The Sandham Singers present A Concert of Advent Readings and Carols Sunday, 4th December 2016 at 4 pm St Mary’s Church, Greenham, Newbury, RG19 8RZ Directed by Janet Coxwell Accompanied by Steve Bowey Retiring collection in aid of: St Mary’s Church and The Sandham Singers Charity No 1142323 The Programme Edward Elgar From the Bavarian Highlands Interval Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace Conductor: Cathal Garvey Orchestra: Southern Sinfonia Pianist and organist: Steve Bowey Imam: Moynul Haque, from the Newbury Mosque The solo parts in The Armed Man will be sung by members of the choir. We are grateful to the following organisations for their support: The Englefield Charitable Trust Please visit www.newburychoral.org.uk/ConcertFeedback to tell us about your experience of our performance. This programme was printed by Newbury College Print Room. 3 Programme Notes by Jane Hawker Edward Elgar (1857-1934) From the Bavarian Highlands Sir Edward Elgar came from humble beginnings, was a self-taught musician and a Roman Catholic, all of which contributed to his feeling of alienation from the establishment of his country. He was, however, honoured for his achievements in his lifetime: he was knighted in 1904, and made Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Known for his patriotic works (especially the Pomp and Circumstance marches) Elgar was horrified by the carnage of war, as reflected in his choral piece The Spirit of England, written in 1916. At 57 when the 1914-18 war began, he signed up as a special constable and joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the Army, the First World War equivalent of the Home Guard. Elgar's choral suite, From the Bavarian Highlands, is a product of much happier times when he and his wife, Alice, took a series of holidays in Garmisch, a mountain resort in Bavaria, in the 1890s. They walked in the mountains during the day and in the evenings watched the dances at local inns. In the autumn of 1894, Elgar wrote six songs, for which Alice supplied the words, adapted from German folk music of the region. She gave each song a subtitle related to favourite places from their visits. The piece was dedicated to the ex-patriot couple, the Slingsby Bethells, who owned the guesthouse where the Elgars stayed year after year. Five of the songs are in triple time, and only the second one, False Love, sounds a sad note. They are gentle parodies of the Bavarian style, illustrating the spirit of the local dances, rather than copies or translations of actual folk songs, and were first performed in 1896 at the Worcester Festival. Elgar arranged numbers 1, 3 and 6 as an orchestral suite called Three Bavarian Dances. 4 1. The Dance (SonnenBichl) Come and hasten to the dancing, Merry eyes will soon be glancing, Ha! My heart upbounds! Come and dance a merry measure, Quaff the bright brown ale my treasure, Hark! What joyous sounds! Sweet-heart come, on let us haste, On, on, no time let us waste, With my heart I love thee! Dance, dance, for rest we disdain, Turn, twirl, and spin round again, With my arm I hold thee! Down the path the lights are gleaming, Friendly faces gladly beaming Welcome us with song. Dancing makes the heart grow lighter, Makes the world and life grow brighter As we dance along! 2. False Love (Wamberg) Now we hear the Spring's sweet voice Singing gladly thro' the world; Bidding all the earth rejoice. All is merry in the field, Flowers grow amid the grass, Blossoms blue, red, white they yield. As I seek my maiden true, Sings the little lark on high Fain to send her praises due. 5 As I climb and reach her door, Ah! I see a rival there, So farewell for evermore! Ever true was I to thee, Never grieved or vexed thee, love, False, oh! false, art thou to me. Now amid the forest green, Far from cruel eyes that mock Will I dwell unloved, unseen. 3. Lullaby (In HammersBach) Sleep, my son, oh! slumber softly, While thy mother watches o'er thee, Nothing can affright or harm thee. Oh! sleep, my son. Far-away Zithers play, Dancing gay, Calls today. Vainly play Zithers gay, Here I stay All the day. Happily Guarding thee, Peacefully Watching thee. Sleep, my son, oh! slumber softly, While thy mother watches o'er thee, Oh! sleep, my son. 6 4. Aspiration (Aspiration Bei Sankt Anton) Over the heights the snow lies deep, Sunk is the land in peaceful sleep; Here by the house of God we pray, Lead, Lord, our souls today. Shielding, like the silent snow, Fall His mercies here below. Calmly then, like the snow-bound land, Rest we in His protecting hand: Bowing, we wait His mighty will, Lead, Lord, and guide us still. 5. On the Alm (Hoch Alp) A mellow bell peals near, It has so sweet a sound; I know a maiden dear With voice as full and round. A sunlit alm shines clear, With clover blossoms sweet; There dwells my maiden dear And there my love I meet. There flying with no fear The swallows pass all day, And fast, my maiden dear, Sees chamois haste away. I cannot linger here, I cannot wait below; To seek my maiden dear, I, to the alm, must go. The mountain's call I hear, And up the height I bound; I know my maiden dear Will mark my Juchhé sound. 7 Rejoicing come I here My flaxen-haired sweet-heart; I love thee, maiden dear, Nay! bid me not depart! Notes: an alm is a high mountain pasture. Juchhé represents the sound of yodelling. 6. The Marksmen (Bei Murnau) Come from the mountain side, Come from the valleys wide, See, how we muster strong, Tramping along! Rifle on shoulder sling, Powder and bullets bring, Manly in mind and heart, Play we our part. Sure be each eye today, Steady each hand must stay, If in the trial we Victors would be! Sharp is the crack! 'tis done! Lost is the chance, or won; Right in the gold is it? Huzza! the hit! The sun will sink and light the west And touch the peaks with crimson glow; Then shadows fill the vale with rest While stars look peace on all below. In triumph then we take our way, And with our prizes homeward wend; Through meadows sweet with new-mown hay, A song exultant will we send. Interval 8 Karl Jenkins (b.1944) The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace Welsh composer Karl Jenkins has music in his blood. The son of a chapel organist and choirmaster, he played the piano and oboe and became Principal oboist of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He read music at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and was a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music. Leaving the Academy he made his name as a jazz musician, playing oboe, saxophone, piano and keyboards. In the late 1960s he co-founded the jazz-rock band Nucleus and in 1972 joined Soft Machine, one of the most influential bands of its time, which pioneered a variety of innovative musical styles including progressive rock and minimalism. Karl Jenkins' compositions for the media, especially advertising, not only earned him prestigious industry awards but introduced him to ethnic music, which has informed his musical life ever since. He has achieved global success with his many choral compositions and has seventeen gold and platinum disc awards. In 2005 he was awarded an OBE, a CBE in 2010, and in 2015 he became the first Welsh-born composer to receive a knighthood, for his services to music. Jenkins says that he is committed to writing good, memorable tunes. He describes himself as a 'musical tourist' who rejects the confines of categorisation. He confesses to being an idealist and infuses his work with a strong spiritual dimension. He has been criticised in musical circles for being too accessible, but people all over the world want to sing and listen to his music. The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace was commissioned by the Royal Armouries, the UK's National Museum of Arms and Armour, to commemorate the millennium. Master of the Armouries at the time, Guy Wilson, put together a series of texts that would reflect the organisation's desire to promote an understanding of the consequences of war, while looking ahead with optimism to a new millennium of peace. 9 The result is a mixture of sacred and secular texts, in a variety of poetry and prose styles and from different cultures, all within the broader framework of the Christian Mass. Jenkins took up the challenge to work with the Royal Armouries to compose the music, and dedicated it to the victims of the war in Kosovo that was happening as he wrote it. 1. The Armed Man The catalyst for the entire piece was the tune of the first movement, L'Homme Armé, a secular song written in Burgundy between 1450 and 1463, bearing the message that the armed man must be feared. This simple melody went on to become widely used by Renaissance composers for settings of the Latin Mass, ensuring that it survived to this day. Jenkins builds the rhythm of this movement with repetition of the short lines of French text. The marching feet and military drums contrast strongly with the voices of the choir, the ordinary people who suffer when the powerful go to war. L'homme, l'homme, l'homme armé, L'homme armé L'homme armé doit on douter, doit on douter.