Froxfield Choir November 13, 2010

Froxfield Choir is to sing American sacred songs at two forthcoming concerts.

This autumn, the choir’s season begins with a concert at All Saints’ Church, East Meon, on Saturday, 13 November at 7.30pm and a second on Saturday, 20 November at St Peter’s, High Cross, Froxfield also at 7.30pm.

The programme for these two concerts will include Barber’s Agnus Dei and Copeland’s Four Motets.

In 1967 Samuel Barber transcribed his own Adagio for Strings for eight part choir using the Agnus Dei as a text. The Adagio for Strings was written in 1936 and is itself a transcription of part of Barber’s String Quartet. It has been called the most famous orchestral work of the 20th century.

The Four Motets are early pieces written in 1921 when Copland was a pupil of Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Copeland thought them untypical of his own style, and that they reflected his admiration of Mussorgsky.

Randall Thompson wrote The Peaceable Kingdom in 1936. It was inspired by a painting of 1826 with the same title and made by Edward Hicks Thompson was a very important figure in the development of the choral tradition of the US. This work was his first extended work on sacred texts and makes great use of choral sound – using music that suits the voices of a choir.

The most recent work in the programme O Magnum Mysterium is a setting of a responsorial chant used in Matins at Christmas. Morten Lauridsen has been described as “The only American composer who can be described as a mystic,” and that mystical character is clearly audible in this piece.

At East Meon, our Director Richard A. Smith will play Bach Organ Music and at High Cross we will have jazz by the Joshua Jaswon Quartet.

The conductor at both concerts is Richard A. Smith.