Draw on, sweet night (Birthday Madrigals) - John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers

'Draw on, sweet night' - from Birthday Madrigals
From the album ‘Feel the Spirit’
Composer John Rutter
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
Double Bass Malcolm Creese
Piano Wayne Marshall
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LYRICS:
Draw on, sweet Night, best friend unto those cares
That do arise from painful melancholy.
My life so ill through want of comfort fares,
That unto thee I consecrate it wholly.
Sweet Night, draw on!
My griefs when they be told
To shades and darkness,
Find some ease from paining.
And while thou all in silence dost enfold,
I then shall have best time for my complaining.
(?John Wilbye, 1609)
Birthday Madrigals 2 - Draw on, sweet night
'Birthday Madrigals' is a musical tribute, by John Rutter, written in 1995 to celebrate the 75th birthday of George Shearing. The five pieces can only be called madrigals in that their texts come from the era of the Elizabethan madrigal; their musical style is only loosely madrigalian, showing a mixture of light jazz influence in nos. 1, 3, and 5, and a flavour of the English part-song tradition in nos. 2 and 4
Feel the Spirit
Strong, stirring spirituals and tuneful, jazz-flavoured settings of Shakespeare’s timeless lyrics are the mouth-watering ingredients of the Cambridge Singers’ album Feel the Spirit. John Rutter has written vivid arrangements of seven well-loved American spirituals for choir, with soloist Melanie Marshall and the BBC Concert Orchestra joining together with the Cambridge Singers for this world première recording.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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