Libera¹ is the third 'public' name for the boys' section of a Church of England parish church choir from South London. As the name has changed at various times during the public performance life of the choir, the name in use at the relevant time will be used in each section.

Origins

The story really starts with the appointment of a new 18-year-old choirmaster, Robert Prizeman, to a church in South London in 1970. The choir was very good, but received little public recognition. Their first appearance in the public eye came when, as the St Philip's ² Boys' Choir, they backed Sal Solo on his song San Damiano in 1984. This led in 1988 to the choir releasing their first album, Sing For Ever, as the St Philip's Boys Choir. The title track for this album was chosen by the BBC as the first Children in Need television anthem. This was followed by another album in 1990,New Day, both now long out of production. Due to the work of the passage of time on the boys' voices, the main soloist changed at various points during this period, as it has done since. The period when they were called the St Philip's Boys Choir roughly equates to the 1980s. The change of name to Angel Voices came in 1990, around the time of the second album release.

Angel Voices

It was as Angel Voices, during most of the 1990s, that Libera came to real public prominence with three albums and regular appearances on two television shows. A major role as singers in the programmes Titchmarsh on Song, presented by Alan Titchmarsh³ in 1992 and Thora⁴ on the Straight and Narrow in 1993 introduced Angel Voices to a wider public. The third album, Angel Voices, was released in 1992 and re-released in 1993, containing much similar material to Sing For Ever. Further television appearances followed through the 1990s, with a second album as Angel Voices, Angel Voices 2 appearing in the shops in 1996. This was soon followed by an album for Christmas and, following the rather unimaginative naming that characterised this period, the new album was called Angel Voices 3.

The Latest Period

In 1998, along with a departure from fairly traditional church choir music, there was the latest change of name to Libera. Since then there have been three albums released - Libera in 1998, Luminosa in 2001 and their latest album Free in September 2004. Along with regular appearances on television, most often on Songs of Praise⁵, they have released three videos that are often to be seen on Classic FM TV. Currently there are around 30 boys in the group, but this number changes as voices break and new members join. Although there may be up to 30 members in total, usually only about 15 appear in the videos that have been made so far. Libera have also been used as session artists on various outside projects such as film soundtracks including Romeo & Juliet, Shadowlands and Hannibal and some of the members have even recorded music for a Playstation game.

Style

The musical and visual style of Libera has changed, along with the name, at various points during its history. The distinctive white robes now worn arrived quite soon after the change of name to Angel Voices. In the early days, standard choir robes or even normal clothes were often worn. This variety of style has continued, but the white robes have been worn more and more. The music has always been distinctive, even when based on traditional choral music; originally, the music was traditional choral music such as Amazing Grace interspersed with modern music like Orinoco Flow or You Are the New Day. Since becoming Libera, however, the style has become even more recognisable. It is mostly new composition by Robert Prizeman, who still directs the choir, but contains elements of Gregorian chant and even the music of classical composers such as Debussy, Beethoven and Pachelbel. The words are either new, as most of the album Free is, or are taken from the Latin words to Christian services, a good example of this being Vespera from Luminosa.

Libera has added drums and synthesiser and, despite the translations of some of the songs, is very upbeat, whereas Luminosa is calmer and quieter with a much more reflective mood over all. Whatever the mood of the piece, when the words, music and a certain special something that Libera add to any song they perform, come together, the total sound is just sublime.

Related Links

• Libera official website, where you can find examples of their music.
• Further information on Libera. Includes an example concert of their work.
• Discussions on the music of Libera.
• Information on Libera albums.