Eccles: Court Odes
Series: Baroque Era Publisher: A-R Editions
This edition is part of the collection Eccles: Works
Court Odes
Edited by Rebecca Herissone
B241 Eccles: Court Odes
978-1-9872-0896-2
Full Score (2024)
9x12, xxxi + 144 pp.
$295.00
In stock
SKU
B241
John Eccles is today mainly remembered for his theater works, but, as Master of the King’s/Queen’s Music, he was also the principal composer of ceremonial courts odes for William III and Anne, producing some twenty New Year odes and fourteen birthday odes during his thirty-five years in the post—twice as many as Henry Purcell’s output in the same genre. The fact that his odes are so little known today is partly due to how few survive: music is extant for only five odes, three of them incomplete. This volume presents the first complete modern edition of Eccles’s surviving court odes. There is much superb music awaiting discovery here: by the time he wrote his first odes, Eccles was already a seasoned theater composer, and his odes can be equally dramatic and virtuosic; at the same time, they demonstrate confident control both of the choral and orchestral forces at his disposal, and of the works’ large-scale architecture.
Wake, Britain, Wake (New Year Ode, 1702), Nahum Tate
Solo: Wake, Britain, wake
Solo: Behold the dragon, Gallic pow’r
Solo: Of glorious liberty possessed
Hark, How the Muses Call Aloud (New Year Ode, 1703), Nahum Tate
Duet: Hark, how the Muses call aloud
Solo: They call and bid the spring appear
Solo: Like you (the goddess thus replies)
Solo: Sound thy loudest trumpet, Fame
Solo: War’s angry voice be heard no more
Solo: Let thus thy prosp’rous minutes glide
Inspire Us, Genius of the Day (Birthday Ode, 1703), Peter Anthony Motteux
1. Overture
2. Trio: Inspire us, genius of the day
3. Chorus: Join all ye Muses, sing
4. Solo: Blest day, arise in state
5. Duet: From this happy day
6. Chorus: By seasons and by fleeting hours
7. Solo: No, Albion, thou can’st ne’er repay
8. Solo: Firm as a rock above the ocean
9. Chorus: Great Queen, go on
New Year Ode, 1704, ?Nahum Tate
Solo: While Anna with victorious arms
Awake, Awake, Harmonious Pow’rs (Birthday Ode, 1704), ?Nahum Tate
1. Symphony
2. Solo: Awake, awake, harmonious pow’rs
3. Chorus: Like her sovereign self
4. Trio: Chide the drowsy spring
5. Solo: No, let the loit’ring goddess sleep
6. Dialogue: Call the Graces’ brighter pow’rs
7. Chorus: From the cottage and cell
8. Solo: ’Tis thus our Anna
9. Solo: Her pow’rful foes she thus alarms
10. Chorus: Europe, cast thy cares away