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Songs of Serenity and Peace
30 October 2023 @ 1:15 pm – 2:15 pm
Spiritual music for choir and organ from around the British Isles
St. Anne’s Cathedral, Cookridge St, LS2 8BE
1.15pm, free admission
This programme of music for Choir and Organ starts in joyful and upbeat mood. It then transitions through expressions of both inward and outward turbulence to that sense of serenity and peace which maybe only music can invoke. A spiritual oasis during the working day!
The concert will last about 50 minutes.
Programme
| O Sing unto the Lord | James MacMillan |
| Let the people praise thee O God | William Mathias |
| For lo, I raise up | Charles Villiers Stanford |
| Nunc Dimittis | Gustav Holst |
| Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks | Herbert Howells |
| Lo, the full final sacrifice | Gerald Finzi |
St Peter’s Singers
Lee Ward organ
Alexander Woodrow Conductor
This programme draws on music from all four corners of the British Isles (Stanford’s anthem being composed in Dublin in 1914, although not published until 1939). MacMillan and Mathias, Scottish and Welsh respectively, set Psalm texts in upbeat and joyful mood. Stanford’s extraordinary setting of the prophet Habbakuk invokes the turbulence and upheaval brought by men of war before finding his way – via every choirboy’s favourite solo line ‘I will stand upon my watch’ – to a vision of serene hope. Howells’ and Holst’s works express that longing of the soul for inner peace, a theme developed and expressed in more florid language by Richard Crashaw, a poet in the Metaphysical tradition of John Donne and Thomas Traherne. As with so many English poets, Finzi demonstrates his extraordinary feel for this text, while the final ‘Amen’ won a recent light-hearted vote on Twitter for the best musical setting of the word…
This concert if promoted and provided free of charge by Leeds Leisure Services as part of the International Concert Season. St Peter’s Singers are grateful for the invitation to take part.
