TICKETS for this concert are NOW AVAILABLE. See below. Tickets will also be available on the door.
A concert of choral music by some of our all-time favourite English composers:
Blest Pair of Sirens, Jerusalem Hubert Parry
Linden Lea, Three Elizabethan part songs, Five mystical songs Ralph Vaughan Williams
Gloria John Rutter
Orpheus with his lute Alan Vincent
Songs before sleep Richard Rodney Bennett
- performed by our acclaimed baritone, Simon Thorpe
The mouse and the bumblebee
Wee Willie Winkie
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Baby, baby naughty baby
There was an old woman under a hill
Baritone soloist: Simon Thorpe
Our accompanist this evening is virtuoso organist and pianist, Malcolm Riley
Our concert begins with Blest Pair of Sirens, a stirring setting of Milton’s ode to music, by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918). We invite you to join us in singing Parry’s Jerusalem in a rousing finale.
Three Elizabethan part songs, Linden Lea, Five mystical songs were all written early in the career of Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958). Sweet day, the first of the delightful Elizabethan part songs, sets George Herbert’s poem. The willow song and O mistress mine are both taken from Shakespeare’s plays. A keen collector of folksongs, Linden Lea – A Dorset song is a well-known example of the composer’s works influenced by this genre. George Herbert’s poems: Easter, I got me flowers, Love bade me welcome, The call, Antiphon are the inspiration for the deeply moving Five mystical songs. The first four are sung by our baritone soloist, Simon Thorpe, whilst the last is for chorus.
Orpheus with his lute was composed by Alan Vincent (born 1943) during the first Covid lockdown and is dedicated to Gravesham Choral Society. Scored for chorus and piano, the text is from Shakespeare’s Henry VIII.
The exhilarating Gloria, is one of the earliest, large-scale sacred works by John Rutter (born 1945), a composer well-known for his popular Christmas carol settings.
Please click here for TICKETS. Available now.
£12 adults and £5 for full time students