Jane Joseph
HYMN FOR WHITSUNTIDE for SATB
Bardic Edition BDE728
Poem "Whit Sunday" by Joseph Beaumont (1616-1699) set to music by Jane Josephs for mixed voice choir (SATB) a cappella, edited by Alan Gibbs.
The first Whitsun Festival directed by Gustav Holst at Thaxted parish church took place in 1916, with music students from Morley College and pupils from St. Paul's Girls’ School taking part. It was so successful that it initiated an almost unbroken series for many years, although after the War it moved to churches in London and elsewhere. Beginning with Bach, Purcell, Palestrina and similar composers, Holst soon began to add his own works and those of his students. Jane Joseph (1894-1929) was honoured in this way in 1918, and her Hymn for Whitsuntide, easy and effective in neo-modal idiom was evidently tried out in 1922, and became a firm favourite from 1924, the year of its publication. After her untimely death, it was sung at the Kensington Competitive Musical Festival under Vaughan Williams’s direction, the audience standing in tribute. Holst called it "a flawless little motet" and its simple and unaffected beauty should be matched by similar qualities in performance.
The first Whitsun Festival directed by Gustav Holst at Thaxted parish church took place in 1916, with music students from Morley College and pupils from St. Paul's Girls’ School taking part. It was so successful that it initiated an almost unbroken series for many years, although after the War it moved to churches in London and elsewhere. Beginning with Bach, Purcell, Palestrina and similar composers, Holst soon began to add his own works and those of his students. Jane Joseph (1894-1929) was honoured in this way in 1918, and her Hymn for Whitsuntide, easy and effective in neo-modal idiom was evidently tried out in 1922, and became a firm favourite from 1924, the year of its publication. After her untimely death, it was sung at the Kensington Competitive Musical Festival under Vaughan Williams’s direction, the audience standing in tribute. Holst called it "a flawless little motet" and its simple and unaffected beauty should be matched by similar qualities in performance.
