MUSIC'S
MEASURE
Writtle
Singers at All Saints' Church
22.11.2014
craftsman's
art and music's measure
for thy pleasure
all combine
for thy pleasure
all combine
[Francis
Pott – Angel voices]
Words
and music carefully blended to mark the feast day of St Cecilia,
patron saint of music and musicians.
The
words came from Auden, once a friend and collaborator of Britten, and
from Susan Tomes, who combines her career as a pianist with writing.
Sometimes
the musician and the wordsmith were one and the same: William Byrd,
whose Mass for Four Voices we heard, also wrote passionately urging
everyone to take up singing - “It
doth strengthen all parts of the brest, & doth open the pipes
...”. And
Kodaly, an equally impassioned defender of music, was represented by
Evening Song and Ode to Music – exquisitely sung by Writtle Singers
directed by Christine Gwynn, with a wonderful wordless accompaniment
under the melody.
The
main work was JS Bach's Jesu Meine Freunde, an unaccompanied motet
sung with a pure tone, precisely but eloquently phrased, with real
dramatic power in the defiant “Trotz!” chorus.
Pour
out your presence, O delight, cascading
The falls of the knee and the weirs of the spine,
Our climate of silence and doubt invading
The falls of the knee and the weirs of the spine,
Our climate of silence and doubt invading
[WH
Auden – from “The Composer”]
stained
glass image from Ohio:
