Conductor: Alexander Douglas Registered Charity Nº Winter Concert Advent Reflections

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1 Conductor: Alexander Douglas Registered Charity Nº Winter Concert 2014 Advent Reflections Music for Prayer and Contemplation with Alex Woodrow, Organ and featuring Tilly Tompkins, Trombone winner of the Mrs Sunderland Music Festival Kirklees Young Musician of the Year 2014 Saturday, 6th December, 7 30pm Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Street, Huddersfield

2 Do you have a MUSICAL EAR? Is singing PIANO your FORTE? Blow Your Own Trumpet Playing by Ear Perhaps you have the VOICE OF AN ANGEL? Earwig van Beethoven Do you prefer BEETHOVEN to the BEATLES? If so, you should join Singing by Ear The choir is always very keen to welcome new members of all voice parts. If you have a good voice and some ability to sight-read, come along to a rehearsal. The Huddersfield Singers offers: Challenging and exciting music Three annual concerts Varied and rewarding repertoire, from mediæval to modern music High musical standards Friendly, enthusiastic singers A wide range of social events The choir meets at 7:30pm on Monday evenings at: Huddersfield Methodist Mission, 15 Lord Street, Huddersfield HD1 1QA For more information, please speak to a choir member or visit us online, where extensive details about the choir can be found:

3 Bookings 100 Club Wedding? Celebration? Special service? can provide you with that all-important vocal element to make your event even more special, whether you require the full choir or a smaller ensemble taken from its ranks. For more details, contact the Secretary, Ruth Wilson, on (01422) Much easier to win than the National Lottery! The 100 Club is a fun way to support the choir and maybe win some cash! Pay 1 weekly for a ticket. Numbers are drawn monthly and three prizes awarded: 1st: 50 2nd: 25 3rd: 15 The Club gives a valuable boost to choir funds, and enables us to present more exciting programmes with fine guests. Please join; the more participants there are, the bigger the prizes can be! For more details, contact the Treasurer, Pete Smith, on (01924) Photobooks Photo Gifts Calendars Wall Art Do something with your digital pictures FREE PHOTOBOOK SOFTWARE Download from iprintphoto.co.uk

4 ALEXANDER DOUGLAS, CONDUCTOR Alexander Douglas is increasingly becoming known as one of the UK s most versatile choral directors, working across a wide spectrum of musical genres and in a variety of contexts. Having worked nationally as a choral animateur, he served as Music Director for the Blaenau Gwent Chorale before being invited to be chorusmaster for a major community oratorio project for Welsh National Opera. He then graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with an MA in Choral Conducting and relocated to Manchester. He gained invaluable real-world experience of directing a large chorus as the ABCD Conducting Apprentice with the Bradford Festival Choral Society last season, during which time he was appointed as the conductor of the Huddersfield Singers. He is also the Music Director of the Aletheian Ensemble (a chamber orchestra), the Veritas Orchestra (a jazz orchestra), AINE (a gospel choir which reached the final of the BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year Competition 2014 as shown in the pictures on this page) and the professional chamber choir Voces Laus Deo. He is also very active as both a composer and an arranger. As a theologian, Alexander is the outgoing Advisor for Music and Worship Ministries for the North England Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. More information can be found on Alex s personal website: Acknowledgements The Huddersfield Singers would like to extend their thanks to the volunteers who have helped in the production of this concert by providing refreshments in the interval, selling tickets and programmes at the door, and being of general assistance behind the scenes. Their contribution has been invaluable. 4

5 TONIGHT S GUESTS Alexander Woodrow, Organ Born in York in 1986, Alexander Woodrow was appointed Director of Music at Bradford Cathedral in January 2012, having worked previously at Guildford Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral and Hexham Abbey. He remains the youngest Cathedral Organist working within an Anglican Foundation. He is responsible for the Chamber and School Choirs at Bradford Grammar School and in September took over the direction of The Chippendale Singers of Otley. With Bradford Cathedral Choir, alongside the Opus Dei, he has recorded and broadcast for the BBC on both national radio and television, as organist and conductor. He read music as Organ Scholar at Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying with Anne Page. Organ recitals have taken him across the country, including Westminster Abbey, King s College, Cambridge and York Minster. Alexander became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) at the age of 19, winning first prizes in all categories, including the Limpus Prize, and was awarded the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Kirklees Young Musician of the Year 2014 Tilly Tompkins, Trombone Tilly Tompkins grew up in a musical family in Par, Cornwall. She started to play the recorder at the age of seven and achieved a distinction in her Grade 8 exam aged 13. Whilst continuing to play the recorder, at 14 she decided to learn the trombone, and earned a distinction in her Grade 8 exam just a year later. After attending school and college, Tilly moved to Huddersfield to study Music. During this time, she began to freelance with various brass bands and orchestras as well as becoming a member of numerous ensembles within the university. This experience has given Tilly the motivation to pursue her dream of being a performer. Whilst performing is her passion, Tilly also arranges music for various ensembles, including the Huddersfield University Brass Band and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Brass Trio. Currently, she lives in Warrington and teaches brass lessons to primary and secondary school students. 5

6 PROGRAMME CHOIR Three from John s Gospel (2012) Kenneth Logan II: For God so loved the world Cantique de Jean Racine, op. 11 (1865) Gabriel Fauré Te Deum in C (1934) Benjamin Britten Philippa Robinson, Soprano ORGAN Chorale Prelude: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 J. S. Bach Alex Woodrow, Organ CHOIR The Christ-child (1997) Will Todd 6 CHOIR SOLOISTS Philippa Robinson, Soprano Philippa took singing lessons at the Vienna Conservatory of Music, and has also studied Lieder and Oratorio at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Lynne Ninkovic, Soprano Lynne grew up with choral music at school in Brighouse and at Manchester University. She now directs the singers at the Serbian Orthodox Church of Holy Trinity, Bradford. Andrew Coote, Tenor Andrew sang in school choirs from an early age. Now a teacher of English, Drama and Film Studies at Crossley Heath School, Halifax, he puts on a musical there annually. ACCOMPANIST Sue Ogden, Piano Sue started piano lessons at the age of eight. She gained a BA (Hons) in Music at Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1978, studying piano with Martin Roscoe, as well as playing the organ and harpsichord. She completed a PGCE in 1979 and has since worked in the Huddersfield area, teaching music from Primary through to FE level. After more than 20 years in the Primary classroom, Sue now focusses on piano teaching and accompanying, working parttime for Kirklees Music School. Over the past 25 years she has appeared with various local choirs and amateur dramatic societies. She accompanies classes at Holmfirth Musical Festival and plays for the Kirklees Primary Music Festival. Sue has played for The Huddersfield Singers since 2002.

7 TROMBONE Cavatine in D major, op. 144 (1915) Camille Saint-Saëns Elegy for Mippy II for trombone solo (1948) Leonard Bernstein If with all your hearts from Elijah, op. 70 Felix Mendelssohn Tilly Tompkins, Trombone Sue Ogden, Piano CHOIR Morning Song for the Christ Child (1966) Peter Sculthorpe And there were shepherds from Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 J. S. Bach Lynne Ninkovic, Soprano Andrew Coote, Tenor INTERVAL CHOIR Thou knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Hearts (1694/5) Henry Purcell Unto us is born a Son arr. David Willcocks TROMBONE O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (2011) arr. The Piano Guys Sarabande from Cello Suite No 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 J. S. Bach Morceau symphonique, op. 88 Alexandre Guilmant Tilly Tompkins, Trombone Sue Ogden, Piano CHOIR O magnum mysterium (1995) Morten Lauridsen ORGAN Chorale Prelude: In dulci jubilo, BWV 729 J. S. Bach Alex Woodrow, Organ CHOIR The Birthday of thy King (1988) Peter Sculthorpe Blest Pair of Sirens (1887) C. Hubert H. Parry 7

8 8 PROGRAMME NOTES I t is a real delight to be able to address you as the new Conductor of the Huddersfield Singers. As we approach our 140th season, we look back on many recent changes and we know that there will be more as we continue a period of extended transition into the next era. Tonight is the first step towards that, and we hope that you will enjoy the opportunity afforded you to reflect on this Advent season and on what has been a very eventful 2014 for a great many of us! Kenneth Logan (born 1957) is a distinguished organist who has recently turned to composition and discovered that he s rather good at it, having very recently won first prize in the American Guild of Organists Composition Competition His setting of John 3:16 17, For God so loved the world, is highly appropriate for the theme of this concert and we re delighted to be giving this piece its UK premiere. The 17th-century French playwright Jean Racine is best known to musicians and audiences through the 19-year-old Fauré s (also first prize-winning) setting of his paraphrase of a hymn for Tuesday matins (Consors paterni luminis), Cantique de Jean Racine. Even the English translation of the first verse alone will be instructive: Word of God, one with the Most High, in Whom alone we have our hope, Eternal Day of heaven and earth, We break the silence of the peaceful night; Saviour Divine, cast your eyes upon us! The word genius is frequently abused, but Britten may have been one of a handful of 20th-century composers who deserved it. Despite the somewhat commercial motivation for this particular piece of liturgical music, he demonstrates an astonishingly fertile musical imagination (rhythmically and harmonically), marking him out as being both of his time and way ahead of it. In terms of his understanding of the text, as both conductor and theologian I can attest to the genuine doxological power of this setting of the Te Deum in C not least in a glorious section where the Holy Spirit is acknowledged as the Comforter (one of the most astounding 5 6 bars in A major that I ve been privileged to conduct). Not unlike John Rutter and Bob Chilcott, Will Todd s popularity as a contemporary choral composer is proving to have real endurance, and the

9 intriguingly plangent quality of his little Christmas gem The Christ-child owes much to his recognition of the simple profundity of G. K. Chesterton s text (another real giant of the last century!). In memory of one of Australia s greatest composers (championed by our longstanding countertenor, Richard Hallas), we take a trip down under to sing both of his Christmas pieces. The first Morning Song for the Christ Child, setting a text by fellow Australian Roger Covell is a very unusual hymn for the Christ Child and requires an open mind and open ears in order to catch both rhythmic and harmonic subtleties. This little piece asks more than its fair share of questions a sign that it was worth the effort to learn. Our first half concludes with a little vignette from Bach s Christmas Oratorio, And there were shepherds, culminating in a truly sublime Advent chorale from the incomparable master of that particular art. The gorgeous little Purcell anthem that begins our second half, Thou knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Hearts, was the very first piece I ever attempted as a brand-new conducting student. I have been waiting for the right moment to conduct it in the real world and that moment has come! Somehow, this musical prayer for forgiveness and desire for reconciliation is all the more powerful because of the interpolation of major harmonies in a context where one might be tempted to expect darker harmonic sonorities because there is a joy in being reconciled to one s Maker and, somehow, Purcell has made this point more effectively than many sermons I have heard. Puer nobis nascitur, usually translated as Unto us is born a Son, is a mediæval Christmas carol found in a number of manuscript sources. Its text speaks of the birth of Christ and of his mission on Earth. The melody is glorious in its triumphant character and ecstatic devotional sense a radiant hymn of strong appeal, brighter and more colourful than most of the chants emerging from and before the fourteenth century. Robert Cummings Deservedly popular (in my humble opinion), the American composer Morten Lauridsen achieved something notably great in this a cappella setting of O magnum mysterium an inspirational responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. He manages to do so much with diatonic harmony though I note (with a smile) that much of what is deemed innovative by classical afficianados is in fact de rigeur in contemporary US-influenced music but without syncopation or electric instruments! We have experienced some 9

10 great moments with this piece in rehearsal and hope that tonight s rendition will be our best yet! Our second Australian adventure, The Birthday of thy King, takes a Henry Vaughan poem and opens with sopranos in two parts negotiating some dicey rhythms before suddenly finding themselves being challenged even more in the next section. Here they provide supporting pedal harmonies on a very tricky English vowel over an alto melody with ground support from the gentlemen before returning to the material of the opening; a fitting tribute to composer, poet and subject. Parry s Blest Pair of Sirens is sung by all sorts of choirs for all sorts of reasons and on all sorts of occasions, but as the closing anthem of tonight s Advent Reflections in Holy Trinity, we offer this as an affirmation of the true joy and communion that is found in singing choral music as diverse human beings, reflecting ideas, concepts and realities greater than ourselves. For me, Parry s musical realisation of Milton s poetry is more than an ode to music; it is an ode to the Great Creator, without whom there would be no music and no singing and, indeed, no playing either! And on that note (pun intended!), it behoves me to thank my namesake, Alexander Woodrow, our wonderful prizewinning trombonist, Tilly Tompkins, and our very own Sue Ogden for their instrumental contributions to this evening. As such, this rendition of Blest Pair of Sirens is an act of thanksgiving at the end of what we hope will have been a truly fulfilling evening as a listener, and we hope that you will continue to support us and other classical music enterprises in Bon Noël! Alexander Douglas 10 Peter Sculthorpe ( ) The inclusion of Morning Song for the Christ Child had already been planned when news arrived of Peter Sculthorpe s death on 8th August, so we decided to mark the passing of Australia s greatest composer by performing both of his Christmas choral works. Sculthorpe was the only Australian composer other than Percy Grainger to gain an international reputation, and he achieved it from his homeland. His musical language, combining elements of Aboriginal and Asian musics with Western traditions, vividly depicted his native continent in sound, establishing a new Australian music for future generations. Richard Hallas

11 Huddersfield Grammar School The co-educational school for girls & boys age 3 to 16 Creating the perfect picture. Everyday is an Open Day. Tel: Follow us on facebook 11

12 NEXT CONCERT: SPRING 2015 Music for Lent and Easter An extensive and varied programme of music, including: Lotti Crucifixus Poulenc Four Lenten Motets Stravinsky Pater noster Howells Like as the Hart with Darius Battiwalla, Organ Saturday, 21st March 2015 at 7:30pm Lindley Methodist Church, East Street, Huddersfield THE HUDDERSFIELD SINGERS President Conductor Accompanist Laurence Jones Alexander Douglas Sue Ogden Vice Presidents Pam Cooksey John Horrocks-Taylor Philip Powell Mike Green Hilary Pollard Gordon Sykes Philip Honnor Heather Powell Registered Charity Nº Web Site Programme design: Richard Hallas (01484) Programme printing: RiverDigital Ltd