In 1925 composer William Henry Harris (1883-1973) set to music some lines from the poem “An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie,” by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). Scored for unaccompanied double chorus of four voices each (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), Faire is the Heaven is one of the most sublime pieces in the English choral repertoire. I’ve sung it over the years with different choirs, but I wanted to share one performance that will always be special to me.
This year was the thirtieth anniversary of a live concert recorded in May, 1991. Two quartets, Portland’s Cantabile, and Seattle’s Circa 1600, joined forces for the concert — mainly to have a little fun singing pieces one-on-a-part. Nancy Zylstra, the soprano in Circa 1600, who had gigs with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra during the summer, was not available for this concert, so her spot was filled by Portland soprano Maggie Daane.
The eight of us had all sung together in various “gigs,” mostly in Portland with the group Cantores in Ecclesia, and we met in Portland to brainstorm the program – each of us suggesting favorite pieces.
We came up with a program of two halves, sacred and secular, with each half arranged chronologically:
We included some eight-part pieces, like Lotti’s Crucifixus, Casals’s O Vos Omnes, Pearsall’s Lay a Garland, and of course, the Harris. Faire is the heaven is probably at its best, either from an aesthetic sense, or from ease of vocal performance, when sung by at least two singers per part; but we eight were all about having fun, so we couldn’t resist programming the piece. Over the years since, I had never heard another group of eight attempt Faire is the heaven, for whatever reason (at least until this year – see below).
The recording was made at St. Patrick’s Church in Portland, Oregon on May 19, 1991; the concert was repeated in Seattle on September 7, 1991 at Central Lutheran Church (a performance which, alas, was not recorded). Here is the piece, extracted from the original cassette tape of the concert. It’s unedited, so it has all the idiosyncracies of a live performance, including noises both from outside and inside the church. But for the same reasons, it has the spontaneity and excitement that is often missing from a polished recording. See what you think – the text is given below:
Faire is the heaven where happy soules have place
In full enjoyment of felicitie;
Whence they do still behold the glorious face
Of the Divine, Eternall Majestie;
Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins
Which all with golden wings are overdight.
And those eternall burning Seraphins
Which from their faces dart out fiery light;
Yet fairer than they both and much more bright
Be the Angels and Archangels
Which attend on God’s owne person without rest or end.
These then in faire each other farre excelling
As to the Highest they approach more neare,
Yet is that Highest farre beyond all telling
Fairer than all the rest which there appeare
Though all their beauties joynd together were;
How then can mortal tongue hope to expresse
The image of such endlesse perfectnesse?
* * * * * * * *
On March 27, 2021 Seattle’s Byrd Ensemble aired a concert video entitled NEW WORLD POLYPHONY: Treasures from the Cathedral of Mexico City. The concert featured sacred music from Mexico City, as well as Italian Renaissance music that inspired it – but the encore really caught my attention, as it was Faire is the Heaven sung by eight solo voices. But it was the presentation that was really unique about the whole program, as it presented the singers virtually singing side-by-side, even though they had recorded their parts individually.
As Markdavin Obenza, the conductor of the Byrd Ensemble, writes in his blog “UNMASKED: Recording choral performances in COVID,” he tired of productions of virtual singers in little boxes, social distancing, and singing in masks. So he put his talents as recording engineer and videographer to work, recording the vocal parts of eight singers at different times in Seattle’s Trinity Church; then the singers were filmed singing from set positions in the church individually. The separate audio and video takes were then merged to simulate “unmasked” singers standing together on stage. The whole quasi-magical process is described in Markdavin’s blog.
I thought it interesting that it took a pandemic to bring us, thirty years later, another performance of this choral gem one-on-a-part. The technological advances in recording and video technology are incredible in the last thirty years (shall we call the Byrd Ensemble’s performance “Faire is the heaven” – The Next Generation?). But, in spite of differences, one thing remains the same – the absolute joy one feels in singing this great choral work. And those of us who have sung it will carry that memory with us until that day when we, too, will find that place, “In full enjoyment of felicitie.”