The Erleigh Cantors put on a concert of music for double choir at St. Peter’s, Caversham in May, which I sang in.<\/p>\n
The most complex item on the programme was the Magnificat by Giles Swayne, which we sang at Southwark Cathedral a few years ago<\/a>. Although I was doing the other soprano part I found it rather more straightforwards second time round, and was struck at the natural ease of the vocal writing – even the vertiginous soprano part towards the end (as I wrote before, ‘the top B’s … are just a courtesy detail’) proved to fall into place without difficulty.<\/p>\n There were some new pieces for me: somehow I’ve missed Tavener’s Hymn to the Mother of God<\/i> until now, and also only knew Mendelssohn’s Ave Maria<\/i> from having heard other people perform it. Another Ave Maria<\/i> was the eight-part setting for upper voices by Holst, which I’d done before but this time was singing a different part.<\/p>\n We did some earlier music too: Schütz’ setting of Psalm 100 Jauchzet dem Herrn<\/i> (another new piece to me) and Charles Theodor Pachelbel’s Magnificat. Two English pieces ended the programme: Vaughan Williams’ Te Deum<\/i> in G (which seemed very familiar but in fact I’d only sung it once before, so I must have known it from having heard it) and as an encore Howells’ early Latin Nunc Dimittis<\/i>.<\/p>\n The concert benefited a local charity and we had a sizeable and appreciative audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Erleigh Cantors put on a concert of music for double choir at St. Peter’s, Caversham in May, which I sang in. The most complex item on the programme was the Magnificat by Giles Swayne, which we sang at Southwark … Continue reading