From: EMI CLASSICS
Paul McCartney Release New Classical Work 'Ecce Cor Meum'
Paul McCartney releases his new full-length work of classical music Ecce Cor Meum
through EMI Classics on September 26th, 2006. Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart)
is Paul's fourth classical album since his first released in 1991, The Liverpool Oratorio.
Ecce Cor Meum has been more than eight years in the making and its
origins follow in the historic tradition of composers that have been
commissioned to write music for the world-renowned Magdalen College Oxford.
Paul was specially invited by Anthony Smith (President of Magdalen College
1998 - 2005) to compose something to set the seal on a new concert hall for
the college. His hope was for 'a choral piece, which could be sung by young
people the world over in the same way that Handel's Messiah is.'
Ecce Cor Meum, an Oratorio in four movements, is scored for choir and
orchestra. The text combines both English and to a lesser degree, Latin.
Paul's knowledge of Latin comes from his classical education at The
Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, where he had learnt three
languages by the time he was 12. Paul says: "Not all of this has been
retained over the years as my path went in other directions, but my love of
language remains, and as Latin is known and sung by choirs all over the
world, I felt it would be appropriate to use at times during the piece."
Like many great composers Paul, started with the music and then looked
for a subject that fits. Several ideas for lyrics occurred to him, but they
only gelled when he took part in a concert of John Tavener's music in the
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York. "While I was waiting to do my
bit, I was looking around the church and I saw a statue, and underneath it
was written 'Ecce Cor Meum.' I had done some Latin at school and I always
had a fondness for it. So I worked it out. I believe it means Behold My
Heart."
In November 2001, the first version of Ecce Cor Meum was given its
first preview performance by the Magdalen College Choir, which was
conducted by Bill Ives at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. This was a great
learning experience for Paul. "Eventually I made it all come together
through correcting a lot of misapprehensions -- a lot was learned before
the Sheldonian performance, but a lot of it was learned afterwards. An
experienced choral composer knows that children can't be given huge
sustained passages; they don't have the energy and the stamina. At the
Sheldonian there was some quite hard stuff that I didn't realize because
I'd done it on the synthesizer (which has endless stamina!), but during
that first performance, the solo treble couldn't come on for the second
half -- I think I'd used him up in the first half! These are things that
people either learn because they are taught them immediately at the first
lesson or you learn through the years, so it was good to go through the
piece a lot of times, and we took out huge choral sections and gave them to
the orchestra. If it had been a Beatles song I would have known how to do
it. But this was a completely different ball game."
Produced by John Fraser, Ecce Cor Meum was recorded this year at the
legendary Abbey Road Studios between March 13th and 17th. It was performed
by EMI artist Kate Royal (soprano); The Boys of King's College Choir,
Cambridge; The Boys Of Magdalen College Choir, Oxford and The Academy Of
St. Martin In The Fields conducted by Gavin Greenway.
SOURCE EMI Classics