Tomorrow’s Choral Evensong on BBC Radio3 is from Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and includes the first broadcast of a new composition commissioned for the Choirbook for the Queen. Also – news of events, publications and releases – including a new CD from St Patrick’s Choristers
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Live from Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on the Feast of St Ignatius of Antioch, including the first broadcast of a new composition commissioned for the Choirbook for the Queen, a collection of contemporary anthems, published to celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee
Organ Prelude: Lento (Marian Sawa)
Introit: A new song (James MacMillan)
Responses: Philip Duffy
Hymn: Lord Jesus, when you dwelt on earth (Jesu, dulcis memoria)
Psalms: 15, 112 (Bevenot, Mawby)
New Testament Canticle: Revelation 15 vv3-4
New Testament Reading: 1 Peter 5 vv1-11
Motet: Joy at the Sound (Roxanna Panufnik – Choirbook for the Queen)
Homily: The Most Rev. Patrick Kelly, Archbishop of Liverpool
Magnificat (Pachelbel)
Final Hymn: Praise to the Holiest (Billing)
Marian motet: Ave Maria (Mervyn Cousins)
Organ Voluntary: Fast Dance (Iain Farrington)
Director of Music: Christopher McElroy
Organist: Richard Lea.
EVENTS
Harp Concert – Anne–Marie O’Farrell and Cormac De Barra will perform on the Irish Harp and Pedal Harp in a concert which takes place on Tuesday October 23 at 8.00 pm in the Unitarian Church on St Stephen’s Green. Tickets cost €12 or €8 with concession and can be purchased on the door on the night or booked online at www.dublinunitarianchurch.org/events/
The concert will featuer works by Mozart, Albeniz, Tarrega, O’Farrell, Carolan along with traditional Irish music, old and new.
Music and Song at Monkstown – Monkstown Parish Church, Dublin, will host a Music and Song Extravaganza on Friday November 9 at 7.30 pm. A variety of musicians will be featured including The Brook Singers, The Quintessentially Brass Quintet, Janet de Vigne and Jane Lawrence. Admission is €15 by ticket only. Proceeds from the event will go to Blackrock Hospice, Smylie Trust Orphanage and Knox Hall Renovation. Further details are available from John Hewitson on 01–2807988.
Poet & Composer combine – Poet Mark Roper and composer Eric Sweeney combine for a concert of their work on Wednesday 7th November in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick at 1.15 pm. The event is part of a series of concerts the poet and composer will give throughout Ireland during the second part of this year.
Mark will give some solo readings from his recent collection ‘The River Book, A Celebration of the Suir’ and Eric will play some of his compositions on keyboard and then play a series of improvisations to Mark’s poetry.
An unusual collaboration between poet and composer and an occasion not to be missed.
Eric Sweeney – composer – A Dubliner by birth, Eric Sweeney has lived in Waterford since 1981 where he was Head of Music at Waterford Institute of Technology until 2010 . Previously he lectured in music at the Dublin College of Music (now Dublin Institute of Technology) and at Trinity College. He was Choral Director at RTE from 1978-1981. A frequent visitor to North America he has been composer-in-residence at the Newport Festival Rhode Island, Memorial University Newfoundland, the University of Illinois, Indiana State University and the University of Portland Oregon among others.
His many works include Dance Music commissioned by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the cantata Deirdre commissioned by RTE (the Irish national radio and television network) Figurations for guitar commissioned by the Spanish Cultural Institute and Music for a Festival commissioned by Festival International de Musique Universitaire, Belfort, France.
Recent projects include the Mass of St Patrick and the Evening Canticles commissioned by St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Slow Air, commissioned by the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the cantata Hymn to Gaia, a setting of texts from Muslim, Buddhist and Native American sources, together with a range of eco-poetry reflecting on our relationship with the environment.
Mark Roper – poet – is an English-born poet and editor now living near Piltown, in Kilkenny. He studied at Reading and Oxford Universities. His first collection of poetry The Hen Ark (1990, Peterloo) won the 1992 Aldeburgh Prize for best first collection. His other poetry is collected in Catching the Light (1997, Peterloo), The Home Fire (1998, Abbey Press), and Whereabouts (2005, Abbey Press & Peterloo). Roper was the 1999 editor of Poetry Ireland Review and also edited Ink Bottle in 2001. He was awarded Kilkenny’s Father Sean Swayne Art Bursary. Roper also runs creative writing courses and workshops in many different settings in Waterford and Kilkenny, including schools, prisons and senior citizen centres. He led a workshop at the 2002 Geneva Writers’ Convention and served as writer in residence at Waterford Regional Hospital. In 2008 Dedalus published his New and Selected Poems, Even So and in 2010 he was anthologised in Landing Places: Immigrant Poets in Ireland (Dedalus, 2010).
Wednesday 28th November
Gary O’Shea and Daniel Battle – Piano Duet
Music by Mendelssohn, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky for four hands
Festival curator – Cathedral organist, David Bremner, also curates the Beal Festival of New Music and Poetry, which will take place between the 7th-9th November – it’s the place to be to hear exciting cutting edge new musical and text based projects.
Recording Songs of Praise – 10th October in St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen at 7.00pm. Also, on 17th & 18th October at 6.30pm. The transmission dates will be Sunday 11th November and Sunday 26th May 2013.
African Children’s Choir visiting Ballymena
Ballymena Times – The Choir are currently delighting Irish audiences with their energetic performances, and will be visiting Ballymena on October 24 before travelling to Scotland and then on to England later this year. The 38th African Children’s Choir comprises of 17 …
http://www.ballymenatimes.com/news/local/african-children-s-choir-visiting-ballymena-1-4345274
PUBLICATIONS
RSCM publishes An Advent Cantata
An Advent Cantata by Martin How has just been published by the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM). For many years Martin was a popular and leading figure in the charity, and since his retirement has devoted more time to composition and organ playing. The cantata will be given its first complete performance in a
St Cecilia’s Day concert in Croydon Minster on 24th November 2012 at 4.30pm.
“In the beginning God created the heav’n and the earth.” Thus begins this full-scale work in three sections which uses a number of familiar seasonal texts to reflect the Creation story, Christ’s birth, and the Expectation of humankind. Advent Cantata is scored for narrator (tenor), soprano solo, speaker, semi-chorus, a full chorus, solo violin, timpani and organ. To conclude each section there’s a congregational hymn. Those familiar with Martin How’s work will recognise his organ arrangement of the last verse of Lo he comes with clouds descending, which was composed during his prominent career at the RSCM. Several movements such as Come Lord Jesus, Lullaby and Psalm 23 will be known to many church musicians as self-contained pieces, which can be performed by small church choirs. Advent Cantata, itself a reworking of a longer work Alpha and Omega, is one of a suite of three seasonal cantatas, the others being for Lent and Easter.
During his career at the RSCM Martin How initiated the Chorister Training Scheme, the forerunner of the current Voice for Life programme. He was awarded the MBE for services to church music in 1993. Martin is currently Organist Laureate at Croydon Minster, where he will direct the first performance of the Advent Cantata in a St Cecilia’s Day concert on 24th November 2012 at 4.30pm.
Advent Cantata (price £8.00) is available from RSCM Music Direct and may be ordered by telephone, email or online. RSCM affiliated churches and members are entitled to generous discounts. Price £8.00 (£6.00 RSCM affiliates)
RSCM order number: MH0522
Tel: 0845 021 7726
Email: musicdirect@rscm.com
Online: www.rscm.com/shop
RELEASES
St Patrick’s Choristers New CD
The Choristers of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, are preparing to launch a new CD in November. The cathedral choir has made a number of recordings over the years but this is the first to feature solely the choristers, who are all aged between eight and 13 years. They are directed by Stuart Nicholson and in the new recording they are accompanied by Victoria Green on guitar, Diane Marshall on harp and David Leigh and Harry Meehan on the organ.
Entitled In Dublin’s Fair City – Anthems, Cockles & Mussels from St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, the CD has been recorded by Regent Records and will be released on November 16. The music has been specifically chosen to appeal to a very wide market – including those 300,000 visitors that cross the threshold each year.
Many of the tracks have special links with the Cathedral – four were either written or arranged by past and current Cathedral musicians. Other tracks have much older links, in particular How beautiful are the feet from Handel’s Messiah which was first performed by members of both St Patrick’s and Christ Church Cathedral Choirs in 1742 and there is always the title track, just in case there was any doubt as to where this recording originated.
The aim of the recording is to raise the profile of the choristers – it will act as a very useful recruitment tool over the coming years helping us ensure the survival of Ireland’s oldest choral foundation.
Boys’ choirs are rare in Ireland but what makes Saint Patrick’s even more unique is the fact that they are tutored at the one remaining choir school in the country. They sing daily services – an average of eight to 10 each week – alongside their school timetable.
The CD launch will take place in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday November 16 at 6.00 pm. The boys will perform a number of tracks in a free concert. Further details of the launch and the CD itself are on the website: www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/In_Dublins_Fair_City.aspx.
We Gaither Together
Christianity Together – Article on a recording celebrating Scripture’s vitality. The Gaither Homecoming Bible is released, complete with 230 devotionals written by Homecoming artists, 89 articles by Gloria, 75 mini-essays on great hymns and gospel songs (including many Gaither tunes), 20 poems by Gloria, and five features on the importance of music.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/october-web-only/we-gaither-together.html