Faye Dumont Singers Concert 1
Choral masterpieces:
Gustav Holst & Ralph Vaughan Williams
Melbourne Chamber Choir & Melbourne Women’s Choir
Saturday 23 July, at 8 pm
St John’s Southgate, 20 City Rd, Southbank
Link to single concert ticket booking Form
Gustav Holst: Hymn of Jesus – 3 choir masterpiece
and Choral Hymns of the Rig Veda – Sanskrit poetry and Eastern mysticism
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music – luminous music to Shakespeare text and Dona nobis pacem – Whitman poems and Latin sacred texts in a plea for peace
‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank.
Here we will sit and let the sound of music
creep in our ears:
soft stillness, and the night,
become the touches of sweet harmony.’
William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice
Gustav Holst is well known for his orchestra/choral work The Planets but many cannot name another of his compositions. We will present three to you, including two described in the Grove Dictionary of Music as perhaps the most creative and original works of the twentieth century.
After World War 1 Holst wrote a memorial to his friends lost in battle. Ode to Death is set to a Walt Whitman poem – a comfort to the living and homage to the fallen. This is followed by the set of Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda that Holst set for women’s choir. There are 4, and they are lustrous choral writing with an eastern flavour, and accompanied by harp. Then will come a brilliant work for double mixed choir and a separated treble choir. Hymn of Jesus was, at its first appearance, the work other than The Planets that brought Holst international acclaim.
Ralph Vaughan Williams is presented, in this concert, in three works also. Serenade to Music is the greatly-loved setting of a part of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and is homage to music. It is full of “touches of sweet harmony”. The Melbourne Women’s Choir will then perform the Magnificat for treble voices, mezzo-soprano Jacqui Rodden and flute – Katrina Nestorwisjz. Described as the only Magnificat presenting the Annunciation from Mary’s point of view, it is truly a work of wonder. Dona nobis pacem, sung by the Melbourne Chamber Choir, ends the programme. This plea for peace amidst the rumblings of war in 1936 also uses several Walt Whitman poems, juxtaposing them with Latin urges for peace – “dona nobis pacem”. It is one of music’s most powerful statements!
If you go to no other choral concert for the year, do not miss one.
