Notes from Geoffrey Whittington, choir member, relating to the pieces we’re performing on 12 July in Southsea.
We present a diverse collection of religious works on the theme of reflection, salvation and mourning from the 16th through to the 21st century. Each piece reflects a strong sense of the spiritual, either by recalling acts of devotion or asking for blessing and forgiveness. We offer a myriad of sound worlds within a set of related themes, capturing the beauty of the human voice.
Allegri – Miserere Mei
Gregori Allegri (1582 – 1652) was an Italian priest, singer, poet and composer. He became a favourite of Pope Urban VIII who brought him into the Sistine Chapel choir. His compositions include two volumes of concertos for five voices, two volumes of sacred songs for six voices and five masses. This, his most famous work, is a setting of Psalm 50 and is considered one of the last examples of late Renaissance music. It was for a long time performed in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week and the scores were kept secret. It is scored for a five part choir with solo sections in four parts.
Allegri – Gloria from Missa In lectulo me
This is a really impressive movement set in eight parts for double choir. It contains many fast and surprisingly lively rhythmic phrases. The In lectulo mass is one of only two of Allegri’s five masses to survive.
Palestrina – Missa Aeterna Christi Munera
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594) was one of the finest and revered composers of the Renaissance period. Born in the town of Palestrina near Rome (which the choir visited in 2015) he had a period as a member of the Papal chapel. Palestrina wrote a huge amount of music – masses, motets, secular madrigals and hymns. This much admired comparatively late mass shows Palestrina’s characteristic smoothness and fine counterpoint. It is based on an ancient hymn melody Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus. It is the 500th anniversary of his death this year.
MacMillan– Miserere
Sir James MacMillan (born 1959) is the pre-eminent Scottish composer who has written works in all major forms following some big successes at the Proms in the 1990s and his music is always accessible on first listening. His Miserere characteristically mixes old style plainchant with elements of Scottish traditional music and a contemporary idiom, giving a big sense of spirituality. We have performed this very demanding work before and it involves duetting lines with very different rhythms, quintuplet bars, acciaccaturas, plainchant, etc. It is interesting to compare the plainchant and ornamentation here with the Allegri version.
Pärt – Beatitudes
The Estonian composer Avo Pärt was born in 1935 originally worked as a radio producer for Estonian Radio. In 1980 he moved to West Berlin and produced some radical works but also film music. Since the early 70s he has written in the ‘tintinnabuli’ style we know now and has tended to more religious subjects since he joined the Orthodox Church. He has been living back in Estonia since 2010. The Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew (5:3-12) during the Sermon on the Mount. They outline a series of blessings that highlight the qualities and attitudes valued in the Kingdom of Heaven, such as humility, mercy, and righteousness. The text is sung in a straight-forward syllabic way but with interesting interval jumps.
Pärt – The Woman with the Alabaster Box
This work, first performed in 1997 is a setting of an extract from St Matthew’s gospel when Jesus was in the house of Simon the leper. The first part features moving parts against held chords; the final slow section has all voices together in big block chords and characteristic effective pauses.
Pärt – Für Alina (piano solo – Louise Douglas)
This piece from 1976 was the first work that Pärt wrote after a creative crisis and the first in the ‘tintinnabuli’ style of the choral pieces we are singing tonight. The concept of listening to chiming bells is very clearly communicated as the piece is extremely sparsely written with many pauses. The melody grows by one note in each bar and then diminishes again. Alina was the daughter of a friend of Pärt.
Daley – Upon your heart
Eleanor Daley (born 1955) is a Canadian composer of choral and church music and a choir director and accompanist. She lives and works in Toronto. Two of her best known works are The Rose Trilogy and Requiem. This piece, commissioned in 1999, sets text from the Song of Solomon in a very clear, natural and beautiful way.
Image of our two featured composers, Sir James MacMillan and Gregorio Allegri.
Copyright and usage assurance:
James MacMillan: The image is based on a painting by Calum Colvin held by the National Galleries of Scotland. While the original artwork is protected by copyright, it is available for non-commercial use under fair use policies, as acknowledged by the National Galleries Scotland. The version here was recreated using AI tools to ensure we are not directly reproducing any copyrighted photograph or derivative.
Gregorio Allegri: The engraving used is a verified public domain image sourced from an 18th-century publication. It is free for commercial use.