Notes from Geoffrey Whittington, choir member, relating to the pieces we’re performing on 25 October in Petersfield.
Our concert comprises choral music based on texts from the Song of Songs. Over the ages, composers have found these texts to be a great source of inspiration. The concert programme takes the listener on a journey of inner peace, combining music from over eight centuries ago with that written by contemporary composers. There’s a special emphasis on works by the great Italian Renaissance composer Palestrina, born 500 years ago.
Palestrina – Missa Fratres Ego Enim Accepi
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594) was one of the finest and probably most internationally revered composers of the Renaissance period and at this concert in his 500th anniversary year, we are presenting three of his works. Like J.S. Bach, who was seen as the apotheosis of the contrapuntal style of the Baroque period, Palestrina is regarded as the finest craftsman of Renaissance polyphony.
Born in the town of Palestrina near Rome (which the choir visited in 2015), Palestrina spent four years as the musical director of the Papal Chapel. Apart from working at several churches in Rome, he also had a position at the Villa d’Este in Tivoli for a period.
Palestrina wrote a huge amount of music, in fact over 100 masses, motets, secular madrigals and hymns. His music is famous for its restrained, flowing polyphony with the words being clear, as the church demanded. This style of writing was very influential in church music for hundreds of years. One of the joys of singing Palestrina is the smoothness of the parts, with runs which all feel very natural.
This very fine mass for double choir was published posthumously in 1601 and is known as a parody mass because it is based on a motet of the same name. It is regarded as one of the finest examples of Renaissance mass composition. Palestrina rarely has all eight parts singing simultaneously, often alternating between the two choirs, but he does so at important phrases such as ‘Jesu Christi’ and ‘Filius Patris’ or at the ends of movements.
At the centre of the Credo there are also two four voice semichorus sections, first for Choir 1 ‘Crucifixus…’. and then for Choir 2 ‘Et iterum…’; As often, the Benedictus is reduced to four voices too. In the centre of the Credo there suddenly is a short section of held notes in block chords for the words ‘Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto’, reflecting the importance of the resurrection for Palestrina.
Palestrina – Fasciculus myrrhae
This is a motet from 1584 written for five voices in the Dorian mode. The text is from the ‘Song of Songs’ praising the beauty of the beloved. It is another fine example of Palestrina’s contrapuntal mastery.
Palestrina – Exsultate Deo
This short jubilant and celebratory motet is a favourite one which we have sung many times. The text is from Psalm 81. Listen out for the sound of the harp at the words ‘jucundum cum cithara’ and trumpets at ‘Buchinate’.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) – Caritas Abundant in Omnia
Hildegard was a Benedictine Abbess, writer and composer. She is recognised as the first Western female composer and it is fortunate that her music has survived for so long at the convent of Rupertsberg near Bingen on the Rhine in Germany where she lived and worked. This piece, with its unpredictable flowing line, transports the listener back to the Dark Ages and the world of the cloisters.
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. In my view this music is of higher quality than the far more famous Miserere.
Whitacre – A Boy and a Girl
The American contemporary composer Eric Whitacre is now one of the most popular and frequently performed living composers. We have been performing his pieces since they first became available in the UK and are a key part of our repertoire. Whitacre brings highly unusual note-clusters and wonderfully fresh sonorities. This is a setting of a poem from 1973 by the Mexican poet Octavio Paz.
Philip Moore – I saw him standing
Philip Moore, born 1943 is an English composer and organist; he was for 25 years the organist at York Minster, retiring in 2008. This is a setting of a poem by Ann Griffiths who was an 18th Century Welsh poet, who wrote only in her mother tongue; the translation is by Rowan Williams. It was first performed in 2005. It is a challenging piece with a central section featuring 7/8, 5/8 and 9/8 bars and some tricky shifts in harmony. There is a hushed, moving ending.
Stephen Paulus (1949-2014) – Arise my love
Paulus was an American composer who wrote operas, choral and orchestral music. The text is from Songs of Solomon and Paulus sets them in a straight-forward and effective way with the bar lines dictated strongly by the words. There is an extended coda.
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 Songs of Solomon in a very clear, natural and beautiful way.