John Rutter John Milford Rutter CBE (born 24 September 1945) cron, an international professional music fraternity in is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and 1985.[5][6] record producer, mainly of choral music. Rutter is also a Vice President of the Joyful Company of Singers.
1
Biography
2 Compositions
Born in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutter grew up living over the Globe pub on London’s Marylebone Road.[2] He was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener,[3] before reading music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the choir. He served as director of music at Clare College from 1975 to 1979 and led the choir to international prominence.
Rutter’s compositions are chiefly choral, and include Christmas carols, anthems and extended works such as a Gloria, the Requiem and the Magnificat. The world premiere of Rutter’s Requiem (1985), and of his authoritative edition of Fauré's Requiem, took place with the Fox Valley Festival Chorus, in Illinois. In 2002, his setting of Psalm 150, commissioned for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, was performed at the Jubilee thanksgiving service in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Similarly, he was commissioned to write a new anthem, “This is the day”, for the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011, performed at Westminster Abbey during the service.[7]
In 1974, Rutter visited the United States at the invitation of choral musician Melvin (Mel) Olson and conducted the premiere of his cantata “Gloria” in Omaha, Nebraska, in the Witherspoon Hall of Joslyn Art Museum. The composition, commissioned by Olson’s Voices of Mel Olson chorale, has become a much-performed favourite over the years.
He has also written an opera for young people called Bang!
In 1981, Rutter founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts and with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral repertoire (including his own works), particularly under his own label Collegium Records. He resides at Duxford in Cambridgeshire and frequently conducts many choirs and orchestras around the world.
Rutter’s work is published principally by Oxford University Press in England and by Hinshaw Music in the US. It has been recorded by many choirs, but he conducts his own recordings principally on his Collegium label.
In 1980, he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians. In 1996, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. In 2008, he was made an honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple while playing a significant role in the 2008 Temple Festival.
3 Influences
Rutter’s music is eclectic, showing the influences of the French and English choral traditions of the early 20th century as well as of light music and American classic songwriting. Almost every choral anthem and hymn that he writes has a subsequent orchestral accompaniment in addition to the standard piano/organ accompaniment, From 1985 to 1992, Rutter suffered severely from using various different instrumentations such as strings myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, or chronic fatigue syn- only, strings and woodwinds or full orchestra with brass drome), which restricted his output; after 1985 he and percussion. stopped writing music on commission, as he was unable Despite composing and conducting much religious music, to guarantee meeting deadlines.[4] Rutter told the US television programme 60 Minutes in Rutter also works as an arranger and editor. As a young 2003 that he was not a particularly religious man yet still man he collaborated with Sir David Willcocks on the ex- deeply spiritual and inspired by the spirituality of sacred traordinarily successful Carols for Choirs anthology se- verses and prayers.[8] The main topics considered in the ries. 60 Minutes programme, which was broadcast a week beHe was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omi- fore Christmas 2003, were Rutter’s popularity with choral 1
2
5 LIST OF COMPOSITIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS
groups in the United States, Britain and other parts of the 5.2 Carols world and his composition Mass of the Children, written • "All Things Bright and Beautiful" after the sudden death of his son Christopher while a student at Clare College, Cambridge, where Rutter himself • "Angels’ Carol" (Original composition) had studied. • "Angel Tidings" (Arrangement) In a 2009 interview Rutter discussed his understanding of 'genius’ and its unique ability to transform lives – whether • "Banquet Fugue" that genius is communicated in the form of music or other media. He likened the purity of music to that of math• "Born on Earth" (Arrangement) ematics and connected the two with a reference to the • "Candlelight Carol" (Original composition) discovery made by the early Greeks that frequencies of harmonic pitches are related by whole-number ratios. • "Carol of the Children" (Original composition) • "Carol of the Magi" (Original composition)
4
Reception
Rutter’s music is very popular, particularly in the USA (NBC’s Today Show called him “the world’s greatest living composer and conductor of choral music”). In the UK it receives a more mixed reception: most hold him in high regard, as illustrated by the following quotation from a review in the London Evening Standard (25/09/2005): “For the infectiousness of his melodic invention and consummate craftsmanship, Rutter has few peers,” while one conservative British composer, David Arditti, didn't regard him as a sufficiently “serious” composer, saying that “Rutter ... is ... hard to take seriously, because of the way in which his sheer technical facility or versatility leads to a superficial, unstable crossover style which is neither quite classical nor pop, and which tends towards mawkish sentimentality in his sugarily-harmonised and orchestrated melodies.”[9] The Guardian remarked that “it is as a writer of carols that he has really made his mark ... His largerscale works – particularly the Gloria (1974), Requiem (1985) and Magnificat (1990) – are also well established in the choral repertoire.”[10] David Willcocks considered Rutter “the most gifted composer of his generation.”[11]
• "Cantique de Noël" (Arrangement) • "Christmas Lullaby" • "Christmas Night" (Arrangement, the title song on the Cambridge Singers’s first album) • "Deck the Hall" (Arrangement) • “The Donkey Carol” (not to be confused with the song “The Friendly Beasts” arranged by John Davis that also goes by the nickname Donkey Carol) • "Dormi Jesu" • "For the Beauty of the Earth" • "I Wonder as I Wander" (Arrangement) • "Jesus Child" • "Joy to the World" (Arrangement in the style of Handel) • "Love Came Down at Christmas" • "Look At The World" • "Mary’s Lullaby"
5
List of compositions and arrangements
5.1
Extended compositions
• "Nativity Carol" (1st line: “Born in a Stable so Bare”) (Original composition) • "Personent Hodie" (Arranged in the Medieval style) • "Rocking" (Arrangement and translation of Czech carol called “Hajej, nynej, Ježíšku”)
• Gloria (1974)
• "Rejoice and Be Merry"
• Requiem (1985)
• "Shepherd’s Pipe Carol"
• Magnificat (1990) • Mass of the Children (2003)
• "Silent Night" (Arrangement in the style of Brahms) • "Star Carol" • "There is a Flower" (Original composition)
• Suite Antique
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (Arrangement)
• Te Deum
• "The Very Best Time of Year"
5.3
Choral works
3
• "Up Good Christen Folk"
• Gaelic Blessing
• "We Will"
• Here We Come a-wassailing from Twelve Christmas Carols, Set 1
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (Arrangement) • "Wexford Carol" (Arrangement) • "What Sweeter Music" • "Wild Wood Carol"
5.3
Choral works
• The Holly and the Ivy for SATB and piano or orchestra • Gloria for mixed voices with brass, percussion and organ or orchestra. • I Saw Three Ships from Carols for Choirs 3 for SATB and piano or orchestra
• A Gaelic Blessing for soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices (“SATB”) and organ or guitar, commissioned in 1978 by the Chancel Choir of the First United Methodist Church, Omaha, Nebraska, in honor of minister of music Mel Olson.
• "I will sing with the spirit" for SATB and organ, piano or orchestra
• Birthday Madrigals for SATB, commissioned in 1995 by Brian Kay and the Cheltenham Bach Choir to celebrate the 75th birthday of George Shearing
• Joy to the world! for SATB and keyboard or orchestra (2 trumpets, timpani and strings)
• Carols for Choirs 2 ed. Willcocks and Rutter
• King Jesus hath a garden from Carols for Choirs 3 for SATB and piano or flute, harp and strings
• Carols for Choirs 3 ed. Willcocks and Rutter • Carols for Choirs 4 ed. Willcocks and Rutter • Dancing Day for SSA with harp or piano
• Jesus Child for SATB and piano or orchestra • Jesus Child for unison and piano
• “Look At The World” for SATB and Orchestra • "The Lord bless you and keep you"
• Eight Childhood Lyrics
• Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace for SATB or TTBB with organ or harp and strings
• Eight Christmas Carols, Set 1 for mixed voices and piano
• Love came down at Christmas for SATB and keyboard or strings
• Eight Christmas Carols, Set 2 for mixed voices and piano
• Mary’s Lullaby for SATB and piano or orchestra
• 100 Carols for Choirs ed. Willcocks and Rutter • Twelve Christmas Carols, Set 1 for mixed voices and small orchestra or piano • Twelve Christmas Carols, Set 2 for mixed voices and small orchestra or piano • Child in a manger from Carols for Choirs 3 for SATB and keyboard or orchestra
• Nativity Carol for SATB and keyboard or strings • O come, O come, Emmanuel from Twelve Christmas Carols, Set 1 for SATB and keyboard or orchestra • O Lord, thou hast searched me out for SATB chorus, organ and solo cor anglais (or clarinet, or viola) • "Psalmfest" • Quem pastores laudavere for SATB unaccompanied
• Christmas Night for SATB and keyboard or strings
• Quittez, pasteurs for SATB unaccompanied
• Come Down, O Love Divine for double mixed choir and organ
• Shepherd’s Pipe Carol for SATB and piano or orchestra or for SSAA and piano or orchestra
• Cradle Song from Carols for Choirs 3 for SATB unaccompanied • Donkey Carol for SATB and piano or orchestra
• Sing we to this merry company for SATB and orchestra or organ
• Flemish Carol from Carols for Choirs 3 for SATB and piano or orchestra
• Star Carol for SATB and piano or orchestra or brass with optional children’s voices or for unison and piano
• For the Beauty of the Earth for SATB, SA, or TTBB, and piano
• There is a flower (original composition) for SATB unaccompanied
4
8
EXTERNAL LINKS
• Three Carols from Carols for Choirs 4 for SS and 7.2 Notations SSA unaccompanied • Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of • Tomorrow shall be my dancing day from the cycle Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4 of carols, Dancing Day for SSA and harp or piano • "The Twelve Days of Christmas" from Carols for Choirs 2 for SATB and piano or orchestra • Winchester Te Deum For SATB and Piano or Organ • Wexford Carol for SATB unaccompanied • What sweeter music for SATB and organ or strings
5.4
Anthems and other compositions
Most of these works are original compositions, including new musical settings of standard texts, whilst others are arrangements of traditional hymns.
6
Music with narration • Wind in the Willows • Brother Heinrich’s Christmas • The Reluctant Dragon
7 7.1
References Footnotes
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4727014/ The-carol-singers-shining-star.html [2] Macfarlane, Alan. “Interview with John Rutter”. Retrieved 18 December 2013. [3] “Famous OCs” (PDF). Highgate: The Cholmeleian Society. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2012. [4] “BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week, John Rutter”. YouTube. Retrieved 28 September 2014. [5] “Welcome To Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity”. Delta Omicron. Retrieved 2011-07-22. [6] “News”. Delta Omicron. 29 March 2008. Retrieved 2011-07-22. [7] “Order of Service”. Telegraph.co.uk. 28 April 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2014. [8] Rebecca Leung (11 February 2009). “Spreading Good Cheer”. CBS News. Retrieved 2011-07-22. [9] “Expansive Poetry Online”. Expansivepoetryonline.com. Retrieved 28 September 2014. [10] "The Guardian, 22 December 2000”. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 28 September 2014. [11] “John Rutter: a Life”. Classic FM. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
8 External links • Rutter at the Oxford University Press website • Collegium Records • John Rutter interviewed by Alan Macfarlane, 28 January 2009 (film) • John Rutter interviewed by C Music TV, October 2010 on YouTube • John Rutter interviewed by C Music TV, October 2010 from C Music TV • This is the Day, performed at the royal wedding, 2011 • Joyful Company of Singers
5
9
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
9.1
Text
• John Rutter Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%20Rutter?oldid=639710340 Contributors: Deb, Camembert, KF, Edward, GABaker, Charles Matthews, Hyacinth, Ed g2s, Mackensen, Wilus, Romanm, Academic Challenger, Mervyn, JackofOz, Alan Liefting, Stefanfraczek, Bfinn, Robodoc.at, Fishal, Utcursch, Andycjp, Necrothesp, Kareeser, D6, CALR, Rich Farmbrough, Autiger, Bender235, Tompw, Walden, Ogg, Musiphil, Craigy144, Dave.Dunford, Pcpcpc, Stemonitis, Jftsang, SCEhardt, Marudubshinki, BD2412, Koavf, RobertG, JdforresterBot, DrG, DTOx, Bgwhite, Dehenderson, Lincolnite, Sacre, CaesarGJ, JRG, Jpbowen, Nikkimaria, Mhkay, Kimdino, DonJay, SmackBot, CyclePat, KocjoBot, Zyxw, Armeria, Kleinzach, FordPrefect42, Oatmeal batman, Kittybrewster, Enzomartinelli, Rob, Derek R Bullamore, HDow, Charivari, TenPoundHammer, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, JzG, Seadog365, Yip1982, Dl2000, DChapii, TerryE, AlbertSM, Cydebot, Kiran, PamD, Thijs!bot, CSvBibra, JustAGal, Smithian, Shirt58, Belcantobach, Knowing Is Half The Battle, Husond, Korfursten, Xn4, Jerome Kohl, Hefeltsmart, Hsmfreak, Nandt1, Bsroiaadn, Hqb, Jordi22, Flyingostrich, Liberalartist, Rknasc, Badvibes101, Mr Harpist, Saorgans, Karaboom, Hxhbot, Playa2, Szater, JBanks94, Werldwayd, Benny the wayfarer, Emojeffrey, ClueBot, Lawrence18uk, Johntlewis, Boing! said Zebedee, Hrdinský, Mlaffs, Unclemikejb, Boleyn, XLinkBot, Addbot, The C of E, Lightbot, Sudika, Yobot, A.k.a., Vltava 68, Newimpartial, Vanderflash, Angry bee, Jfvoll, Tishtosh20, Tuesdaily, CHRISTismyROCK83, The Grand Rans, GrouchoBot, Omnipaedista, Irismac, Jfred60606, Suzy47, Leestes, Jschnur, Mardaloop, Gerda Arendt, Kgrad, Diannaa, Krazykatykay, RjwilmsiBot, EmausBot, GoingBatty, Wikipelli, Danmuz, 28bot, ClueBot NG, Pmcdf, Srobinson2610, Helpful Pixie Bot, JRKStar, Lvttc, Rays fan2014, Jc734, Pgtipsytoes, VIAFbot, KPrinsPaul, Exhaustiveflamingo and Anonymous: 138
9.2
Images
9.3
Content license
• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
