“A Christmas Festival” 1. Stage Centre Goff Richards 2. Into the Light Jay Bocook 3. Benedictus from The Armed Man Mass Karl Jenkins 4. Sarah Holden: Three Gershwin numbers George and Ira Gershwin 5. Dance of the Snowmen Howard Blake 6. Finnegan’s Wake Archibald James Potter 7. King Kong Soundtrack Highlights James Newton Howard ** INTERVAL – REFRESHMENTS IN AID OF CRISIS ** 8. Strathcarron – Sword Dance Philip Sparke 9. Colonial Song Percy Aldridge Grainger 10. Sarah Holden: I. Pie Jesu & In Paradisum from Requiem Karl Jenkins II. The Time of Snow Bob Chilcott 11. Sleigh Ride Leroy Anderson 12. A ‘Home Alone’ Christmas John Williams ** RETIRING COLLECTION IN AID OF CRISIS ** Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people. Crisis opens seven centres from 23 to 30 December offering homeless or vulnerably housed people companionship, access to essential services, learning opportunities and a programme of entertainment If you have any comments on tonight’s concert or would like to join our mailing list, please complete a feedback form and deposit at the back of the Church Programme Notes by Guy Wilson, Master of the Armouries. In this arrangement for concert band the solo is played on the soprano saxophone. Stage Centre (1981) Sarah Holden: Three Gershwin numbers Goff Richards (b.1944) George and Ira Gershwin (1898-1937; 1896-1983) Goff Richards was born in Cornwall and after studying at the Royal College of They Can't Take That Away From Me from ‘Shall We Dance?’ (1937) Music and Reading University, embarked on a career as a composer, arranger I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise from George White's ‘Scandals of 1922’ (1922) and conductor. His works have been performed by the King’s Singers, the Swingle The Man I Love from ‘Lady, Be Good’ (1924) Singers, various BBC Orchestras, Huddersfield Choral Society, London Brass, Evelyn Glennie, Benjamin Luxon and all leading Brass and Military Bands. He Dance of the Snowmen (1982) writes extensively for BBC television, with past commissions including ‘Songs of Howard Blake (b.1938), arr. Hannah Balcombe Praise’, and he has contributed regularly to BBC Radio Two programmes, Howard Blake is one of the most popular and prolific living English composers. He conducting the Goff Richards Orchestra and Burnished Brass among others. has written film scores, such as 'The Duellists' and 'A Month in the Country', and many concert works, including his piano concerto for Princess Diana Into the Light (1995) commissioned by the Philharmonia. Blake wrote the words and music for the Jay Bocook classic animated Channel 4 TV film 'The Snowman', from which Dance of the Into the Light was commissioned by the Verona, New Jersey High School Wind Snowmen is taken. Its concert version continues to receive many performances Ensemble, in memory of a clarinettist in the band. The piece is composed of two worldwide, and the stage version runs every year at Sadlers Wells in London. main sections, one reflective and one soaring and hopeful. It opens with rising- Howard Blake received the O.B.E. for services to music in 1994. scale clusters in the woodwinds and melodic fragments in tuned percussion. Eventually the reflective main theme is introduced in the clarinets and after Finnegan’s Wake (1957) extensive development modulates to a majestic statement by the full ensemble. A Archibald James Potter (1918-1980) brief transition leads to the second section: Allegro. A secondary theme is Archie Potter was the son of a blind Belfast piano tuner. Raised by relatives in introduced by horns and trumpets accompanied by flourishes in the woodwinds. Kent, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London and studied After more development, the main theme from part one returns in the brasses with Vaughan Williams. A significant figure in Irish music, Potter is particularly while the woodwinds and melodic percussion support with punctuating cross known for his arrangement of the Dublin ballad Finnegan's Wake . The sensitivity rhythms. The work closes in celebration and a feeling of transcendence. of his personality, and his concern about injustice and intolerance, are all evident in his best works. He was also a broadcaster, examiner, teacher and writer. Benedictus from ‘The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace’ (2000) Karl Jenkins (b.1944) King Kong Soundtrack Highlights (2005) Karl Jenkins is described as ‘the most popular classical composer you've never James Newton Howard (b.1951), arr. Jay Bocook heard of’. Sales of his choral music are into the millions worldwide and he is the James Newton Howard is a multiple Academy Award nominated film composer. UK's biggest-selling living classical composer. The Armed Man was voted as the After leaving college, he toured with Elton John as a keyboardist during the late eighth-best piece of classical music ever by the listeners of Classic FM. 1970s and early 1980s before moving into film music. He scored the surprise Born in Penclawdd, South Wales, he studied piano and oboe as a child, becoming blockbuster ‘Pretty Woman’ and received his first Academy Award nomination for principal oboe in the National youth Orchestra of Wales. He then went on the read his score for Barbra Streisand's drama ‘The Prince of Tides’. Howard's skills music at the University of Wales and at the Royal Academy of Music. In the 1970s encompass a plethora of genres, including ‘The Fugitive’, ‘My Best Friend's he played with Ronnie Scott's jazz band and jazz-rock fusion band Soft Machine, Wedding’ , ‘ The Village’ and ‘Wyatt Earp’. He has also contributed music for TV before starting to composr for advertisements and television. series, earning an Emmy nomination in 1995 for his theme to ‘ER’. The Armed Man is a call to arms dating from the mid-15th century, when the ** Interval ** Ottoman Turks were threatening to overrun the whole of Europe. Jenkins’ interpretation is an hour-long work, standing comparison with Britten’s War (Refreshments available at the back of the Church in aid of Crisis) Requiem. The Royal Armouries commissioned it to celebrate the Millennium, but much of Jenkins’ inspiration came from the shock of the short but savage war in Kosovo. The Benedictus , which actually comes after the battle in the main work, is quite short and tranquil, introducing the sad poem ‘Now the Guns have Stopped’ Strathcarron – Sword Dance from ‘Hymn of the Highlands’ (2003) A ‘Home Alone’ Christmas (1993) Philip Sparke (b.1951) John Williams (b.1932), arr. Paul Lavender Philip Sparke is a composer who often writes for brass and wind bands. John Williams is one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful Strathcarron is a movement from his Hymn of the Highlands in which each composers in US history, having composed over 80 film scores. Created during movement reflects a different location in the beautiful Scottish highlands. one of Williams' best and strongest periods ever, shortly after the score for Strathcarron , named after a village at the head of Loch Carron, near the Isle of ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, and just before his music for ‘Hook’ and Skye, takes the form of a sword dance, alternating between fast and slow tempos. ‘Far and Away’, A ‘Home Alone’ Christmas is packed with the kind of lyricism, playfulness and warmth that made those scores so likeable and loved. Colonial Song (1913) To create a Christmas sound, Williams uses an array of percussive and rhythmic Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) instruments, as well as lots of brass. Setting the Trap adds a soft rock'n'roll Originally written for piano as a birthday gift to Grainger’s mother Rose in 1911, drumbeat, with Christmas carols sneaking in and out of the music, while Holiday the first version of Colonial Song for winds was written in 1913 and premiered Flight and Making the Plane pay homage to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker suite. under Edwin Franko Goldman’s baton in 1919. In this piece, Grainger wished to express feelings aroused by the scenery of his native country, Australia. Sarah Holden: Pie Jesu & In Paradisum from ‘Requiem’ (2005) Karl Jenkins (b.1944) (Our thanks go to Michelle Jobson for these programme notes.) Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. O sweet Lord Jesus, grant them rest; Dona eis requiem sempiternam. grant them everlasting rest In paradisum deducant te Angel; May angels lead you into paradise; in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres, may the martyrs receive you at your et perducant te in civitatem sanctam coming and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, May a choir of angels receive you, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere and with Lazarus, who once was poor, aeternam habeas requiem. may you have eternal rest. Sarah Holden: The Time of Snow (1998) Biographies Bob Chilcott (b.1955) Bob Chilcott was a chorister at Kings’ College, Cambridge and is one of Britain’s Da Capo Concert Band most active composers and choral conductors. The Time of Snow tells of Mary Da Capo Concert Band was founded in November 1997 by a group of former and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem, set against a bleak winter landscape. members of Barnet Schools’ Music Centres who had 'grown-up' and found themselves back in North London post-school/university with nowhere to play their Sleigh Ride (1948) musical instruments. The Band was therefore formed, with the principal objective Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) of providing amateur adult woodwind, brass and percussion players with a The music of Leroy Anderson is firmly entrenched in American popular culture. A friendly, dynamic and challenging environment in which to play. composer of distinctive and delightful miniatures, his best-known works include The Band’s name includes an Italian musical term - Da Capo - meaning 'from the The Syncopated Clock, Blue Tango and Sleigh Ride.