VOCES8: 'Faire is the Heaven' by William Harris - VOCES8, Apollo5, directed by Barnaby Smith

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Description

VOCES8 and Apollo5 are joined by special guests to sing William Harris' 'Faire is the Heaven' in Keble College Chapel, Oxford. The performance is directed by Barnaby Smith and forms part of the album 'Renewal?' by Paul Smith.

‘Renewal?’ is a concept album, which combines new commissions by Paul Smith and Donna McKevitt with three musical pillars from the 20th Century, by William Walton, John Cage and William Henry Harris.

Multifaceted texts by Lal Ded, Edmund Spenser, W.H. Auden, Lord Byron, Pablo Neruda, Maya Angelou and Edna St Vincent Millay offer space to consider our world, past and present, and meditate on a response to build a better future.

Find out more at www.voces8.foundation

Filmed at Keble College, Oxford, July, 2021 as part of LIVE From London, Summer 2021
Director: Barnaby Smith
Singers: VOCES8, Apollo5 and guests
Organ: Peter Holder

Audio Producer: Adrian Peacock
Engineer: Dave Hinitt
VOCES8 Studios team: Tim Vaughan and Aytan Buyukoglu
Vido and Audio Editing: Barnaby Smith
Executive Producer: Paul Smith

Text:
Faire is the Heaven – by Edmund Spenser

Faire is the heav'n, where happy souls have place,
In full enjoyment of felicitie,
Whence they doe 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 fierie light;
Yer fairer than they both, and much more bright,
Be th' Angels and Archangels which attend
On God's owne person, without rest or end.

These then is 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 mortall tongue hope to expresse
The image of such endlesse perfectnesse?