life.  Click below for PDF liner notes. 

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8-CD Box Set

For well over six hundred years now, the sixteen choristers and the clerks of the Choir of New College have sung to the glory of God in a rhythm of worship and education that has remained largely unchanged to our own day, except that their sound now reaches out across the globe. Former director Edward Higginbottom brings to the interpretation of a wide repertoire the skill of an experienced choir director and the intellectual grasp of a distinguished scholar. During his time at New College, the Choir has become a world leader in performances of music stretching from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary scores.

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New College Choir's Novum label has reached its tenth issue with a fabulous Mozart release. In the short space of time of the label's existence, Novum has established for itself a reputation for excellence, integrity, innovation and looks. For the new release, we travel to Salzburg, and get inside the skin of Mozart's music for Archbishop Colloredo. Whatever the strain in personal relations between the two, Mozart produced the loveliest of compositions for his rather austere employer. New College Choir with Collegium Novum performs two of the best scores: the Litaniae Lauretanae (K195) and the Vesperae de Dominica (K321). Thrown in for good measure is the splendid orchestral Epistle Sonata in C (K329). The solo singing in these pieces is undertaken by Choir members, just as in Mozart's day. This gives the recording an unusual homogeneity. It also reveals some astonishing talent.  

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Britten's sacred music is among the most engaging and original music of its kind composed in the middle years of the 20th century. New College Choir was among the first to recognise its quality, and continues to sing it with passion and panache. This new New College anthology (in 2 CDs), released to mark the centenary of Britten's birth, is an overarching view of his work in this domain, featuring favourites such as Rejoice in the Lamb and the Hymn to St Cecilia alongside settings more rarely heard, the Hymns to St Peter and of St Columba, and the wedding anthem Amo ergo sum. Overall, it offers a definitive panorama of Britten's sacred music from the 1930s to the 1960s in exemplary performances by one of the world's leading choirs.

"This pair of discs from New College Oxford under their long-standing director of music offers two hours of exemplary music-making. Supported by the Britten–Pears Foundation, this beautifully presented recording gathers together, for the first time as far as I’m aware, all of Britten’s sacred choral music. It makes for a more substantial corpus of music than one might at first expect and yields many unknown treasures to those familiar with the composer’s home territory of opera and art song. 

"A first-rate release to kick start the Britten centennial year and a fine addition to New College’s own recording label. Not to be missed." - Choir and Organ, April 2013

Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkriti 2013: Best Choral Album 

 Higginbottom's immersion in and passion for French Baroque music comes through clearly and the quality and professsionalism of these young singers (the trebles especially) is striking.  - Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3 CD Review 21  September 2013

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Release Date:  1 January 2017

• Composer: Joseph Haydn
• Audio CD (3 Sept. 2012)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Novum
• ASIN: B008SCC36Q

Jonty Ward treble   Hugh Cutting alto
Nick Pritchard tenor   Tom Edwards bass
Choir of New College Oxford
New Century Baroque
Directed by Edward Higginbottom

The scoring used in this new recording is Haydn's original primary-coloured orchestration for strings and trumpets.  This brings to the performance an arguably more characterful sound-world than when the woodwinds are employed (after the first edition by Breitkopf & Härtel).  In addition, we source the solo voices from the Choir, making the vocal ensemble fully cohesive with the chorus.  This makes complete sense for the alto, tenor and bass soloists, whose technical demands are no more exacting that the chorus parts.  But it raises questions for the soprano solo part, written for a singer of a very different cut.  Here, New College sticks to its belief in the capacity of boys (some boys at least) to measure up to the highest demands of vocal artistry.  You won't find another recording which so fully celebrates the capacity of a boys' choir to scale this particular summit.  

The motet Insanae et vanae curae, contemporary with the Mass, and occupying the same dramatic world, is sung as an Offertory motet.  The scoring of the motet has been adapted to the scoring of the Mass: woodwinds have been excised and in their place the organ (as in the Nelson Mass) provides the figurations otherwise lost.   

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Inspector Morse, Oxford's cult television character, is celebrated with Barrington Pheloung's theme song, for the first time in vocal arrangement by director Edward Higginbottom. The album celebrates choral excellence and follows the fascination of vocal music through the centuries to the present day. 

In 'Illumina' you will find some of our best loved choral classics: gems such Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Mozart's Laudate Dominum are presented alongside contemporary works in the great Anglo-American choral tradition with composers such as John Rutter, Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre. You will also discover brand new arrangements of Franck's famous Panis Angelicus and Mahler's Adagietto from his Fifth Symphony. 

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What makes this recording special? The use of soloists drawn from the chorus, as in Mozart’s day – including young male singers for the soprano and alto solos – combined with the use of a period band. These are not idle historical gestures. The contemporary virtues of this approach are consistency in the sound-world between chorus and solo ensemble, and homogeneity of style between orchestra and chorus.

The musical text employed is Süssmayr’s completion of Mozart’s unfinished score – what Christoph Wolff has called ‘the only document that represents the genuine musical truth of the unfinished work’.

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From the foreword by Edward Higginbottom:

When I wrote the entry on François Couperin for the New Grove Dictionary of Music, I read through every single extant piece of his music – that is apart from three motets which had not been published at the time, and which were unperformable because they lacked string parts (long since lost). Subsequently I came to see that these three motets – Resonent organa, Ornate aras and Exultent superi – were among his best. The challenge was to restore them. This I have done by composing string parts that Couperin might have written. These motets, newborn and set in the context of a selection of other sacred music – motets choisis – reveal Couperin as a master not only of keyboard music but also of vocal

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This is a recording of a full choral evensong, complete with introit, office hymn, psalms, canticles, anthems and closing organ voluntary— a typical example of what a visitor to New College Chapel might experience when attending evensong during University Term. 

The service also celebrates the Founder of New College, Bishop William of Wykeham, who died 600 years ago in October 1404.

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Since New College choristers have been around for over six hundred years, you might be forgiven for thinking that everything about their lives is very traditional. Happily this is not the case: being a chorister these days is cutting-edge, and traditions are only as long as the memory of the oldest chorister, a mere five years. The Choir does not rely on a static repertory, or indeed on a fixed way of doing things. Both change in response to challenges, circumstances, and personnel. In recent years New College choristers have sung in many places around the globe, and recorded on average two CDs a year, most famously the best-selling Agnus Dei.

This programme of music for treble voices is eclectic not only in its variety of repertory but also in its contexts, from church, to theatre, to music room. It provides a snapshot of New College trebles in the year 2005/06.

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3-CD Box Set

Within the earlier part of his long career William Byrd published three volumes of Cantiones Sacrae – sacred songs to Latin words. The first, in 1575, was a joint venture with his master Thomas Tallis. The other two publications appeared in 1589 and 1591. This set of three discs contains a generous selection of items from those three collections, including some of Byrd’s keyboard pieces, interspersed with the vocal music.

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Nicholas Mulroy, Thomas Hobbs & Thomas Raskin tenors
The Choir of New College Oxford
Charivari Agréable
Directed by Edward Higginbottom

"[This is] the most striking of the four recordings which have been released since I last considered the Vespers for 'Building a Library' back in 2007. Edward Higginbottom draws wonderfully elegant and naturally expressive singing from his choir at New College, Oxford. This is the New College sound, and it serves the music very well indeed. The instrumental playing from the Oxford-based Charivari Agréable is, frankly, gorgeous ... It seems astonishing that this brand new release – the first on the New College label – comes at mid price. And time and again I find myself coming back to this recording for its natural, unforced elegance and its finely controlled instrumental playing." -Simon Heighes, BBC Building a Library, Dec 2010

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"The Bach motets are considered one of the summits of the choral repertory. Their technical and aesthetic challenges are virtually unparalleled. New College approaches these works with its customary zest and energy, strongly characterizing the forward impulse of the music, and its dramatic qualities. A debate turns around the numbers of singers Bach would have called upon to sing these pieces. What is abundantly clear is that institutional resources dictated the choice, as they do at New College. If New College’s ensemble is slightly larger then Bach’s, both groups, across three hundred years, are composed largely of student voices. This music is for a rising generation of musicians: an exemplar of excellence in polyphonic composition and singing." -Presto Classical

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One of the attractions of this disc is the variety of the repertoire...Logical phrasing and clear articulation are among the virtues of this choir, and these serve the repertoire on this disc well, whether old or new. Some of the best-known carols for full choir are sung with vigour, but never exaggerated...The programme guarantees almost 80 minutes of exquisite singing.                             Jan 2012

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Oxford Philomusica, Choir of New College Oxford
Mhairi Lawson (soprano), Rufus Müller (tenor), David Stout (bass)

The Creation may be embraced by all who love the natural world, of whatever persuasion: Creationist, Darwinian, or something in between. Haydn wrote the oratorio during the years 1796 and 1798. The libretto – a kaleidoscope of landscape, flora and fauna (including man) – was perfectly adapted to his imagination, as vivid in his mid-sixties as it had been in his twenties. In terms of time and place, the work stands at a turning point in European thought, where the Enlightenment gives way to Romanticism, and man’s understanding of and relationship with Nature becomes a preoccupation.

The vocal material used in the recording is based on nineteenth-century English editions arising out of the early performance history of the work in England. The work happily adapts to a moderately-sized orchestra and a College Choir, large enough for an uplifting tutti, small enough to personalise detail.

Sung in English.

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"...the New College choristers supply expert delivery of the text as well as definition and clarity. There’s no lack of weight, either, for the big moments, such as the sudden burst of brilliance as the word ‘light’ in the opening chorus... ...conductor Edward Higginbottom combines an essential energy with an eye for detail. It’s a work that has done very well on disc, and if Paul McCreesh’s version on Archiv still holds the palm for recent English language versions, this excellent newcomer is a fine alternative. " - BBC Music Magazine, December 2008

Gramophone Awards 2008

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Henry Jenkinson, Otta Jones, Robert Brooks (trebles), Iestyn Davies (countertenor), Toby Spence (tenor), Eamonn Dougan (bass), Nicholas Wearne (organ continuo), Academy of Ancient Music & Choir of New College Oxford, Edward Higginbottom

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This recording of North American music of the last fifty or so years includes music by a Russian, Igor Stravinsky. His origins notwithstanding, he is one of the ‘grand old men’ of twentieth-century American music, having become an American citizen in the early 1940s, shortly before writing his Mass for choir and double wind quintet. The recording ends with a spritual, arranged by one of Britain’s most eminent twentieth-century composers—a sort of compliment to the American tradition from the other side of the pond. The rest of the music speaks for itself, with an inimitable American accent from beginning to end.

performances of uniformly high quality -

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"Volume 2 in this ‘Twentieth-Century Masters’ series is an all-British programme, spearheaded by two James MacMillan pieces ... both eliciting lean, clear-toned performances from Higginbottom’s choir. ... The choir’s performances in this second volume are of uniformly high quality" - BBC Music Magazine

"This is one of the finest choral discs to have come my way for some time. I rejoice to find clear evidence that so much high quality music is being written for liturgical use by composers of today." - International Record Review

 

"This disc captures the choir of 2004, who sail through the programme with bright clarity. Pride of place goes to Johnathan Dove: his Ecce beatam lucem is a real charmer." - The Times

 

"New College Choir... brings the ideal combination of vocal freshness and consummate experience to this music, with commendable individual standout solos exemplifying the standard of the ensemble as a whole. The recording has admirable atmosphere and transparency." - The Daily Telegraph

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Write your introductionary paragraph here.

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Edward Higginbottom organ
Directed by Edward Higginbottom

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Release Date: 9th Apr 2003
Catalogue No: 8557296-97
Label: Naxos
Length: 1 hour 49 minutes

Choir of New College Oxford, Collegium Novum
Edward Higginbottom
James Gilchrist (tenor), John Bernays (bass), Eamonn Dougan (bass), Joe Littlewood (soprano), James Bowman (counter-tenor), Matthew Beale (tenor), Colin Baldy (bass)
Recorded: 6-14 July 2001 in Chapel of New College Oxford

St John Passion shows Bach's towering imagination at its most intensely dramatic, moving and vivid. This new reading is a testament to the vitality of the choral tradition: all the soloists are former or current members of New College Choir. 
It also presents a new level of authenticity, not only with period instruments but also with boys' voices as Bach would have used at St Thomas's Church in Leipzig.
 

an outstanding period performance which can stand comparison with any in the catalogue...The choir itself is fresh and bright, singing incisively, with the crowd choruses vividly adding to the drama...Gilchrist is a superb Evangelist, fluent and expressive, and the main quartet of soloists makes a sensitive team.

, 2010

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5-CD Box Set

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3-CD box set

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• Label: Warner Classics International
• Copyright: ℗ 1996 Erato Disques S.A. © 1999 Erato Disques, Paris, France
• Total Length: 2:18:33

1997 Gramophone Award - Best Selling Disc

"This is one of the most sublime choral records I have ever heard."
Organists' Review

"The standard of singing is quite superb, and the unique track listing gives this special album the broadest appeal."
The Gramophone

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The Flemish composer Philippe de Monte was one of the most well-travelled composers of the Renaissance. Born in Mechelen, he served the Pinelli family in Naples before travelling to the court of Queen Mary in the retinue of her husband, King Philip V of Spain. He was subsequently appointed Kapellmeister to the Imperial Hapsburg Court and served Maximillian II in Vienna and Rudolph II in Prague. He contributed to most of the important vocal genres, including mass, motet, madrigal and chanson. This collection offers a perspective on de Monte at the height of his technical powers, showing his superb handling of vocal disposition, subtle word-painting and his flair for sophisticated canonic writing.

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Eustache du Caurroy is one of the unacknowledged masters of French Renaissaice polyphony whose works are rarely performed, due in part to the general lack of accessible or reliable editions. The majority of his compositions were for liturgical use - probably at the French Royal Court during the reigns of the successive monarchs Charles IX, Henri III and Henri IV. The motets recorded here illustrate two contrasting styles of vocal writing: imitative polyphony and 'musique mesurée', the former equating to the familiar, pan-European idiom of Palestrina and his later Renaissance contemporaries, the latter outlining protracted chord-against chord movement reflecting the natural stress-patterns of the words. The Missa pro Defunctis, the major work on this disc, was first performed at the funeral of Henri IV and remained for many years the official requiem sung at funerals of French monarchs.

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"The emotional content is immediate, artful but not artificial, as Higginbottom shapes lines in huge uplifting arcs of sound." - BBC Music Magazine

This recording is the first in a series presenting a European panorama of Renaissance sacred polyphony. Each of the five CDs in the series focuses on a particular school or composer, from whose output the familiar is placed alongside the relatively unknown. Together the recordings document a period of unsurpassed richness and accomplishment in the field of sacred music.

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The publication of the 'Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur' in 1575 is regarded today as a landmark in the history of English music printing. The most ambitious music to be published by Tallis, and the first by his pupil Byrd, the Cantiones are scored for five or six (or more) voices, and they embrace a wide range of styles and techniques. The two composers each contributed seventeen items to the volume. This recording includes ten of the seventeen by Byrd (the three parts of Tribue Domine are listed separately in the index of the Cantiones, and so that one motet accounts for three items). On this recording, the vocal music is interspersed with three of Byrd's keyboard pieces.

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Timothy Morris, Andrew Smith organ
Frances Kelly harp
Directed by Edward Higginbottom

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