Souvenir Programme £2.00

Souvenir Programme £2.00 LCS is a registered charity number 1116555 EMVC is a registered charity number 1097085 IAN ASS ERSO HN DIES IRAE LEATHERHEAD CHORAL SOCIETY | EPSOM MALE VOICE CHOIR FARNHAM YOUTH JUNIOR CHOIR SARAH LEONARD SOPRANO | RICHARD BANNAN BARITONE ACCOMPANIED BY CAMERATA OF LONDON CONDUCTED BY IAN ASSERSOHN ABOUT THE CONCERT Dies Irae lasts about 70 minutes in performance and percussion of Camerata of London who are joined takes up the entire second half of tonight’s programme. by Leatherhead’s accompanist Gina Eason, Epsom’s The shorter first half sets the scene, as it were, and accompanist Lynda Chang, and George Boote on introduces many of tonight’s performers. We begin with trumpet. a short string work by an Australian composer, Frederick Septimus (“Cleg”) Kelly. He was a pianist, a We are lucky to be joined tonight by two first-class composer and an Olympic rower who was killed in the soloists: Soprano Sarah Leonard, who has made a last days of The Somme on 13th November 1916. This speciality of performing contemporary music, and work is an elegy for his close friend, the poet Rupert baritone Richard Bannan, a singer and conductor Brooke, who had died the previous year. The shadow of with a wide and varied solo career under his belt. Rupert Brooke lies over both the opening and closing As a mark of respect to the soldiers there will be a notes of tonight’s concert - his poem “The Dead” short silence before the final movement of Dies Irae , supplies the final lines of Dies Irae . and we would respectfully ask you to help us To round out the concert, the three choirs will each observe this. The off-stage trumpet that signals the be performing short works of their own choice and end of the silence is provided by Zoe Triantafillou. our soprano soloist, Sarah Leonard, will sing the We would also like to thank the whistle-blowers of moving Pie Jesu from Fauré’s Requiem: “Pious Lord Epsom who will blow their authentic Acme-brand Jesus, Give them Rest”. whistles to signal the start of the battle (movement You will see and hear around 230 performers 10), just as the officers did in the trenches . tonight; apart from Leatherhead Choral Society and #diesirae Epsom Male Voice choir we are delighted to be joined by the youngsters of Farnham Youth Choir’s I Tonight we are delighted to support The Royal junior boys and girls and training choirs. Orchestral British Legion Poppy Appeal by having a collection accompaniment is provided by the strings and for them at the end of the perfomance. From the Composer Hello and welcome to this very special concert. I first had Somme in which they describe the experience as being like the idea for this event early in 2014 and it has been a witnessing the end of the world. It is well nigh impossible labour of love ever since. It began, as composi5ons do, as a of course to really convey, or even to really comprehend, solitary ac5vity, but the wonderful people that it is my good what it was like, but to help me try to evoke the scale of the fortune to work with in the choirs soon turned it into a ba6le I turned not to contemporary accounts but to John team effort, and I would like to take this opportunity to pay Milton’s masterpiece, Paradise Lost and its uncannily my respects, and to give my hear4elt thanks, to all those prescient depic5on of the ba6le of the two armies of God people whose 5reless (and voluntary) work and boundless and Satan. We hear this text alternately with the opening enthusiasm have enabled this concert to happen. words of the Dies Irae itself. My ini5al idea, back in 2014, was ambi5ous: to create a Thank you for coming; I really hope that you enjoy musical work of sufficient depth and scale as to honour tonight’s concert. I don’t know if this will be the first and the men who fought at The Ba6le of The Somme exactly a last performance of Dies Irae , or if this is just the start of hundred years ago. Both Leatherhead Choral Society, with its life - only 5me will tell. What I do know is that it’s been whom I have worked for 15 years, and Epsom Male Voice an epic journey to get here, and that it’s changed me - Choir, who at that 5me hardly knew me at all, showed I hope for the be6er. enormous trust and vision in agreeing to commission this IAN ASSERSOHN work from me, and I will always be grateful to them for that . The Ba+le of the Somme To help finance this performance we asked the choir members to become involved in various sponsorship The Ba6le of the Somme, also known as the Somme ideas and I was also thrilled and moved by the generous Offensive, was a ba6le of the First World War fought response to this ini5a5ve. As a result this is not “my” along a 15-mile front on both sides of the upper reaches piece any more - it’s ours: I couldn’t be more pleased. of the River Somme in France. The armies of the Bri5sh and French Empires were pi6ed against the forces of the As I began to plan the work two things quickly became German Empire in a war of a6ri5on that resulted in more apparent. One was that it wasn’t only about the soldiers: than a million dead and wounded. It was one of the there were other stories to be told, not least about the bloodiest ba6les in human history. impact on those they le% behind. And with the genera5on of young men who died at The Somme something else died The ba6le began on 1 July 1916 and officially ended on too; all kinds of possible futures for art, and for society, became 18 November 1916. The first day of the ba6le was a closed off and, at least in England, a sort of pastoral idyll was disaster for the Bri5sh army, the costliest day in its history, smashed. I have tried to use what limited expressive powers with over 19,000 men killed. Many of the Bri5sh soldiers I have to evoke these things in the music, using references to were untested in ba6le, being members of Kitchener's folksong, children’s rhymes and to the roman5c musical newly-formed army, which included many so-called “Pals’ language of composers whose lives were cut short by the war Ba6alions”, recruited from the same places and occupa5ons. - people like Bu6erworth, Ivor Gurney and Frederick Kelly. Technology played an increasingly important part in the I se6led in the end on an unusual, possibly for all I know ba6le, from the deadly German machine guns to the unique, configura5on of three different choirs: a mixed introduc5on of the tank by the Bri5sh in September, voice choir, a male voice choir and a children’s choir. This through to the developments in aeroplane design which enabled me to explore the drama5c contrasts between the led to German air superiority. choirs, as well as to bring them all together at certain key points in the work. The ba6le was suspended in November due to the terrible weather in October and the onset of winter. It might The other thing I realised is that The Somme, for all its have resumed in the spring but the surprise German horrors, isn’t unique. There have been, and con5nue to be, withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 meant many terrible ba6les. I wanted to avoid too narrow a reference that the ba6le was effec5vely over. to the specific events of 1916 in order to give the piece some kind of wider applicability. I’m afraid all this makes me sound Alan Seeger was an American poet (and uncle of the singer very preten5ous, but I really have done my absolute best to Pete Seeger) whose poem “I have a rendezvous with death” avoid pretension in the music, and to try to write something appears in Dies Irae in the movement called “Foreboding”. that was approachable and yet in some way worthy of the His last le6er wri6en to a friend on 28 June as he waited to subject. I suppose we’ll find out tonight to what extent I have be called up to the Front reads “We go up to the a6ack succeeded. tomorrow. This will probably be the biggest thing yet. We are to have the honor of marching in the first wave. I will Choosing a 5tle for the work gave me a lot of trouble. Dies write you soon if I get through all right. If not, my only Irae (pronounced “Dee-ez Ee-ray”) is a La5n phrase, taken earthly care is for my poems. I am glad to be going in the from the text of the Requiem Mass, meaning “Day of first wave. If you are in this thing at all it is best to be in to Anger” or “Day of Wrath”, in other words “Judgement Day”. the limit. And this is the supreme experience.” Seeger died, Apart from the musical resonances of the phrase it seemed along with so many others, on 1 July 1916, the first day of very fi7ng as there are interviews with survivors of The the Ba6le. The Poets Dies Irae uses text from a number of named poets, listed EDWARD THOMAS (1878 - 1917): English poet, essayist, and below in chronological order of their birth.

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