St Anne’s Cathedral Belfast where the civic memorial service was held following the sinking of The Titanic in 1912 will most appropriately be the venue for the first performance of a “Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic” by Philip Hammond on April 14 next year.
The event is the foremost event commissioned by the Belfast Titanic Company which has been chaired by Richard Mackenzie CB, a retired Civil Servant and Northern Ireland Boundary Commissioner. he commented to CNI, “The celebration of anniversaries – half centenaries, centenaries, bi-centenaries, millennia – is a peculiar if perhaps paradoxical delight of our modern times. Somehow, it gives us a sense of security by confirming us in our concept of historical perspective and human continuity. In this context, we celebrate and remember any event from the past – even tragedies.
“The disaster that was the sinking of the Titanic happened on the night of April 14/15 1912. It was not only the worst maritime accident in history with the loss of over fifteen hundred people but it also heralded the end of an era. Not two years later, Europe and eventually the world was plunged into a war of monumental proportions.”
Belfast composer Philip Hammond has lived most of his life in the shadow of the Belfast shipyard where Titanic and its sister ships were built in the heyday of the industry during the early years of the twentieth century.
The choral sections of the requiem will be sung by the Belfast Philharmonic Society, the largest choral society in Northern Ireland atpresent. It will be joined by four other choral groups – the famous choir “Anuna”, the Schola Cantorum of St Peter’s Cathedral, and the Capella Caeciliana, a chamber choir based in Belfast. At the centre of this new work will be the idea of “cori spezzati” – an historical Italian technique dating from fifteenth century Venice where choirs and instruments were arranged in different areas of St Mark’s Cathedral and “answered” each other in echo and responsive passages.
The choirs for Philip Hammond’s new requiem will be positioned in different areas of St Anne’s and will have the accompaniment of brass instruments drawn from the Downshire Brass Band which is also Belfast based. The soloist for this performance will be Jacqueline Horner, a Belfast born mezzo soprano who has gained international recognition as part of the famous Anonymous Four vocal group resident in the United States. The whole performance of the requiem will be directed by three conductors living and working in Northern Ireland at present.
In the Saturday night performance, each of the main choral sections of the requiem will be interspersed by a series of writings specially commissioned from the Belfast writer Glenn Patterson who will himself be the reader. These readings will then be complemented by a series of “meditations” for piano trio –written by Philip Hammond to reflect the loss of the musicians who were said to have played right up to the moment of the ship’s demise. The piano trio for this performance will be the Fidelio Trio, led by Belfast born violinist Darragh Morgan who has for many years supported and promoted performances of new music from Ireland around the world.
The Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic will be staged and specially lit for the most dramatic effect in St Anne’s. After the performance a torchlight procession will walk from the Cathedral to the Titanic Memorial in the grounds of the City Hall as an act of remembrance for all those who died in the disaster exactly one hundred years before.
On Sunday morning 15th April, the requiem will be repeated in St Peter’s Cathedral Belfast as part of the mass.
In 1912, a Memorial Service to those who floundered on the “Titanic” was held in St Anne’s Cathedral on Sunday April 21st, at which the preacher was Dean Grierson in the absence of the Bishop who was ill. The Titanic left Belfast where it had been built, on April 2nd, on passage to Southampton for its maiden voyage by way of Cobh to New York. It sank on the morning of April 12th. when 1,523 people lost their lives. Joseph Andrews, one of the principal designers of the Titanic who floundered with the ship, was a son-in-law of Sir James Milne-Barbour whose family’s generosity to the Cathedral includes the state pews and the marble central aisle.
The “Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic” is the final event in a “mini-festival” series of new art commissioned with funds provided by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
This festival seeks to reflect the huge creative energy that drove the people of Belfast in the first decade of the twentieth century in industrial terms and which now continues to permeate the arts in this small part of the world. Also included in the festival are:
A newly commissioned one-man play from one of the leading Titanic experts, James Wilson Foster. Formerly Professor of English in the University of British Columbia, Jack has in retirement moved back to his native Northern Ireland. This play will be his first essay on stage and will be based on the last hour of Thomas Andrews, the designer of Titanic. The play will be staged by Kabosh in site specific locations around Belfast, including the Belfast Barge and the Reform Club..
A newly commissioned play involving the Lyric Theatre and offering an opportunity for an outreach project for schools in Belfast. The commissioned playwright is Rosemary Jenkinson and her play is based on the theme of emigration in the early nineteen hundreds- specifically 1912 – as the north of Ireland tries to maintain its political and social status quo.
In partnership with Moving on Music, a newly commissioned song cycle from Belfast composer David Byers will form the centrepiece of an evening of music from the Edwardian Era – and including numbers which would have been in the repertoire of the musicians on board the Titanic. Belfast born musician Una Hunt will be commissioned to design and perform this programme and it will feature two young Irish singers. Possible venue is the Harbour Offices on Thursday 12th April. Before that recital, a specially written series of tableaux based on the historical relationship between the docks and the shipyards of Belfast will be performed by Music Theatre for Youth in words, music and dance.
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A special art exhibition curated by Peter Richards at the Golden Thread Gallery and featuring two artists living and working in Belfast – American born Sara Greavu and Omagh born Phil Hession.
There are other events in the process of being planned.Yacht clubs on Belfast Lough are organising a commemorative event.