This afternoon at the Three Choirs Festival, we heard Christmas music, and in fact, the performance was recorded for the BBC Radio which will be aired in December. It was hilarious, though, when the Dean, in his opening remarks, wished to be the first to wish us a Happy Christmas! Only 143 nights before Christmas!
The program opened with two motets from Jacob Handl and Tomas Luis de Victoria, then moved right into Benjamin Britten’s perennial favorite, A Ceremony of Carols. Hearing this “old chestnut” with the sweet voices of about 60 boys made this very special.
After intermission followed the world premiere of Bob Chilcott’s Christmas Oratorio, which tells the complete Christmas story from the visitation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary in the familiar words of St. Luke, followed by the journey to Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph and the visit of the shepherds. The story of the three wise men follows, and ends with the presentation of Jesus to Simeon in the temple.
The work was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival, and is scored for choir, organ, brass, harp, flute, timpani, soloists, and four congregational carols. All of the music was newly-composed, including the congregational carols for which we had a rehearsal before the broadcast. Of course, what made it difficult was that the words were not written underneath the notes as is the style in English churches, and the fact that some phrases had to be repeated (and there was no indication to do so) plus numerous melismas (more than one syllable per note—watch out for the slurs!) made this challenging. I’m guessing most people in the audience could read music, by their hearty and mostly accurate singing. We in the congregation did pretty well, even though two of the hymns were sight-read. When we left the concert, we couldn’t get the melodies out of our heads!
I LOVED THIS MUSIC! It is already published by Oxford University Press and I predict it is going to be a classic. Choral directors, take note!
In the morning we took a Cloisters and Crypt tour of Gloucester Cathedral, and I especially like the stained glass in the Lady Chapel, which are dedicated to Ivor Gurney and Gerald Finzi, two composers with strong ties to Gloucester Cathedral.
I also found a stained glass pipe organ.
We heard the story of the life in the Benedictine Abbey before Henry VIII, after which many monasteries were dismantled. However, Gloucester Cathedral was saved because Edward II, Henry VIII’s ancestor, is buried there.
After lunch we took in an Indian dancing workshop, and I was made painfully aware that I have two left feet! Yes, in spite of being an organist, I was TERRIBLE at learning the dance steps!. The class was taught by Shivaangee Agrawal, a beautiful dancer who followed the workshop with a solo performance of Bharatanatyam, a genre of the Indian classical tradition, based on steps of 3-4-5, 7 and 9.
The day finished with energetic performances of Stravinsky’s Firebird, Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été, and William Walton’s Symphony No. 1, perfect to send us off back into the world. Tomorrow Joan Ishibashi and I will be leaving the Festival—she will return to London, and I’ll spend the night at London Heathrow Airport for a flight the next day to Norway!
