Love Divine - A Collection Of Victorian And Edwardian Anthems

Once described as ‘Das Land ohne Musik’, in fact Victorian and Edwardian Britain was the home to countless choral societies and the grand choral occasion.Performances of Messiah at the triennial Crystal Palace events beginning with the Great Exhibition of 1851 involved 3,000 choristers and played to multitudes.It was part of a performing ferment that produced choral masterpieces great and small aimed at and enjoyed by a new musically literate mass society. It was also an age of Christian revival and expansion that demanded new places of worship and new songs of praise to fill them. Love Divine is a collection of twenty anthems and canticles from that period brought together for the first time. The contents reflect the varied musical styles and tastes of the time and range from the work of well-known composers - including Balfour Gardiner, Goss, Mendelssohn, Stainer, Stanford, Sullivan and SS Wesley - to others of undoubted talent but whose names are less familiar today. Anthems for a wide variety of occasions range from easily accessible four-part harmony and organ to sonorously expressive 8 part writing. Conductors and choirs will find Love Divine a rich resource, suitable for use in both services and concerts.