Song for Athene

Infobox Song
Name = Song for Athene
Artist = John Tavener
Published = 1997
Genre = Classical music
Length = 4 min.
Composer = John Tavener
Label = Chester Music

"Song for Athene" (also known as "Alleluia. May Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest") (audio|John Tavener Song for Athene.ogg|listen to a sample) is a musical composition by British composer John Tavener which is intended to be sung a cappella by a four-part (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) choir. It is Tavener's best known work, [cite news|last=Farndale|first=Nigel|title=A visionary visited by angels|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/07/29/bmtav29.xml|publisher="The Daily Telegraph"|date=2004-07-29] having been performed by the Westminster Abbey Choir conducted by Martin Nearycite web|title=John Tavener: Song For Athene (Alleluia. May Flights Of Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest)|url=http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/010798/details.html|publisher=Musicroom|accessdate=2008-03-15] at the funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 6 September 1997 as her cortège departed from Westminster Abbey. [cite web|title=Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: Order of service at Westminster Abbey, Saturday, 6 September 1997, 11.00 a.m.|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page258.asp|publisher=British Monarchy|date=1997-09-06|accessdate=2008-03-16|page=3]

Commissioned by the BBC, the piece was written in April 1993 by Tavener as a tribute to Athene Hariades, a young half-Greek actress who was a family friend killed in a cycling accident. Tavener said of Hariades: "Her beauty, both outward and inner, was reflected in her love of acting, poetry, music and of the Orthodox Church."Page 7 of "Tavener's The Beautiful Names", the programme of a concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir at the Birmingham Town Hall on 15 March 2008.] He had heard her reading Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey, and after her funeral, developed the idea of composing a song which combined words from the Orthodox funeral service and Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The work was published by Chester Music in 1997. [cite book|last=Tavener|first=John|authorlink=John Tavener|title=Song for Athene: (Alleluia, may Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest): For Unaccompanied Choir, SATB music score; cat. no. CH60991|location=London|publisher=Chester Music|year=1997|isbn=0711943893]

Music and lyrics

"Song for Athene", which has a performance time of about four minutes, is an elegy consisting of the Hebrew word "alleluia" ("let us praise the LORD") sung monophonically six times as an introduction to texts excerpted and modified from the funeral service of the Eastern Orthodox Church and from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (probably 1599–1601). The music reaches a climax after the sixth intonation of "alleluia" with the lines "Weeping at the grave creates the song: Alleluia. Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you." "Alleluia" is then sung a seventh time as a coda. Following the example of traditional Byzantine music, a continuous "ison" [cite web|title=Psaltic chant|url=http://www.monastere-cantauque.com/english/psaltic-chant.html|publisher=Monastère orthodoxe de Cantauque (Orthodox Monastery of the Theotokos and Saint Martin)|accessdate=2008-03-17] or drone underlies the work.

ignificant recordings

The song has appeared on, among others, a number of recordings of Tavener's work by various choirs, including "Ikons" (Cala, 1994) by the BBC Singers, "Tavener: Innocence" (Classics, 1995) by the Westminster Abbey Choir, "John Tavener: Byzantia" (Classical, 1999) by the Winchester Cathedral Choir, "John Tavener: Song for Athene, Svyati and Other Choral Works" (Naxos Records, 2000) by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, and "The John Tavener Collection" (Universal Classics Group, 2003) by the Choir of the Temple Church and the Holst Singers. The Westminster Abbey Choir's performance of the work at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, appears in a recording of the service released by the BBC as "Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961–1997: The BBC Recording of the Funeral Service" (Uni/London Classics, 1997). [The information was obtained from [http://www.amazon.co.uk Amazon.co.uk] . Retrieved on 21 March 2008.]

Notes

References

*citation|last=Hapgood|first=Isabel Florence (comp.)|authorlink=Isabel Florence Hapgood|chapter=The Order for the Burial of the Dead (Laymen)|url=http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/death/funeral.aspx|title=Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church|edition=Rev.|location=New York, N.Y.|publisher=Association Press|year=1922|Orthodox Christian Information Center|pages=368–393.
*cite book|last=Shakespeare|first=William|authorlink=William Shakespeare|coauthors=Dianne Bean (ed.)|title=Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Etext #1524|edition=Collins ed.|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/2ws2610.txt|publisher=Project Gutenberg|date=November 1998
*"Tavener's The Beautiful Names", the programme of a concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir at the Birmingham Town Hall on 15 March 2008.

Further reading

Musical score

*cite book|last=Tavener|first=John|authorlink=John Tavener|title=Song for Athene: (Alleluia, may Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest): For Unaccompanied Choir, SATB musical score; cat. no. CH60991|location=London|publisher=Chester Music|year=1997|isbn=0711943893

Articles

*cite news|last=Ivry|first=Benjamin|title=The cat decides: The music of John Tavener – religious music composer|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_2_128/ai_71578792/pg_1|publisher="Commonweal" (reproduced on Bnet)|date=2001-01-26
*cite news|last=Higgins|first=Charlotte|title='I had a dream vision'|url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330002474-122406,00.html|publisher="The Guardian"|date=2007-06-11
*cite web|last=McCleery|first=David|title=John Tavener|url=http://www.chesternovello.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2431&State_2905=2&composerId_2905=1567|publisher=ChesterNovello|accessdate=2008-03-15

Audiovisual material

*cite book|title=Tavener – Choral Ikons DVD; cat. no. OA 0854 D|location=Heathfield, East Sussex|publisher=Opus Arte; BBC|year=2002 In a programme called "Manifestations of God" on the DVD, Tavener speaks about his choral music, and the parents of Athene Hariades talk about the inspiration behind "Song for Athene".