John Caldwell
About the composer
John Caldwell was born in Bebington, England, in 1938. He studied Music at Oxford and after a period of teaching at Bristol University he returned to Oxford in 1967. During his studies he composed chamber music and choral music. He published the “Oxford History of English Music”. His opera-oratorio Good Friday was composed for the chapels of three Oxford Colleges. The first performance took place in these chapels and the scenes were connected by outdoor processional music for voices and transportable instruments.The texts are from the Gospel of St.John, as well as from the Catholic liturgy, and other sources. The music is mostly tonal, and contains pieces of plainsong and other musical influences. Interesting is that the texts sung in Latin are sometimes simultanuously spoken in English.
About the Stabat Mater
| Date: | 1997 |
| Performers: | Soloists, mixed choir and orchestra. |
| Length: | 2.26 minutes |
| Particulars: | The Stabat Mater text appears in track 16 "Stabant autem juxta crucem". The narrator tells the story about Jesus recommending his mother to a disciple and telling his mother that he will be her son, as it appears in the St.John Gospel, while the choir sings the first four stanzas of the Stabat Mater poem. |
| Textual variations: | The first four stanzas from the "Vatican"-version are used. |
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Information about the recording
| CD: | Guild GMCD 7178: John Caldwell – Good Friday |
| More info: | Recorded in Exeter College Chapel and St.Silas, Kentish Town in 1999. My friend Ignace Verberk bought this CD for me in Germany in 2003. |
| Orchestra: | Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia |
| Choir: | The Choir of Lincoln College, Oxford |
| Conductor: | Benjamin Nicholas |
| Soloists: | Sophy Harford, soprano |
| Other works: | Good Friday, complete |
| Code: | 2003 (CALD 01) |
