Today was our last Three Choirs Festival concert before we head back to London Heathrow and on to the next part of our journey. We heard a huge contingent from the Sydney Philharmonic Choirs, about 150 people out of an organization of 2,000 singers! There were many familiar pieces, such as the opener, Hubert Parry’s “I was glad,” John Ireland’s “Greater love hath no man,” Benjamin Britten’s “Hymn to the Virgin,” and William Harris’ “Faire is the heaven.”
However, I really enjoyed the works by contemporary Australian composers Joseph Twist and Alice Chance, especially her Sanctus.
For her Agnus Dei, Alice Chance worked in consultation with her friend and collaborator Kaylynn Zaro, a song and language custodian of Mer Island (Murray Island in the Torres Strait).
‘Early on,’ she writes, ‘I wanted this piece to offer a moment of stillness and reflection and so I turned to the Agnus Dei from the traditional requiem mass. I wondered whether it might offer a chance to explore the setting of other languages, rather than the usual Latin.’ Kaylynn Zaro, together with her husband Noel and other Mer Elders offered Chance a traditional hymn whose lyrics translated to ‘Lamb of God’ in her culture. ‘I realised there was already so much music inherent in this language, and that music went hand in hand with the lyrics of the old song she’d sung to me.’
But for the closing piece director Brett Weymark asked us all to join in singing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Old Hundredth,” a “tune as famous as the Hallelujah Chorus” resulting in an automatic standing ovation, which is unknown in these parts. It’s such a thrilling sensation to me to hear a congregation in a full cathedral sing their hearts out!
As we leave Gloucester, I especially am grateful to my friend, Joan Ishibashi for driving us from London and back and forth to all concerts and points of interest. We are especially thankful that her husband, Kantila Vaghela, loaned us his car and had to take the bus to work all week! Thank you, Kan!
I was also happy to renew acquaintances with my Three Choirs friends.
Rich Arenschieldt (standing) with Corita Debose (Houston) and Juli (Rich’s neighbor in Wales) 
Bill Potter, with Corita Debose and Clare Stevens 
Rick Cicinelli (San Francisco) and Noreen Naughton (Honolulu) 
John and Rosemary Allsop (Worcester UK) 
Peter and Barbara Hulac and sons (Colorado) 
American Friends dinner.
See you next year in Worcester!
Here are a bunch of photos I took that were interesting to me but I haven’t posted previously.
