Dear Friends,

What an unusual year this is turning out to be…we in the Sinfonia Chorale sincerely hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well during this difficult time.

Regrettably, we have had to cancel several concerts which had been planned for this year. Our summer events (July 4th and 5th) are, sadly, no longer viable and the November 7th 2020 concert (a Brahms programme) has been postponed by 12 months to Saturday 20th November 2021. 

Depending on circumstances, we might be able to prepare and perform Christmas concerts this year - let’s hope so! 

Please keep looking at our website for more information on future concerts, and we will also write again to keep you posted.

On a lighter note, we have attempted our own (slightly altered and with extra novelty value!) virtual choir rendition of Morley’s Now is the Month of Maying. The lockdown has certainly encouraged the use of new avenues of communication - we’re getting to grips with different technologies and hopefully this will add a new dimension to what we can do as a choir. 

We’ve just posted our video for your perusal - you can be the first to see it - exciting! 

Best wishes to you all.

Sinfonia Chorale

Dear Friends,

To those of you who attended our Come and Sing event on January 18th, we would like to say a big ‘thank you’ and we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did! You sounded marvellous and we truly appreciate your support.

The concert showcasing the chosen settings of O Magnum Mysterium is fast approaching - Saturday 14th March at 8.00pm, and tickets can be bought from our website - or from Sandra Wakefield on 0115 9606236. They are £12 or £5 for students under 21.

St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham, NG1 5AE makes a wonderful venue for these pieces. The generous acoustic enhances the beauty of the music and the expressive yearning towards an understanding of the mysteries of the Incarnation. We hope to see many of you there!

Tomas Luis de Victoria (ca. 1548-1611) was one of Spain’s most important composers, producing a repertoire which includes psalm settings and hymns as well as 21 masses and 44 motets. He was also a Catholic priest, singer and organist. In  1565 he went to Rome and became cantor at the German College. It is possible that he may have studied with Palestrina at around this time, and he did take over the position of maestro after Palestrina left the Pontifical Roman Seminary. He returned to Spain in 1587 and worked, for the remainder of his life, as chaplain and then organist to the Dowager Empress Maria.

According to some, Victoria’s sacred music reflected his ‘intricate personality’ and expressed a ‘passion of Spanish mysticism and religion’. The mass in 4 parts which we will perform, explores beautiful, simple lines, homophonic textures and rhythmic variations, as well as dissonance and expressive word painting, the overall effects of which can produce surprising contrasts of intensity and emotional connection to the subject matter.

We will also perform Victoria’s 4-part motet of the same title, published in 1572, upon which the mass is based. This beautiful, melismatic piece illustrates the use of imitation between the voices, dissonance, and echo rather than singing syllables at the same time, the combination of which creates a feeling of mystery.

Another important composer of the Counter-Reformation was the Italian contrapuntal expert Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594) who wrote more than 105 masses and 250 motets. His 6-part motet, O Magnum Mysterium was composed in 2 sections and published in Rome in 1569. Palestrina was attempting to create a more complex piece in some ways (6 parts), in response to those who were complaining about the ‘plainness of religious works’, but also trying to heed the arguments of others who thought Catholic liturgical music was becoming incomprehensible, by making the music more accessible (using fewer melismas, for example).

The motet has a harmonic style and Palestrina seems to reflect the importance of the birth of Jesus through repetition of certain phrases, using syllabic unisons and less imitation, thereby enhancing the clarity and meaning of the words. Strikingly, the piece ends with a joyful Alleluja section and on a strong plagal cadence, possibly to maintain the surprise and awe of the birth in the minds of the listeners.

We will also be performing some beautiful pieces by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943), Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) and Javier Busto (b. 1949). Lauridsen’s setting, composed in 1994, is a lovely, intense work, which seems to combine a contemporary feel with a more classic Gregorian chanting style, weaving the voices together in a shimmering wall of sound, striking the emotional core of the listener. Apparently, he likes to spend time composing and accessing his ‘inner song’, in a secluded place on an island off the coast of Washington. Originally trained as a medical doctor, Busto is also a Spanish (from the Basque Country) choral music composer and conductor who is in demand, throughout the world, as a guest conductor and member of choral and composition contest juries. His works, and choirs, have received many prizes and his scores are published in several countries around the world. Busto’s O Magnum Mysterium opens with hushed ‘misterioso’ chanting from the 4 voice parts, creating an almost reverent atmosphere. The piece then explores different musical ideas in several defined sections, ending on a bright Alleluia, heralding the great birth. 

The French composer and pianist, Francis Poulenc, was initially self-taught, then studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes and also with Erik Satie. He wrote many sacred and secular pieces, for voice and instrument and was part of the group of young composers Les Six. With an artistic mother and a religious father, these contrasting elements seem to be reflected in Poulenc’s music - sometimes serious and sometimes very light and fun. His music is, generally, melodic, expressive and memorable. The O Magnum Mysterium was one of 4 Christmas motets that he composed in the early 1950s. Changing harmonies, unexpected twists and humming create a sacred and serene piece, building up to a peak of awe and praise.

We are looking forward to performing this beautiful music and hope that you will enjoy it, too! 

Best wishes,

Sinfonia Chorale

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much to everyone who attended our concert on Saturday 9^th November - your support is greatly appreciated and we really hope you enjoyed the French music!

We are now working towards the Christmas concerts, which promise to be very enjoyable occasions and will put us all in a festive mood! Patchings Farm Arts Centre is the venue for the first concert, on Sunday 8^th December at 7.30pm. Tickets (available from Patchings only) are £8.50 and include a glass of wine and a mince pie at the interval.

 On Tuesday 10^th December, at 7.30pm, the concert will be at Rainworth Parish Church (St Simon and St Jude). Tickets, which can be purchased on the website, will be £5.00 and this also includes refreshments. Please come along and join us for some Christmas cheer - audience participation is essential (and free!).

If you enjoy singing with us, why not book onto our Come and Sing Workshop? We’ll be exploring different settings of O Magnum Mysterium on Saturday 18^th January 2020, at Christchurch, Chilwell, NG9 4AS. Please visit our website for more details

We look forward to seeing you!

Sinfonia Chorale

Dear Subscriber,

Autumn is fast approaching and that means one thing - another amazing Sinfonia Chorale concert! Save the date - Saturday November 9th, 7.30pm, at St Martin’s Church, Sherwood, NG5 3FU. 

You can look forward to a wonderful selection of French choral music, including the Messe Solennelle by Langlais, Duruflé’s Four Motets and also French chansons by Fauré, Debussy and Saint-Saëns. In addition, you will have the great opportunity to hear organ pieces by Tournemire and Messiaen, expertly played by the renowned Michael Overbury.

Interestingly, Jean Langlais (1907-1991) studied improvisation with Charles Tournemire (around 1930) and later, in 1945, he became the successor to Cesar Franck and Tournemire at the organ tribune of Saint-Clotilde in Paris, only leaving the position in 1987.

Being blind from the age of 2, Langlais attended the Paris National Institute for the Young Blind (where he later worked as a professor for 40 years) and then he went on to the Paris National Conservatory of Music. He was a prolific composer of organ, vocal and instrumental music, and gave hundreds of recitals. The Messe Solennelle is a powerful, complex piece, combining thundering, and also intricate, organ passages with striking, colourful vocal sections, sometimes dissonant, sometimes very melodic.

In contrast, Maurice Duruflé’s (1902-1986) Four Sacred Motets (1960), based on Gregorian themes, are for unaccompanied voices and set Latin texts for different liturgical occasions. These beautiful motets have been described as ‘rich in subtle harmonies, well-written for voices, and reminiscent of impressionism’. They evoke a quiet, spiritual feeling, inspiring contemplation. Duruflé also had organ lessons with Tournemire. 

We will also be performing one of the three movements from Tristia (Opus 18) by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). The individual movements were published together as a whole in 1852, but were never performed during Berlioz’s lifetime. Meditation Religieuse (1831), the movement which we will present, is a setting of an English poem by Thomas Moore, translated into French by Louise Belloc. Berlioz uses contrasting dynamics and sustained harmonies to reflect a picture of the world as a ‘fleeting show’, with Heaven being the only true thing.

We hope that this has whetted your appetite for some delightful French music. It would be wonderful to see you on November 9th 

Please visit our website to purchase tickets (£10), or call Sandra Wakefield on 0115 960 6236. 

Best wishes to you all!

Sinfonia Chorale

Hello to everyone on this summery day!

We have a treat in store for you on Saturday 6th July, 7.30pm at St Jude’s Church, Mapperley, NG3 5EJ! The wonderfully talented pianist, Konya Kanneh-Mason, will be our guest soloist and we are very excited about this! She holds the Gilling Family Scholarship at The Royal Academy of Music, studying piano with Tessa Nicholson. In 2017 she won Nottingham Young Musician and was joint winner of the Carlton MVC Music Makers Award in 2018. She plays solo recitals and also with her siblings (you may have heard of some of them!) and is also a member of the Chineke! Orchestra. On the 6th July, Konya will be delighting us all with pieces (although these may be subject to change…) such as the challenging and lively Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 42 by Chopin, as well as his Nocturne in B major, Op. 32, No. 1. There might also be some movements from Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata… you will definitely have to come along to find out! 

The choir will also be performing a varied programme of music, from The Making of the Drum by Bob Chilcott to Thomas Tomkins’ lively madrigal, See, See the Shepherds’ Queen. There will also be some English romantic partsongs, such as Come Live with Me by William Sterndale Bennett and a delicious Whitacre piece called A Boy and a Girl, which is a setting of a translation of a poem by Octavio Paz.

Chilcott set the evocative, striking poems of Edward Kamau Braithwaite for his colourful creation, celebrating the way in which the spirit of the drum is brought to life, from sacrificing the goat, to cutting the tree and sounding the drum. Complex rhythms, vocal effects and the actual use of percussion instruments are effectively combined to make an exciting, unusual piece.

Tickets are £10 (£5 for students under 21) and are available from Sandra Wakefield 0115 9606236 or from the Sinfonia Chorale website.

It promises to be a lovely evening and we look forward to seeing you!

Thank you so much for your continued support,

Sinfonia Chorale