Now includes a new version of Paul Mealor’s Christmas No 1 single, ‘Wherever You Are’. Sung by the Tenebrae Choir.
Order the album A Tender Light now:
Amazon Link | Play.com Link | iTunes Link | HMV Link | Tesco Link
The Wherever You Are sheet music is now available to purchase HERE
A new Paul Mealor composition was performed by Gareth Malone and the Military Wives on BBC1’s Festival of Remembrance this weekend. Watch it back here from 4m55s
The new album, recorded in June 2011 with the wonderful Tenebrae choir and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is released today. It’s available to order now at:
Amazon http://amzn.to/oXaWCD
iTunes http://bit.ly/qTVzQV
HMV: http://bit.ly/uKr0Bt
October’s special concert of Paul Mealor’s music can now be viewed online. Click here to watch now.
On the 25th October, a special concert took place at St Barts in London celebrating the launch of Paul’s new album, A Tender Light. Featuring Tenebrae and a special audience this concert will so be online for you all to watch, stay tuned!
Fill out the short form to keep up to date with the latest news from Paul Mealor and to receive a free download of Locus Iste, from his new album A Tender Light.
Paul Mealor’s Ubi Caritas was the real hit of the wedding…The Ubi Caritas setting they did this morning had an austere resonance of plainsong that then flowered into the kind of cloudy harmonic suspensions of a Morten Lauridsen or Eric Whitacre: the two figures that seem to define where-it’s-at choral writing at the moment…I confidently predict that Mealor will now leap to sudden fame on the back of it. His Ubi Caritas was certainly the closest this wedding got to the nerve-touching John Tavener moment at the last big royal ceremonial that broadcast to the world: Diana’s funeral.
Michael White, The Telegraph
One of the most important composers to have emerged in Welsh Music since William Mathias… a real and original talent… Music of serene beauty, fastidious craftsmanship and architectural assuredness… Music of deep spiritual searching that always asks questions, offers answers and fills the listener with hope…
New York Times
One of the many joys of experiencing live music making is that even the hardened concertgoer can experience a real and unexpected revelation. Such, surely, was what happened for the near capacity audience at the recent St Andrews Chorus concert. The cause of this was a piece by a living composer – welshman, Paul Mealor. How is it that after half a millenium of what we would recognise as Western tonal music, can a composer still conjure up new and original, yet beautiful material from what is the same old notes and the limitations of the human voice.
St Andrews Citizen
There was a wealth of glorious harmonic expression in Paul Mealor’s startlingly imaginative and original setting of the Stabat Mater… The dark harmonies at the beginning, with wonderful almost Russian sounding deep bass writing, matched the darkness of the text itself and built splendidly in intensity. The second section with its beautifully sung soprano solo seemed to bring a glow of redeeming light to the music while the vigorous almost lusty singing of the third movement and the warmth of the final prayer led back to the deep registers we heard at the beginning of the work, yet here the significance was magically transformed by what had gone before. I spoke to several people at the interval and the reaction to Paul Mealor’s new work was universally enthusiastic.
Alan Cooper reviewing the UK Première of Mealor’s Stabat Mater
Paul Mealor’s music is published by the University of York Music Press LTD
Mealor’s new motet, Ubi Caritas was premiered at the Royal Wedding of His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales with Miss Catherine Middleton (now, TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) at Westminster Abbey, and received excellent reviews from the world’s media: -
‘Paul Mealor’s Ubi Caritas was the real hit of the wedding…The Ubi Caritas setting they did this morning had an austere resonance of plainsong that then flowered into the kind of cloudy harmonic suspensions of a Morten Lauridsen or Eric Whitacre… I confidently predict that Mealor will now leap to sudden fame on the back of it. His Ubi Caritas was certainly the closest this wedding got to the nerve-touching John Tavener moment at the last big royal ceremonial that broadcast to the world: Diana’s funeral.’
Michael White
The Telegraph
‘What next for Paul Mealor? Until last week he was a relatively unheard of composer from North Wales. Now, after the royal couple chose his setting of “Ubi Caritas” as an anthem at their wedding, he’s likely to find himself propelled into classical music stardom. This was what happened to John Tavener, who was also quite obscure until his “Song for Athene” was sung at Diana’s funeral in 1997. Expect to hear the name Paul Mealor a lot more.’
Michael Bell
The Independent
‘This refashioning of Mealor’s 2010 composition “Now Sleeps The Crimson Petel” was commissioned by Prince William. The piece is lovely in itself, but there were extra-musical reasons to include it in the ceremony too. Mealor is Welsh (when Charles ascends the throne, William will become the Prince of Wales), has a home on Anglesey (the Welsh island where William and Kate will be living for the next few years) and the original song cycle was premiered at St. Andrews, the university where the couple met.
Largely unknown outside the Anglican church music world, Mealor will find his star rising considerably after this debut on the world stage. He teaches composition at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Mealor’s aesthetic …features open tone clusters, extended chords, slow-moving harmonic changes and divisi voicing. These techniques minimize any sense of a home key, which creates a sort of ethereal dissonance that doesn’t feel as if it needs resolving. In this idiom, the color of the sound is more important than the shape of it, meaning there is no big tune.’
Los Angeles Times
The single of Ubi caritas (performed by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, conducted by James O’Donnell) and the album of all the wedding music, are available for download at iTunes
The Premiere of Mealor’s new orchestration of his popular, ‘Stabat Mater’ was well received by a capacity audience in St Andrews. The Scottish press state: -
‘One of the many joys of experiencing live music making is that even the hardened concertgoer can experience a real and unexpected revelation. Such, surely, was what happened for the near capacity audience at the recent St Andrews Chorus concert. The cause of this was a piece by a living composer – welshman, Paul Mealor. How is it that after half a millenium of what we would recognise as Western tonal music, can a composer still conjure up new and origional, yet beautiful material from what is the same old notes and the limitations of the human voice.’
St Andrews Citizen
‘Normally Haydn’s Nelson Mass would hold sway over anything else put alongside it, but on Saturday night in the Younger Hall it was more than given a run for its money by the Stabat Mater by the Aberdeen-based Mealor. I had first experienced his compositions not so long ago and was immediately impressed by his ability to write superb lush harmonies and make a contemporary work readily accessible and easy on the ear. This work is very much on the same lines and Saturday saw its world premiere in its orchestrated form.’
Garry Taylor, The Dundee Courier
Mealor’s new choral cycle on rose poems, ‘Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal’ gets brilliant reviews from the Scottish press: -
‘…however, it was the world premiere of Paul Mealor’s Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal for unaccompanied choir that stole the show!… This sublime music opened up from soft unison into a spectrum of warm sonorities from growling basses to soaring sopranos. The choir beautifully evoked the intimacy of the work, executing some gorgeous effects along the way.’
Susan Nickalls, The Scotsman
‘Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal by Paul Mealor contrasted earthly and divine love. Surprising turns of harmony accomplished within a traditional tonal ambience gave this composer’s music a uniquely seductive freshness. His little elfin scherzo in the middle was a real stunner.’
Alan Cooper, The Herald
‘On Saturday I heard for the first time the combined voices of the University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir, the Edinburgh University Chamber Choir and the University of St Andrews Chapel Choir sing Paul Mealor’s Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal… The work sets four poems, all referring to roses. It is wonderful! It shows off the large choir beautifully; its dynamic range is enormous – from the quietest whisper to a full-throttle roar – and from the lowest register to the highest possible. And of course, being a work by Mealor, it is melodic, approachable and quite beautiful. It is obvious that the massed voices enjoy singing the work.
Edward Armitage, Chairman of JAM, Sound Festival Blog 2010