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About
the
Society
David
Flood
Musical Director
Membership
Concert
Dates
Order
Form
(for tickets)
Patronage
The
Wedding
Singers
The Town Cryer
(Concert News)
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Announcing
Our Concert
on
Saturday 10th July 2004
@ 7 30 pm
in
The Quire, Canterbury Cathedral
Programme
Egmont
Overture
by
Ludwig van Beethoven
Vespers
by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Interval
- 15 minutes
Che
Faro - from the Opera ‘Orfeo'
Katherine Lewis
- Contralto
by
Christoph Willibald von Gluck
Messe Solonelle de Sainte Cecilia
by
Charles Gounod
Conductor:
David Flood
Soprano:
Penelope Martin-Smith
Contralto: Katherine Lewis
Tenor:
David Martin-Smith
Bass:
Simon Thorpe
Ticket
Prices
*
The Quire *
Adults
- £15.00: Under 16s - £10.00
or
Adults
- £12.00: Under 16s - £8.00
*
South Transept *
Adults
& Under 16s - £5.00
The
seating in the South Transept will provide
an excellent opportunity to hear the concert
but will only give a very restricted view of it.
Ticket
Purchase
Available from June 2004
Credit
card facilities are available
at
Canterbury Visitor Information Centre
Sun
Street, Canterbury - Telephone: 01227 3 78100
This
Website:
Ticket Order Form
Tickets
on the door
(subject to availability)
Extensive
Parking
in
various Public Car Parks within
10 minutes walk of the Cathedral
| Ludwig
van Beethoven
Beethoven
was born at Bonn in 1770 and died at Vienna in 1827. Many writers
have described him as the Shakespeare of music, as he reaches
to the heights and plumbs the depths of the human spirit in ways
that no other composer has achieved. He had the ability to feel
both passionately and tenderly, whilst drawing together the musical
resources necessary to express his feelings in the most direct
and vivid way.
From
a poor but musical family, Beethoven’s first teacher was
his father, a tenor in the service of the Elector of Cologne at
Bonn. At seventeen, the Elector sent him to Vienna for three months,
during which time he received a little teaching from Mozart. Later,
Beethoven took lessons from Haydn and Albrechtsberger at Vienna.
The
Egmont Overture in f Minor, opus 84 (1809) was composed
in three parts in sonata form and forms part of the incidental
music for the first Viennese performance of Egmont, the
play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). A sixteenth century
Flemish nobleman and devout Catholic, Egmont protested the cruel
persecution of the Protestants in his country by their Spanish
rulers. Accused of treason by the Duke of Alba and denied a fair
trial, Egmont was publicly beheaded. Touched by Egmont’s
profound speech and show of dignity on the scaffold, the Flemish
response led to open rebellion and gained them eventual freedom
from Spanish rule.
The
overture concludes with a stirring hymn to the eventual triumph
of liberty. In commissioning the music, Goethe specified that
Egmont’s death should not be treated as a lament but rather
Siegessymphonie, a Symphony of Victory.
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| Vespers
Mozart
composed the Vesperae Solennes De Confessore in 1780
in Salzburg. These were meant for use on a saint’s day
and were performed in Salzburg’s Baroque Cathedral. Mozart
was in the employment of the Prince Archbishop and had recently
returned from a trip to visit other European cities in search
of a more prestigious post. This journey did not turn out successfully
for him and was further saddened by the death of his mother
in Paris.
His
return to Salzburg meant a return to the confines of the conditions
laid down by Archbishop Colloredo for the music at his court.
Mozart observed his employer’s request for conciseness
of form in this setting of five Psalms and the Magnificat. The
verses of each Psalm are set straight and are not artificially
extended by adding ensembles and arias for some of the text.
The four soloists operate within the body of the choral writing.
The soprano is given a higher profile and features particularly
in the Laudate Dominum in which her serene melody is
set against a choral background - a magical moment in Mozart’s
vocal writing.
The
choral writing is vigorous and requires a lot of physical energy
to get around all the notes! Mozart looks back in time in the
Laudate Pueri where he sets the text to a D Minor fugue
with ingenious techniques. We can hear clearly in the Gloria
Patri that the fugue subject works in all voices as a mirror
image of itself.
The
work is not a long piece but contains, as we would expect, an
abundance of Mozart’s musical ideas and a richness and
variety of sounds.
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| Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
(1756 - 1791)
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart has frequently been described as one of the most
perfectly equipped musicians who ever lived. As a child, his
ear was so accurate and his musical memory so strong that he
was said to detect a difference of an eighth of a tone and recall
it next day. When he was twelve, Mozart visited the Sistine
Chapel in Rome with his father, Leopold Mozart, and was able
to immediately transcribe Allegri’s Miserere after hearing
it just once. At the age of fourteen, Mozart was knighted by
the Pope, an honour which he used only briefly at the insistence
of his father.
Leopold
Mozart was a wise parent and an intelligent teacher, giving
his son the firm foundation of sound musical and general instruction
which his talents richly deserved. Wolfgang wrote his first
musical pieces at the age of five and began touring the great
courts of Europe a year later with his gifted elder sister.
Wolfgang performed on both the harpsichord and violin in the
homes of noblemen and princes.
After
this golden childhood, Mozart then experienced a time of great
vexation and sorrow when he settled down as a member of the
Archbishop of Salzburg’s household. Having been used to
the company of monarchs, Mozart now dined at the servants table
and was expected to shine in private concerts for his patron.
Ultimately, “this vile wretch” was discharged by
the Archbishop and removed from his room by the Court Marshal.
Moving
to Vienna, Mozart enjoyed the support of the Emperor and many
members of the nobility. In a five year span in his early thirties,
he composed Figaro (1787), Don Giovanni (1788) and The Magic
Flute (1791), as well as his three greatest symphonies (the
ones in E flat, G minor and C).
Mozart
wrote nearly fifty symphonies, almost twenty operas and operettas,
over twenty piano concertos, twenty seven string quartets, about
forty violin sonatas as well as a considerable amount of other
music in his brief career.
Amongst
a number of ball games, Mozart had a great liking for billiards
and bowls. There are a number of recorded instances when he
stopped playing in the middle of a game and made the briefest
notes of an idea in a notebook which he kept close at hand.
He particularly enjoyed playing billiards alone. With the various
themes which were always running through his head, Mozart would
incessantly tap his fob, a table, a chair-back or whatever came
to hand while he played at the billiard table.
The
musical relationship between Mozart and Haydn is probably unique
in the history of music. As Mozart’s music was founded
on the work of Haydn, Haydn had based his art on the music of
Emanuel Bach. With the emergence and triumphs of Mozart, Haydn
learnt in turn from his own “pupil” and creatively
surged ahead once more. |
| Christoph
Willibald von Gluck
Gluck
was born near Neumarkt, Bavaria in 1714 and died at Vienna in
1787, aged seventy three. In company with Monteverdi and Wagner,
he is considered to be among the great reformers of opera, focusing
on a much more dramatic style. Many critics consider Gluck to
be the forerunner of Wagner, a century later.
In
his twenties, Gluck was composing operas in Italy and later,
during his thirties, in London. Thereafter, he travelled extensively
throughout Europe. His later life centred on Vienna (1749-1773),
Paris (1773-1779) and finally Vienna again (1779-1787).
Orpheus
and Eurydice dates from 1762. Calzabigi was the librettist
of both Orpheus and Alcestis (1767) during the first
Vienna period. From Gluck’s time in Paris, the most celebrated
productions are those of Iphigenia in Aulis (librettist,
du Roullet) in 1774 and Iphigenia in Tauris (librettist,
Guillard) in 1779. The second Vienna period was mainly a time
of illness and retirement.
Ultimately,
Gluck produced Orpheus and Eurydice in four versions.
The original Italian version was written with a castrati in
the role of Orpheus. Subsequently, the part was rewritten for
a tenor in the French version. The modern version generally
has a contralto in the part of Orpheus. The lament Che faro,
senza Euridice, How can I live without my Eurydice so moves
the gods with its beauty that they relent and return Eurydice
from the Underworld to Orpheus.
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The
Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cecile:
was composed
in 1855 and had its first performance on St Cecilia’s Day,
22nd November, in that year. This took place in the Church of
Saint-Eustache in Paris. The Mass is written for chorus and three
soloists - soprano, tenor, bass - and large orchestra
with no less than six harps asked for in the score!
It is operatic
and grand in style to please the tastes of those used to hearing
grand opera on the stage. Gounod treats the chorus like an opera
chorus and creates his own dramatic effects using extremes of
dynamics, unison writing for the chorus and use of crescendi to
build up tension and anticipation. There are triumphal moments
and intimate moments. There are flowing arpeggios on the harps
and loud introductions from the brass. It may sound a little dated
to our ears today and Gounod’s gift for melody may have
a sentimental flavour but it remains one of the composer’s
most popular works.
The Kyrie
opens with an echo of plain chant. The Gloria follows, introduced
by the soprano solo and mellow sound of a solo horn, before the
chorus enters with a rousing Laudamus Te. Woodwind and
brass pre-empt the vocal theme of the Credo in which Gounod’s
own religious convictions are conveyed in the strong, unison writing
for the chorus. It is in this movement that he asks for extremes
of dynamics. Et incarnatus est is marked pppp.
The Crucifixus conveys a sense of stunned disbelief and
the Et resurrexit builds through a huge crescendo to
fff. The whispered staggered entries of Et expecto
build anticipation of the resurrection of the dead, accompanied
by heavenly harps!
The Offertory
provides an instrumental interlude in the warm tones of A Flat
Major. Then the Sanctus arrives with its well-known theme
presented first by tenor solo. The music works through keys until
a triumphal return of the theme in F Major is sung by the chorus.
The Benedictus is gentle. In the Agnus Dei the
tenor sings words which would normally be spoken by the priest
shortly after this section of the mass. Instead of finishing the
work here, Gounod adds the prayer for the King chanted in some
countries after Solemn Mass on Sundays. In the Domine Salvum
in his score of 1855, the “King” is replaced by “Our
Emperor Napoleon”. Napoleon III was Emperor of France from
1852-1870. In 1874, when Gounod was in England, a new edition
of the score named “Our Queen Victoria” for the English
public. The prayer is offered first by the Church, then by the
Army, accompanied by woodwind pipes and drums, and finally, in
its grandest form, by the State.
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Charles
Francois Gounod
(1818 - 1893)
Charles
Francois Gounod is most generally known for being the grand master
of grand opera but is largely overlooked for the many scores which
he wrote for the church. His thirteen great Masses, three settings
of the Requiem plus innumerable sacred choral works and songs
almost match his output for the stage.
Born
in Paris, Gounod inherited his musical pedigree from his mother,
who was a fine pianist. He worked at the Paris Conservatory and
won the Rome prize. Whilst at Rome, he studied church music in
particular, especially work from the sixteenth century.
On
his return to Paris, Gounod became an organist and began his studies
to become a priest. Although he never entered the priesthood,
Gounod retired for five months as a secular priest into the Carmelite
monastery in the Rue de Vaugirard at Paris in October 1847.
At
the age of thirty four, Gounod first reached the notice of the
public with his Solemn Mass which had it’s earliest performance
at London in 1851. Within a few months the opera Sappho was produced
in Paris.
Faust
appeared eight years later in 1859 and brought him real fame.
With it’s display of real stage-skill and flowing melody,
Faust has become one of one of the most popular operas ever written.
In 1935, it celebrated it’s two thousandth performance with
the Paris Grand Opera alone.
However,
a certain amount of controversy has always centred around Faust.
Several critics thought the opera was far in advance of Gounod’s
previous works. One critic who doubted Gounod’s ability
to compose Faust was challenged to a duel and forced to withdraw
his allegation. A later popular theory was that Gounod had stolen
the score from a young genius who died in a lunatic asylum.
Gounod
also wrote the operas Mirielle and Romeo et Juliette as well as
such popular works as The Funeral March of a Marionette and Meditation
based on Bach’s Prelude in C. With his oratorios being popular
in England, Gounod spent five years here until 1875 during the
Franco-Prussian War.
French
Church music of the nineteenth century was ideally suited to an
opera going public who were influenced by the works of Rossini,
Donizetti and Bellini. Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod, both
pupils of Jean-Francois Le Sueur, both reflect this secularising
influence. As late as 1903, Pope Pius X attacked this movement
in his Motu proprio on the subject of church music.
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Additional
Information
Town
Cryer will be periodically updated
with additional information in the coming weeks.
If
you would like to contact us,
please do not hesitate to either
e-mail or telephone as follows :
e-mail
: [email protected]
or
telephone : 01227 457351
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