Customer Reviews

Choral Works

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I sent my church's organ player on a wild goose-chase searching for the theme to the Vicar of Dibley (Psalm 23). I'm embarrassed and delighted to admit that the composer is NOT some eighteenth-century chormaster but the UK's very own and very much alive Harold Goodall! A more lilting and elegiac tune would be hard to find. His melodies lend themselves perfectly to choral arrangement.

Perhaps the finest British Composer writing for a variety of media today. I would encourage folks to LOVE this CD. It is accessible to almost all, from Snotty Anglicans(Of which I am a classic case) to low church Protestants. I think that the essence of each of these pieces is universal. As to the comment about the varying volumes.....get real! Dynamic Contrast is a PLUS!

If you wish to acquire the sheet music to these pieces you will have difficulty in finding a US distributor. American Music Company in Missouri(Liberty,MO) was able to get me the pieces for my choir in a very timely fashion.

Howard Good all is a talented English composer who has written themes for BBC television programs such as the Vicar of Dibley (Psalm 23) and Mr. Bean (Ecce Homo), both of which are included in this CD. The CD includes other gems, as well, including a wonderful setting of the Mass, as well as the beautiful "Marlborough Canticles." This music deserves to become more widely known and performed in the US. As for the choral sound, it is to the high standard that one would expect from a major Cathedral choir of men and boys. I highly recommend this CD!

This is excellent music for Anglican liturgy with an extra measure of joyful rhythm and delicious harmony. It's holy music that smiles. A good contemporary addition to any library of cathedral music. And the liner notes helped me finally figure out the funny lyrics to the theme from Mr. Bean.

I was surprised to find this CD charming. Psalm 23 caught my attention at first, probing me to listen further. If you like the music of John Rutter, try to get your hands on this CD. It will be well worth it. Mr Bean even features on the disc. The sound is fresh and crisp. The music is clever and very interesting. Try it out.

Great CD. Howard Goodall is very talented and varied in his work. Each piece is different enough to keep interest, the harmonies and melodies are simple, yet moving.

The only downside to purchasing this MP3 album is there are no liner notes. I would like to get his take on the compositions.

This truly lovely music is harmed by recording production values. The dynamic range goes from the inaudible to the earsplitting so that one is constantly reeling from the assault to ears. The composer actually comments gleefully in the accompanying notes on the choir's joy at singing at full (plus) volume. The music is wonderful, the sound is not. I would welcome another shot at this music featuring more restraint from the sound engineers, more discipline applied to an excellent, but overly eager, composer.

I was first made aware of this rendition of the XXIIIrd psalm by warching the BBCs comedy "The Vicar of Dibley". This showed me once again, that beauty and pleasure can be found anywhere.

This is a superb CD. I understand one reviewers comments about the recorded levels, but this is unavoidable, and not that unusual for this genre of Choral Music. Also, as the Mass is written for acapella voices, while "In Memoriam Anne Frank" for example, includes chamber orchestra as well, and this dramatically increases the dynamic range.

I found the music VERY accessible, but thoroughly contemporary in the best sense of the word. If you love contemporary choral Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, you will be drawn to this recording, AND It compares even more favourably with the best of John Rutter's contemporary Choral works. (I do not mean it lessens John Rutter, by the way, who some judge harshly...Those who feel Rutter writes "simple" or less dramatic or "challenging" pieces need to hear Rutter's "Hymn to the Creator of Light", which is stunning)

While Goodall's setting of Psalm 23 (Theme from "The Vicar of Dibley" TV series) and Ecce Homo (Theme from "Mr. Bean" TV series) are wonderful, and familiar to some, I was also deeply moved & surprised by the originality of the previously mentioned "In Memoriam Anne Frank, for chorus, children's chorus, strings & organ". Quite a loving, humanitarian tribute to a true "Saint" of the 20th Century. Another pleasant surprise are the "Marlborough Canticles" for chorus & organ. These settings of the Magnificat & Ninc Dimittis, are as intriguing as those by Geoffrey Burgon. Burgon's "Nunc Dimittis" may be familiar to fans of the BBC Television's production of John Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".

Overall, get this disc if you can find a copy. Sadly, it is now out-of-print & shamefully expensive Used. However, I downloaded gorgeous MP3s directly from Amazon & was very glad to hear this unique Choral music for the first time.

The music is wonderful, relaxing and very spiritual. The item is very good but the service was very bad. I received it a little bit over a month since the say that I ordered it