Burgon: Nunc dimittis, Short Mass & Other Choral Music

Featuring

Catherine Hart
Alan Thomas
David Bednall
Frances Henderson
Léonie Maxwell
Kevin Beckett

Iain MacLeod-Jones
Christopher Sheldrake
Matthew Owens
Richard Rowntree
Simon Clulow
Wells Cathedral Choir
Geoffrey Burgon

Did you know?

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Composition History

Geoffrey Burgon's first choral piece, Three Elegies, was composed in 1964 at the suggestion of his teacher Peter Wishart and was taken up by the BBC Chorus.

Composer Biography

Geoffrey Burgon initially intended to be a jazz trumpeter, but the Guildhall School's audition panel was more interested in his compositions.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded in Wells Cathedral, Somerset, by the Wells Cathedral Choir, with Matthew Owens conducting.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Geoffrey Burgon, the composer, aimed to create accessible music, stating it was "the way that the music wanted to come out," rather than a conscious decision.

Cultural Impact

Geoffrey Burgon's Nunc dimittis, conceived for the BBC's dramatization of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, briefly entered the UK pop chart's Top 10 in 1979.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Geoffrey Burgon found inspiration in the ecstatic mystical writings of St John of the Cross, a 16th-century Castilian friar, which he discovered through Roy Campbell's translation.