David Fisher - The Tiffany Anthem

The Tiffany Anthem

Instrumentation

SSA + Organ

Score, download - 0.12MB

David Fisher - The Tiffany Anthem

Other Information

THE TIFFANY ANTHEM was commissioned by Jonathan Gregory and the Leicester Old Choristers´  Association with help of a grant from the Arts Council England and first performed in Leicester Cathedral on Saturday 18th September 2004 by the Cathedral Girls Choirs of Coventry, Derby & Leicester on the occasion of the 74th Festival of The Federation of Cathedral Old Choristers Associations. The anthem was performed at St Paul´s Cathedral, London, in May 2007 [Dr Tom Corfield, organ] and was also performed to the Archbishop of Canterbury in June 2009 with Roger Marvin playing the organ at St. Aidan´s Church, Leicester. There have been several other performances in Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, at Hove Parish Church as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival and at Leicester Cathedral by Kingfisher Chorale.

 

The anthem is dedicated to:

 

"The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art and in memory of Jeannette Morse McKean and Hugh F. McKean".

 

The McKeans were responsible for rescuing the ruined Tiffany Chapel from Laurelton Hall [Louis Comfort Tiffany´s fire-damaged home], transporting it to Winter Park, and overseeing it restoration although they never saw it completed and installed in the magnificent Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art.

 

 

On the 10th anniversary of the piece, The Tiffany Anthem was chosen to be the anthem for the festival of girls´ choirs from four cathedrals [Derby, Coventry, Leicester and Southwell] at Derby Cathedral on 20th September 2014. Conducted by Dr Chris Ouvry-Johns from Leicester and featuring Dr Tom Corfield on the organ. The following Thursday [25th September] it was performed at Coventry Cathedral with Kerry Beaumont on the organ and then the girls from Leicester Cathedral performed it in their evensong on 29th September with Dr Ouvry-Johns directing and Simon Headley at the Harrison and Harrison organ for which the piece was written.

 

 

 

David Fisher writes: I set the words which can be found on thechapel designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany for the 1893 World´s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It is an amazing interior which has all the words set in the mosaics around the chapel. The inspiration for me, when I knew I was writing for young voices, was the line on one of the steps of the chapel: "I will go to the altar of God, to God who gave joy to my youth". I set the anthem macaronically [English and Latin texts alternating and overlapping] with a stirring tune and all the harmonies are designed to be melodies in their own right for ease of singing. The piece is in ternary form with an introduction and coda and the accompaniment is written to test the organ in terms of virtuosity and its timbres. The huge volume of the opening with four notes being played at once on the pedals is matched by the sheer volume of ´organo pleno´ at the end in which the tuba [a noted stop of the Leicester organ] comes to the fore.

 

Canon Peter Gould [Master of the Music], Dr. Tom Corfield [Organist] and the Girl Choristers of Derby Cathedral Choir released the stunning world première recording of THE TIFFANY ANTHEM on Regent Records [REGCD333] in 2009:

 

 

 

Duration: 6:00

 

There follows an introductory video of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art covers the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany including The Tiffany Chapel: 

 

If you are interested in finding out even more about Louis Comfort Tiffany and The Tiffany Chapel then you might also find this short video interesting: 

PHOTOGRAPHS:

 

Above left:

The Tiffany Chapel at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, 445 North Park Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32789-3212, United States.

Below left:

[1] the four cathedral girls´ choirs of Derby, Coventry, Leicester and Southwell rehearsing at Derby Cathedral;

[2] is the composer [C] with Canon Peter Gould [R] and Dr. Tom Corfield [L] with the girls from Derby Cathedral some of whom recorded the piece in 2009 and

[3] is Dr. Chris Ouvry-Johns from Leicester conducting the anthem in rehearsal.

Below right:

[1] Coventry Cathedral Girls´ Choir conducted by Paul Leddington-Wright;

[2a & 2b] the Coventry girls´ choir with the composer and their Director of Music, Kerry Beaumont and

[3] Simon Headley at the console of Leicester´s Harrison and Harrison organ for which the piece was initially composed.

David Fisher - The Tiffany Anthem

David Fisher - The Tiffany Anthem