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A Voice for Singing – Harmonium Singers Summer Concert
24th June 2017 @ 7:30 pm
The Harmonium Singers’ summer concert this year celebrates 500 years of choral music and song since the Lutheran Reformation of 1517. Music includes choral items from the Lutheran tradition, plus anthems and parts songs from closer to home.
Entitled ‘With A Voice Of Singing’, the concert opens with the joyous anthem of the same name by Martin Shaw. Then we hear a sequence of music stemming from Martin Luther’s philosophy of giving the people their voice in worship, or at least speaking to them directly in their own language – something which has had a profound effect on choral music ever since.
Lutheran texts and translations hugely influenced the likes of Bach, Mendelssohn and Brahms. The concert includes music by all three, accompanied on two pianos by Peter Gilks and Gwilym Stacey. In particular we’ll hear two movements from the Brahms German Requiem using piano-duet accompaniment based on the composer’s own arrangement which was used for the first British performance in 1871 (sung in English, incidentally).
The programme also includes music by British composers, with a special focus on the use of song to give voice to the beauty of nature and love.
Proceeds will go to the St Michael’s church redevelopment project.
Under 14’s go free.
