Auckland Chamber Orchestra Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
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RICHARD DAVY, JACK BODY, DAVID FARQUHAR, ROSS HARRIS, LISSA MERIDAN, MICHAEL NORRIS, GILLIAN WHITEHEAD PASSIO AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR FREE PROGRAMME WWW.AAF.CO.NZ / #AKLFEST FACEBOOK.COM/AKLFESTIVAL @AKLFESTIVAL WITH SUPPORT FROM @AKLFESTIVAL PASSIO FOR VOICES, BRASS, WOODWIND AND PERCUSSION SUNDAY 19 MARCH, 5.00PM POST-SHOW TALK SUNDAY 19 MARCH GREAT HALL, AUCKLAND TOWN HALL 1 HOUR 15 MINS NO INTERVAL NAU MAI HAERE MAI KI TE AHUREI TOI O TĀMAKI MAKAURAU Welcome to the 2017 Auckland Arts Festival Great artists cause controversy, start revolutions and little by little change the world. Festivals like ours are a catalyst for change creating opportunities for artists to communicate with audiences and audiences to respond to artists’ work. Throughout the Festival you will find small threads that deal with our world today. We hope that the work in the Festival can make you think, laugh, scream a little and perhaps even cry. Many years ago Jack asked me to present Passio, a unique work that has only ever had one performance before. The right moment to stage it never arose. I was determined for my last Festival that I would honour Jack and all New Zealand composers by presenting this extraordinary work that spans centuries from 1500 to 2006. It was a risk – I hope you think it was a worthwhile risk. My special thanks to Gillian Whitehead, Peter Scholes and Karen Grylls for helping to make this dream possible. The Festival’s CEO David Inns (my partner and collaborator of many years), our Board and staff, hope you have a fabulous Festival. We hope that you enjoy the beauty and complexity of the art presented and value its importance in our society. Join the revolution. Carla van Zon, David Inns and the Festival Team AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA The Auckland Chamber Orchestra is thrilled to be part of the 2017 Auckland Arts Festival and to support the performance of Passio. The ACO was founded by Peter Scholes in 1999. It continues a nine-year tradition begun by the Auckland Sinfonietta and now has eighteen successful seasons to its credit. Delivering entertaining, beautiful, challenging and provocative work is the driving force behind the ACO’s artistic vision. ACO programming explores repertoire from throughout music history and has a big emphasis on the music of the last 100 years. Since its inception the ACO has performed orchestral work, chamber music, opera, silent movies, recorded cds, film scores and children's concerts. VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, with Music Director Dr Karen Grylls, made its début at the 1998 New Zealand International Arts Festival and later that year won awards at the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain. With its distinct New Zealand sound, performing music from Aotearoa and infusing the qualities of its pacific origins into the classic choral repertoire, Voices has established itself as the country’s premier national and professional choir. It is the choir-of-choice for arts festivals and special projects. Recent Auckland Arts Festival appearances include Ata Reira, A Child of our Time and Requiem for the Fallen. Critically acclaimed recordings include Spirit of the Land, and Voice of the Soul. CREDITS AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR PETER SCHOLES CHOIR DIRECTOR DR KAREN GRYLLS - VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR AND VOCAL CONSULTANT ROBERT WIREMU CHOIR VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR with LACHLAN CRAIG - THE EVANGELIST JOEL AMOSA - CHRISTUS MADELEINE PIERARD - SPIRITUS COMPOSERS RICHARD DAVY (1467?-1538) JACK BODY DAVID FARQUHAR ROSS HARRIS LISSA MERIDAN MICHAEL NORRIS GILLIAN WHITEHEAD LIGHTING DESIGN SANDY GUNN IN ASSOCIATION WITH GILLIAN WHITEHEAD REMEMBERS Little is known for certain of the Tudor composer, organist, choirmaster and priest Richard Davy, born over half a millennium ago around 1465, beyond his association with Magdalen College in Oxford around 1483. Amongst his compositions found in the Eton Choirbook, one of the few surviving collections of pre-Reformation choral music, is his Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christe, a setting of the passion according to St Matthew, traditionally associated with Palm Sunday. Davy's Passio, the first setting of a passion by a named composer, was written well over 200 years before the form of the Passion reached its zenith in Bach's setting of the Passion according to St Matthew. The latter was composed in 1727 for four soloists, double choir and double orchestra, with a libretto involving chorales and meditations and commentaries in the form of arias as well as the biblical text which is set as recitative. Davy's Passio is a much simpler elaboration of the gospel text, which is chanted simply by two voices - the evangelist (tenor) and Christ (bass) with the choir taking the various voices of the crowd and apostles. Although the first few choral utterances are missing, and have been reconstructed by musicologists, there is no doubting the strength and drama of Davy's choral music, mostly homophonic with some imitation, and occasionally melismatic and florid, with perhaps some word illustration - the setting of the word 'liberare' (free) and the phrase 'Vere Filius Dei erat iste' (Truly this was the son of God) seem particularly melismatic, while the word 'crucifigatur' (crucify) sets the five syllables simply on just one chord. Jack Body, who died in 2015, was an extraordinary man and musician; a ground-breaking composer, inspirational teacher, internationally respected ethnomusicologist and entrepreneur. One passion of his was exploring the music of other countries - mainly Asian, and in particular Chinese and Indonesian - and basing many of his compositions on aspects of those musics. Another passion was for collaborations; bringing together musicians from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and, with a gift for friendship, building extensive international networks which he generously shared with his students and colleagues. In 1980 he was appointed to the staff at Victoria University of Wellington (later the New Zealand School of Music). A facet of his prolific output is his initiation, over the thirty plus years he worked there, of more than 40 CD projects (ranging from field recordings through music by a wide range of New Zealand composers to his own electro-acoustic works) and the setting up and funding of around 52 composer or performer residencies, mainly from Asia, but also America, New Zealand (mostly expatriates) and Europe. Throughout his life he was drawn to the drama of men or nations in religious or political extremis, from his early Carol to Saint Stephen through works like Sarajevo or 14 Stations for amplified pianist to My name is Mok Bhon and O Cambodia, which both draw on the Pol Pot persecutions. When Jack was drawn to Davy's Passio, which charts the drama of Christ from his betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane to his death following crucifixion, he realised both the quality of the choral writing, and that there was rather too much chanted material for the original Passio to appeal to a modern audience; however, adding 'commentaries' composed for voices, brass, woodwind and percussion could produce a powerful and dramatic experience. Collaboration was a very important process for Jack; in this instance he brought together the skills and talents of six composers associated with the New Zealand School of Music - the four staff composers Ross Harris, Lissa Meridan, Michael Norris and Jack himself, Emeritus Professor David Farquhar, and myself as the current Creative New Zealand/Jack C. Richards Composer-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music. One evening we all went to look at the potential of the Great Hall in Massey University's Museum Building which has an astonishing reverberation period, then sat round and together devised the plan for the performance; the main group of performers would be centrally placed, there would be three additional groups spaced far apart surrounding the performance area and the audience would be free to walk around during the performance to experience the sound from different angles. Jack had divided the score into six tranches and we each chose one, and were free to complete the orchestration however we wished - there were no guidelines, except the request that the transition from one section to another should be discussed by the two composers involved. We also decided that, in the spirit of collaboration, the composers' contributions should not be identified, as the passion should be organic and seemingly through- composed, rather than six disparate attributable compositions. The one performance took place on June 2nd, 2006, with Alistair Carey singing the role of the Evangelist and directing the Tudor Consort, and Owen Clarke conducting the Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. It was an intensely moving experience for everyone involved, with its combination of Renaissance polyphony and twenty-first century orchestral colour, the audience mostly standing or moving quietly in the half-light. Although the orchestration is the same, this version is slightly different in that it is performed by Voices New Zealand - a choir rather than an ensemble, and an augmented Auckland Chamber Orchestra rather than a wind band, which sets up slightly different problems in the interaction of the two conductors. And it is performed in the Auckland Town Hall, which, although a resonant space, lacks the eight-second delay of the Great Hall; this, however, gives scope for a greater dramatic impact from the choir. for clarinet and Javanese Gamelan. COMPOSERS As the manager of Victoria University’s Gamelan Padhang Moncar, he stimulated the creation of new Richard Davy (1467?-1538) Composer compositions, which were recorded and broadcast. Little is known of the life of the fifteenth century English These included works for gamelan and piano, gamelan Renaissance composer Richard Davy, beyond his birth in and orchestra, gamelan and organ, gamelan and 1465, his studies at Magdalen College Oxford and choral plainsong etc.