Edmund Jolliffe: Sweet Stay Awhile: Chœur Mixte A Cappella

Although the English madrigal has been fairly described by John Rutter as a completed historical form, its younger sibling the partsong still flourishes in the hands of sympathetic composers like Edmund Jolliffe, who canclothe secular texts with music a cappella that fits their sentiments like a glove. In fact John Donne's verse, though of a later period, receives a setting that might even be described as madrigalean in its sensitiveresponse to verbal rhythm and feeling. And for anyone who treasures the heritage of music for chorus by English composers such as Walton and Britten, and indeed Rutter himself, Jolliffe's command of a tonal idiom thatisrich in sensuous detail yet also broadly appealing is an additional pleasure.