Thursday Evening "Concerts at Home"

On a Thursday evening, at 8pm, in a village hall in deepest glorious Suffolk, a community choir meets each week. They've been going for over thirty years; they sing predominantly unaccompanied repertoire, and at the moment, they're all slightly stuck because of Covid-19.

On Saturday 28th March the Suffolk Singers were due to give their annual concert in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral; for now, Covid-19 has postponed that, but it has also prevented the choir getting together each Thursday not just to sing, but to be together, as they have been for years.

So what to do? Well, Claire sent John a WhatsApp message saying "John, the choir aren't just sad about Ely, but also because there aren't any more rehearsals for now." Claire came up with the idea that each week, when the choir would have been rehearsing, a selection of about 3 pieces could be put together to keep the singers going, and John whipped up this page (in between eating fishcakes and giant chocolate buttons).

So, from now on every Thursday at 8pm, a short 'concert' will appear on this page - three pieces of choral music that the choir have performed, have been learning, or would like to perform. The most recent Thursday will always be at the top.

​So grab a snack, pour yourself a glass of something delicious, sit back, press play, and enjoy!

Thursday 2nd April

Welcome to this week's edition of 'Concerts at Home', recorded 'live' from the comfort of John and Claire's homes!

This week's focus is on pieces sung by the Suffolk Singers at the Choir of the World final at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.
Richte mich Gott (Psalm 43)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)
Richte mich Gott (Op.78, No.2) was composed in 1844 by Mendelssohn when he was 35, and is a setting of Psalm 43. 1844 was a year in which he made his eighth visit to Britain, including conducting concerts with the Philharmonic, and meeting with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

"Following the stern contours of the D minor opening section, characterized by the male voices in unison alternating with the female choir in four-part harmony, the move to the relative major (F) at the words ‘Sende dein Licht’ soars away to uplifting effect.
The following 3/8 Andante reverts to the atmosphere and textures of the opening section before the final verses resolve former tensions in the warm glow of a D major chorale."
​
(notes by Julian Haylock, 2006)
Richte mich, Gott, und führe meine Sache
Do me justice, O God, and fight my fight
wider das unheilige Volk
against a faithless people;
und errette mich von den falschen und bösen Leuten.
from the deceitful and impious man rescue me.
Denn du bist der Gott meiner Stärke;
For you, o God, are my strength.

Warum verstößest du mich?
Why do you keep me so far away?
Warum lässest du mich so traurig geh’n,
Why must I go about in mourning,
wenn mein Feind mich drängt?
With the enemy oppressing me?

​Sende dein Licht und deine Wahrheit,
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
daß sie mich leiten zu deinem heiligen Berge,
they shall lead me on and bring me to your holy mountain,
und zu deiner Wohnung.
to your dwelling place.
Daß ich hineingehe zum Altar Gottes,
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
zu dem Gott, der meine Freude und Wonne ist,
the God of my gladness and joy;
und dir, Gott, auf der Harfe danke, mein Gott.
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp, my God.

Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele,
Why are you so downcast, o my soul?
und bist so unruhig in mir?
And why do you sigh within me?

Harre auf Gott! Denn ich werde ihm noch danken,
Hope in God! Then I will again give him thanks,
daß er meines Angesichts Hülfe, und mein Gott ist.In the presence of my Saviour and my God.
Antiphon of St John the Baptist
Jamie John Hutchings (b. 1980)
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179) was an abbess, polymath, mystic, and composer, amongst other things!

Hildegard took the idea of plainsong and extended it, often making it virtuosic with flourishes, and particular intervals - usually a rising fifth or sixth, which JJH has in part emulated in this piece. The opening 'mirror' sees the voices reflect each other in step, before opening into a larger chord.

He composed the set of three Antiphons around ten years ago after first witnessing Claire and the Suffolk Singers in action, and wanted to create a trio of pieces that weren't just good to sing, but contained some challenges for singers, including listening, tempo changes, difficult harmonies etc.

​The words are in translation from the original Latin, which are included below for interest.
​In 2003 JJH went on a university choir tour to Salzburg and then Rudesheim, where the modern abbey of Hildegard is based, opposite Bingen, and occasionally goes out to the Rhineland to visit the nuns, hear them sing, and drink their Riesling!
​The first abbey was built by Hildegard in 1165 in Bingen, and dissolved in 1804; a railway was built over the ruins. A hundred years later a new community was built on the other side of the Rhine, at Rudesheim.
O speculum columbe castissime forme,
O mirror of the dove of most chaste beauty
qui inspexisti misticam largitatem in purissimo fonte:
You looked upon the majestic breath in the purest source

O mira floriditas
O wondrous flower
que numquam arescens cecidisti,
You never withered nor wilted
quia altissimus plantator misit te:
because the highest gardener planted you.

O suavissima quies amplexuum solis:
O sweetest rest in the sun's embraces
tu es specialis filius Agni
You are the special son of the Lamb
in electa amicicia nove sobolis.
in the chosen friendship of a new generation.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Harold Arlen (1905 - 1986)
With words by Yip Harburg (1986 - 1981), Arlen's music from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, has to be one of the most popular pieces of music in the world.

The song was originally deleted from the first viewing of the film as MGM chief executive Louis B. Mayer said it slowed the action down; fortunately other characters involved in the film fought to have it reinstated, to great success.

In the film, the cue for this song is that Aunt Em tells her to "find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble". This prompts Dorothy to walk off by herself, musing to her little dog Toto, ​"Some place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain..."
This version is taken from the Oxford University Press 1995 publication, "In the Mood", edited by Andrew Carter and David Blackwell

Thursday 26th March

Welcome to Thursday evening 'Concerts at Home', designed to offer choral music to those who sing it,  those who just like it, and those who'd like to discover something new.
​
From the comfort of their own homes, Claire and John introduce this week's selection of unaccompanied choral music (and only give into giggles once):
Miserere mei, Deus (Psalm 51)
Gregorio Allegri (1582 - 1652)
"John, they definitely want the Allegri"
"Yes Claire"

We begin with one that we think we all know, but as it turns out, those top Cs were due to a copyist misreading a clef, and the plainsong is wrong - there's such a history to it that The Sixteen have released a recording called 'Miserere - Evolution', which uses a different section from the piece's history to build the whole. A full history by the brilliant Ben Byram-Wigfield can be found here:
​https://ancientgroove.co.uk/essays/allegri.html

But here we have the first few verses, sung by the highly regarded choir Tenebrae, directed by former King's Singer Nigel Short, recorded in the church of Great St Bart's in Smithfield London - a venue you might recognise from several films.
Os justi meditabitur
Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896)
"And I really want Os justi"
"Yes, Claire"

Anton Bruckner was both a master symphonist and also an organist and choirmaster. Based in Austria, his music-making was mostly around Linz (in both its Old and New cathedrals) and the Abbey of St Florian.

Written in 1879, it combines 8-part choral writing with fugato, plainsong, and some of the most thrilling chords in choral music.

Os Justi meditabitur sapientiam,
The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom,
et lingua ejus loquetur judicium.
and his tongue talketh of judgement.
Lex Dei ejus in corde ipsius
The law of his God is in his heart
et non supplantabuntur gressus ejus.
none of his steps will slide.
This performance is given by The Monteverdi Choir, directed by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. 
Ne irascaris, Domine - Civitas sancti tui
William Byrd (c.1539 - 1623)
"aaaaaaaand I'd like Ne irascaris"
"Oh that's an excellent choice, Claire"

William Byrd was organist of Lincoln Cathedral and a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and finally settled down in Stondon Massey in Essex.

He trod the line between successive Protestant and Catholic Tudor monarchs. Himself a Catholic, when Protestant laws were brought into England he felt very much the pain of what had been lost. There was a practice amongst Catholic composers to put this pain into their music, and often they would equate it to the fall of Jerusalem and exile to Babylon.

Here as part of the Liber Sacrarum Cantionum of 1589, is a 5-part setting of a 'persecution' text - verses from 137, which starts 'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept'. The first half, Ne irascaris Domine, sets out his stall in chordal and then imitative polyphony; it's in the second half that his sadness shows - Sion, sounded in the low voices like solemn trombones, is laid to waste and made a wilderness; then, with repetition after repetition, 'Jerusalem' is implored to return to God.

Part One
Ne irascaris, Domine, satis et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae.
Be not angry, O Lord, still, neither remember our iniquity for ever. 
Ecce, respice, populus tuus omnes nos​
Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

Part Two
Civitas sancti tui facta est deserta. 
The holy cities are a wilderness.
Sion deserta facta est, Jerusalem desolata est.
Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
This performance is by the Choir of Ely Cathedral, recorded in the Lady Chapel. ​