In April 2015 Vox Cantab returned to St Michael and All Angels, Chalton for a concert of one-to-a-part seasonal music by composers from 16th-century Europe.
The same concert was given at St Peter-on-the-Green, Froxfield, and the Choir also sang Byrd’s Five-part Mass at a Eucharist service at All Saints’, Steep, on the Sunday morning.
We had a lovely daffodil-filled weekend, and are grateful to everyone who made donations to our 2015 Summer Outreach Project.
“…Upon the greeny grass…”
‘Carmina Banana’, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Director Louisa Denby; Piano Elis Reed; Readers Richard Blakemore & Debbie Pullinger
The programme included works by 16th-century composers Thomas Morley and Clemens non Papa, through to Quilter’s arrangement of Drink to me only with thine eyes (beautifully sung by soprano soloist Catherine White), Rutter’s Banquet Fugue from The Reluctant Dragon, and Frederick Bridge’s humorous tale of The Goslings.
The musical numbers were interspersed with readings serious and light-hearted, including extracts from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling), Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray), Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), and a Shakespeare sonnet.
This coming Saturday, Vox Cantab and Southern Pro Musica join forces to present a concert of music by French composers Rameau, Poulenc, Fauré and Duruflé, conducted by Jonathan Willcocks.
Saturday February 21st 2015
7.30pm
St Peter’s Church, Petersfield
Programme:
Overture from Les Indes Galantes – Rameau
Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence – Poulenc
Cantique de Jean Racine – Fauré
Four Motets – Duruflé
Organ Concerto – Poulenc
Requiem – Duruflé
Organ – Richard Pearce
Services at Portsmouth Cathedral
Director Louisa Denby; Organ Ian Tindale
Eucharist
Victoria – Jesu, dulcis memoria
Haydn – Little Organ Mass (solo Catherine White)
Lassus – Ave verum corpus
Evensong
Walford Davies – Blessed are the pure in heart
Clucas Responses
Brewer – Magnificat & Nunc dimittis in D
Bairstow – Lord, I call upon thee
Peter Leonard, Residentiary Canon at Portsmouth Cathedral
@JMWilliams62 @VoxCantab @IanTindale and it was lovely to have you with us @PortsmouthCath we hope you come again!
— Peter Leonard (@peterpleonard) August 11, 2014
Wonderful @VoxCantab at @PortsmouthCath this evening. Superb.
— Lindsay Northover (@LPNorthover) August 10, 2014
@PortsmouthCath “Missa Brevis Loannis” beautifully performed by the visiting Vox Cantab Choir
— Motofe (@Motofe) August 10, 2014
Great to sing with @VoxCantab and @IanTindale at Portsmouth Cathedral for Sunday sung Eucharist with @peterpleonard pic.twitter.com/TPDRETqUan
— Jonathan Williams (@JMWilliams62) August 11, 2014
Outreach Activities at The Rowans’ Hospice & Steep House Nursing Home, Hampshire,
plus a private home visit
A small number of us visited the Rowans’ Hospice, Waterlooville, and Steep House Nursing Home, in order to entertain the residents with a varied selection of music.
We also visited our 94-year-old friend in his home, where we were treated to a sumptuous tea and a glimpse of a ‘Great Bible,’ dating from the 16th Century.
Repertoire included:
Tallis – If ye love me
Vautor – Sweet Suffolk Owl
Holst – Swansea Town
Trad. Botswanan, arr. L’Estrange – Jesu ukukhanya
Handel, arr. Gritton – Three-minute Messiah
Carter/Hudson, arr. Sund – Goodnight sweetheart
‘Music for the Close of the Day’, Holy Trinity Church, Privett, Hampshire
in aid of The Churches Conservation Trust
Director Louisa Denby
Beginning with Shepherd’s meditative setting of words from the ancient monastic Office of Compline, and ending with a rousing rendition of Goodnight, Sweetheart, this was a mixed and varied concert which kept the appreciative audience entertained!
By day two of our 2014 Summer Tour, the number of singers had swelled to eight. We travelled to All Saints’, East Meon, for a service of Choral Evensong. After rehearsal, we congregated in the North Aisle of the church, giving us plenty of time to admire the Millennium Embroidery before the service began, heralded by the bell.
All of the service was sung unaccompanied (music included Give almes of thy goods – Tye, and Arnold’s Evening Service in A), and we particularly enjoyed the anthem, Byrd’s Justorum Animae, which matched the understated grandeur of the church.
Afterwards we were treated to drinks and nibbles with the East Meon congregation.
The first day of our 2014 Summer Tour saw five members of the Choir give a concert of ‘Essentially English’ music at St Michael & All Angels, Chalton, Hampshire.
Soprano Catherine White, Louisa Dawes; Alto Louisa Denby;
Tenor Dean Parker; Bass Frank Lee
Programme
Tye – Give almes of thy goods
Tallis – If ye love me
Morley – Sing we, and chant it
Cornysh – Ah, Robyn
Stanford – When Mary thro’ the garden went
Elgar – As torrents in summer
Wood – Full fathom five
Wood – Oculi omnium
Holst – Swansea Town
Sullivan – The long day closes
English Trad., arr. Gritton – Country Gardens
Trad. Botswanan, arr. L’Estrange – Jesu ukukhanya
Lloyd-Webber – Close every door
Handel, arr. Gritton – Three-minute Messiah
‘Old Wine in New Bottles’
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge & Selwyn College Music Society, Cambridge
Director Louisa Denby; Piano Nadanai Laohakunakorn
It was lovely to bring this programme of modern arrangements of traditional folk songs to two venues in Cambridge. Music included Katy Cooper’s arrangement of the American song Circle March, Whittaker’s take on English folk song Bobby Shaftoe, and other recent arrangements of music from the UK, North America, and further afield.
Evensong at Rochester Cathedral
Director Louisa Denby; Organ Tim Parsons
Clucas Responses
Stanford – Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in A
Parry – Blest Pair of Sirens