John Rutter: the churches' court composer - includes related article on the public reaction to Rutter's music - Cover Story

Christian Century, Dec 7, 1994 by Debra Bendis, Paul Westermeyer

IT WAS THE FIRST choir rehearsal of the fall. Since most of us hadn't sung for months, the director began with warm-up exercises ("I Love to Sing") and reminded us about posture and open vowels. He pleaded for regular attendance. We sightread a few pieces and then prepared something familiar for the first week. By this time many of us were yawning and checking our watches. The director asked us to try "one more piece." We sang again. This time we were sitting up straight and smiling. The altos next to me sighed, "Beautiful!" "Wonderful!"

The music was John Rutter's "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," and the choir's reaction has been shared by singers and listeners across the U.S. For the past ten years, the music of this contemporary English composer has intrigued and inspired thousands of listeners. Rutter's popularity soared in 1984 when he founded Collegium Records, the company that records and distributes his work. "A Star Rises in Sacred Music!" announced the Hartford Courant, and writer Steve Metcalf quoted an organist who said, "Rutter is Springsteen!" Although Rutter composes both sacred and secular music, he has been especially claimed and revered by church choirs who are thrilled to have anthems, carols and longer works composed "just for them."

Sales reflect Rutter's popularity. Stanley Schmidt of Collegium Records reports a 9 percent sales increase from 1991 to 1992, and with the addition of a new Christmas recording, an increase of 35.2 percent--125,000 CDs sold--from 1992 to 1993.

The man who prompts the "oohs" and "ahs" began his musical career as a choirboy at Highgate School in London. The high point of the choir year there was the Festival of Lessons and Carols at Christmas--and one can still detect the influence of this experience in his compositions. In an interview he spoke of his "immense fondness for a choral tradition that goes back centuries. Many of our collegiate institutions and cathedrals have resident choirs that sing throughout the week. If we grow up in this culture we absorb that tradition into the heart of our being."

When Rutter first began composing at Clare College in Cambridge he wrote Christmas carols. He showed them to Sir David Willcocks, who was impressed with his work and helped him publish "The Shepherd's Pipe Carol." That started a composing-arranging relationship that continues today (their carols and arrangements are widely used in Christmas concerts).

Rutter became director of music at Clare College in 1975, but left to concentrate on composing. He missed working with a choir, however, and in 1981 he established the renowned 28-member Cambridge Singers. The group has recorded over 20 albums and sings in cities around the world. Some of the recordings include Rutter's compositions; others feature works by composers such as Byrd, Faure, Poulenc, Bach and Brahms.

Rutter comments that "composing is my deepest passion, my compulsion, but at the same time if I spend a whole month without hearing or making some form of live music I feel deprived in some way." As director of the Cambridge Singers he can have control over early performances of his own works. "A composer is possessive of his newly composed pieces and wants to hear them performed right," he admitted.

Although Rutter was a boy treble, the Singers include no boys. Rutter achieves the pure tone of the English choir tradition with female voices. "They can bring the emotional experience and sensibility of an adult to bear on the music they're singing," he told Gramophone magazine.

Rutter the guest conductor is almost as popular as Rutter the composer. He fills his schedule with appearances at Carnegie Hall, where he conducts works by Puccini, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and others. One 1995 program, "A Salute to America," will include selections from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess as well as American spirituals and folk songs. Other Carnegie Hall programs feature Rutter conducting his own compositions. On May 14 he will conduct his Magnificat, and on May 29 his Requiem, Psalmfest and The Sprig of Thyme. He'll repeat some of these works on June 4 in a debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

RUTTER IS ALSO popular as a workshop director, and spends time with high school and college choirs as well as with church choir directors. Workshops often conclude with a performance of a Rutter piece--followed by a standing ovation for Rutter. Collegium's Schmidt believes that Rutter is at least partially responsible for a choral renaissance. Public television stations have initiated choral programs, and in response to demand for the music a new publishing company offers ten of Rutter's choral selections; they are selling in 30 countries. Some who cannot afford the music learn it anyway. A chorus from Brazil learned the entire 17-minute Gloria without music, then performed it under Rutter's direction at Carnegie Hall.

The sales figures and concert schedules suggest that Rutter is indeed something of a star. Musicians appear to have enormous respect for the Cambridge Singers and for Rutter's skill in shaping this group. Barbara Bruns, organ recitalist and assistant director of the Boston Cecelia Society, says that when she wants to hear a piece of English choral music, she first checks to see if the Cambridge Singers have recorded it. "They're superb."