SACRED
CONCERT
All Stars Jazz Band
Bob Chilcott:
Little Jazz Mass
Will Todd:
Songs of Peace
Conductor:
Jeremy Backhouse
Saturday
18 March 2023
at 7.30pm
Vivace
Guildford’s state-of-the-art
entertainment venue
27/02/2023 12:47
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Sacred Concert
A Little Jazz Mass
Bob Chilcott
Songs of Peace
Will Todd
Perdido
Juan Tizol
Sacred Concert
Joanna Forbes L'Estrange
Annette Walker
Duke Ellington
Soprano
Tap dancer
Vivace Chorus
All Stars Jazz Band
Conductor: Jeremy Backhouse
Concert Programme
A Little Jazz Mass
Bob Chilcott
Chorus, Piano, Double bass, Drums
Photo © John Bellars
Bob Chilcott is one of the busiest
and
most
popular
choral
composers and conductors in
Britain today. He has been
involved in choral music for most
of his life. He was a boy chorister
and then a tenor choral scholar in
the choir of King’s College,
Cambridge, and later sang with,
composed and arranged for the
celebrated King’s Singers.
Since 1997 he has worked as a full-time composer. Today, Bob
is in great demand internationally as composer, conductor and
choral consultant. He has been invited to appear at many
important international festivals, and has worked with some of
the world’s leading choral ensembles. At home, he is currently
Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers.
Bob's singing experience has given him an inside knowledge
of an exceptionally wide range of music, and this is reflected in
the eclectic nature of his own compositions which, whilst
remaining within the mainstream English choral tradition, are
variously inspired by folksongs, Gregorian chant, Anglican
hymns, spirituals, jazz, close-harmony, gospel and African
music.
Flash photography, audio and video recording are not permitted without
the prior written consent of the Vivace Chorus. Please also kindly switch
off all mobile phones and alarms on digital watches. Thank you.
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Vivace Chorus
During his time with the King’s Singers, Bob had the good
fortune to work with such jazz luminaries as George Shearing,
Richard Rodney Bennett and John Dankworth. His wonderful
setting of the Latin Missa Brevis, A Little Jazz Mass, was
composed for the 2004 Crescent City Choral Festival, New
Orleans. A relaxed, easy tempo Kyrie is followed by a Gloria
with driving, upbeat outer sections enclosing a lyrical central
section. The music of the Sanctus could be described as a
"jazz lullaby"; the Benedictus ups the tempo a little, building to
a strong forte for the "Hosanna". Clearly inspired by the blues,
the Agnus Dei reaches a powerful climax at "Dona nobis
pacem" before arriving at a peaceful conclusion.
It says much for Bob’s skill that he has successfully brought
together two very diverse traditions - the Latin Mass and the
jazz idiom - in such an expressive and entirely unforced way,
an achievement that has generally eluded other composers
who have tried something similar.
Programme note © John Bawden MMus (University of Surrey)
Kyrie
Kyrie eléison
Christe eléison
Kyrie eléison
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Gloria
Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria!
Et in terra pax hominibus bonæ
voluntatis, Gloria!
Glory to God in the highest, Gloria!
On earth peace to people of good
will, Gloria!
Laudamus te, benedicimus te,
adoramus te, glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi propter
magnam gloriam tuam, Gloria!
We praise you, we bless you, we
adore you, we glorify you.
We give you thanks for your great
glory, Gloria!
Vivace Chorus
3
Domine Deus, Rex cælestis, Deus Lord God, heavenly King, O God
Pater omnipotens.
almighty Father.
Domine Fili unigenite Jesu
Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten
Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of
Filius Patris.
the Father.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata
mundi, suscipe deprecationem
nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram
patris, miserere nobis.
Who takes away the sins of the
world, have mercy on us; who takes
away the sins of the world, receive
our prayer; Who sits at the right hand
of the Father, have mercy on us.
Quoniam, tu solus
Sanctus,quoniam. Tu solus
Dominus tu solus Altissimus,
Jesu Christe. Cum Sancto Spiritu:
in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
For You alone are the Holy One, you
alone are the Lord, you alone are the
Most High, Jesus Christ, with the
Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the
Father. Amen.
Sanctus & Benedictus
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni
sunt cæli et terra gloria tua,
Hosanna in excelsis.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your
glory,
Hosanna in the highest.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine
Domini, Hosanna in excelsis.
Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord,
Hosanna in the highest.
Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata
mundi, miserere nobis.
Lamb of God, who takes away the
sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata
mundi, miserere nobis.
Lamb of God, who takes away the
sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata
mundi, dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the
sins of the world, grant us peace.
4
Vivace Chorus
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Saturday 17" June 7.30pm United Reformed Church Guildford
Sunday 18" June 4pm St Mary’s Church Chiddingfold
Songs of Peace
Chorus, Piano, Double bass, Drums
Will Todd
Will Todd taught himself the
piano from an early age and
grew up in County Durham,
North East England where his
grandfather was a coal miner
and his parents were teachers.
His love of improvising has been
the central force in a wide
ranging career of composing
and playing.
His love of choral music is
reflected in a large output
Photo © Andy Holdsworth
including Masses, anthems and
larger sacred concert works including Mass in Blue, which has
been performed hundreds of times around the world since its
2003 premiere. His carol My Lord Has Come has become a
worldwide favourite since it was included in Oxford University
Press’s Carols for Choirs Five in 2012.
Will has worked with many of the UK’s leading music
companies including Welsh National Opera, Opera North, The
Hallé Orchestra, Opera Holland Park, The Sixteen, The BBC
Singers and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He has had a fruitful
collaboration with the award-winning chamber choir Tenebrae
with whom he has made the two highly acclaimed albums The
Call of Wisdom and Lux et Veritas; the latter was voted one of
the top 20 albums of 2014 by Classic FM.
Will also has an impressive list of theatre works including The
Screams of Kitty Genovese, produced most recently by Tête à
Tête Opera in London and Edinburgh, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland for Opera Holland Park, Migrations for Welsh
Vivace Chorus
7
National Opera and The Blackened Man, a prizewinner in the
International Verdi Opera Competition.
He has been honoured to work with a wide range of choirs in
Europe, the US and worldwide. He strongly believes in music
making for all, and his personal motto when directing choirs is
"find the passion". Outside music his interests include
supporting the environmental movement in any way he can,
and he is planning to phase out his use of flying during the
next few years. He lives with his family near London.
During the Covid-19 pandemic Will was pleased to be able to
work on a number of community-based projects supporting
singers and youth choirs. His song Like A Rainbow Shining was
written as a free resource for choirs worldwide and is available
from willtodd.co.uk.
Will frequently performs as a jazz pianist, leading the Will Todd
Ensemble, and is in high demand as a workshop leader and
conductor of his own music. His music is published by Oxford
University Press, Boosey and Hawkes and Tyalgum Press.
Songs of Peace - Composer's note
The overall structure of Songs of Peace gradually made sense
as I worked on individual movements; I didn’t originally set out
to write a six-movement piece, but these various choral songs
seem to work very well together and share a certain
atmosphere.
The themes are peace, eternity and love. It is a work in which I
remember my mother, Iris Todd, for all the wonderful things
she gave me, especially a lifelong interest in choral music and
worship. She adored the Ave verum text which I set in the
fourth movement, and also the hymn Just as I am, which she
always said she would like at her funeral, and indeed this
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version in a solo piano arrangement was what I played on that
occasion.
The voices feel like a natural addition. There is a carol for the
second movement, and a soft, ethereal "In paradisum" section at
the end, entitled Into the stars. The first movement is the opening
section of the Requiem Mass, and the Song of Peace (movement
five), like the second and sixth movements, is a setting of my
own text.
Will Todd
1 – Requiem
Requiem aeternam
dona eis Domine
Et lux perpetua luceat eis
Text from Roman Missal
Rest eternal
grant unto them O Lord
And let perpetual light shine
upon them
2 – Precious Moment
A gift so pure, life so precious, gifted to me.
Touched by your love, I am awakened
in this precious moment of peace.
Wild is the storm surrounding me, but here love drives out the cold.
Precious gift, gift of forgiveness, precious moment of peace.
I am alone, but you hold me closely to you.
Your endless love is my protection
in this precious moment of peace.
Fear within and fear without, but you are the light in my dark.
Precious gift, gift of forgiveness, precious gift of peace.
And this love is endless, endless moment of peace.
Will Todd
Vivace Chorus
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3 – Just as I am
Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Hath broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come.
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea all I need, in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come.
Charlotte Elliot (1789 – 1871)
4 – Ave Verum
Ave verum corpus,
natum de Maria Virgine,
Vere passum immolatum in cruce
pro homine,
Hail true body born of the
Virgin Mary,
Truly suffered and slain on a
cross for man,
Cuius latus perforatum fluxit aqua
et sanguine:
Esto nobis prægustatum in mortis
examine.
Whose pierced side poured
forth water and blood:
Be to us a foretaste in the
agony of death.
O Jesu dulcis, O Jesu pie,
O Jesu, fili Mariae. Miserere mei.
Sweet Jesus, kind Jesus,
Jesus Son of Mary, have mercy
on me.
Attrib Pope Innocent VI (1282 – 1362)
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Vivace Chorus
5 – A Song of Peace
Even though your eyes are closed, I will sing this song to you.
This is a song of peace, a song of love endless in beauty,
an endless song of love remembered.
O may I sing to you of memories so cherished and sustaining.
And though you have left me, in my heart there is an everlasting
light and a song of peace.
Will Todd
6 – Into the stars
Peace.
Look into the stars.
They are eternal.
Light all across the heavens.
Love, reach into the stars:
You are eternal.
Will Todd
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11
Perdido
Juan Tizol
Jazz Band
arr. Alan Barnes
Juan Tizol was born in Puerto Rico in
1900. Music was a part of his life from an
early age, with his training mostly coming
from his uncle, who ran the municipal
band. He played the valve trombone in a
number of local bands before joining one
in 1920 which then moved to Washington.
The group took up residence at the
Photo: Gordon Parks Howard Theatre, playing for touring
shows and silent movies. The members
were also hired to play in other small jazz and dance groups,
which led to Tizol’s first contact with Duke Ellington. He joined
Ellington’s orchestra in 1929, becoming its second trombonist,
and the fifth member of the brass section.
As well as playing with the band and copying out parts from
Ellington’s scores for other players, Tizol was a composer,
writing a number of items which have become jazz standards,
including this short piece Perdido (the title refers to Perdido
Street in New Orleans). Ellington’s definitive recording of the
piece in 1942 became a modest hit the following year, rising to
no. 21 in the pop charts.
Interval (20 minutes)
Vivace Chorus is proud to support the work of The Cheryl King Trust.
Marianne Windham will give a short talk about the charity after the
interval, and there will be a bucket collection at the end of the concert
in aid of its work supporting music lessons for young people.
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Vivace Chorus
Enabling & inspiring local young people to make music
Our aim is that no young person in Surrey should be prevented from
learning a musical instrument because their parents can’t afford it or
through a lack of inspiration.
We achieve this by providing bursaries for instrument lessons and
grants for performances that inspire young people to take up music
lessons.
CKT is a registered charity
(number 1191604) staffed
by
volunteers
with
virtually no overheads.
Therefore,
all
your
donations will help or
inspire local young people
to make music. At present
we are supporting 31 local
young musicians. Applications for these bursaries tell some stories
of real hardship. The increase in the cost of living has made life very
difficult for those on limited income. Parents often tell us how music
lessons are providing moments of real respite for their children.
Our work is endorsed by a number of Music Ambassadors; Jonathan
Willcocks (composer and conductor), Lucy Parham (one of Britain’s
finest pianists), Will Todd (composer, presenter and conductor),
Sarah Walker (BBC Radio 3 presenter) and John Etheridge
(international jazz guitarist).
For more information and to discover how you can help, or how we
can help you, go to www.cherylkingtrust.org.uk.
CKT thanks the Vivace Chorus for supporting us
Sacred Concert
Duke Ellington
Chorus, Soprano Solo, Tap dancer, Jazz Band
Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington
was at the height of his fame and
influence as a composer, bandleader and pianist when he was
approached by two clergymen
from the Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco with a proposal that he
compose a concert of sacred
music. For more than forty years his
work had been loved and
respected by audiences and his
fellow-musicians for its elegance,
wit and complexity, underpinned by a passionate seriousness
of purpose that itself was rooted in his standing as one of the
most successful African American artists of the twentieth
century. “Every time God’s children have thrown away their
fear” he said, “in pursuit of honesty – trying to communicate
themselves, understood or not - miracles have happened.”
The “miracle” of Ellington’s achievement was fostered by his
devout and aspirational parents in Washington, D.C., from the
moment he was born in 1899. His famously laid-back and
graceful poise as a performer sprang from an instinctively selfpossessed and refined character that prompted his childhood
nickname “Duke” – significantly one given by his young friends
rather than by adoring adults. Ellington was “cool”, confident
and enterprising from the beginning, and these qualities
underlay his genius for establishing creative relationships and
absorbing artistic influences. He learnt the piano with formal
lessons but also from studying the many jazz, ragtime and
blues performers of the vibrant, youthful and experimental
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Vivace Chorus
culture in which he grew up, complemented by the music,
solemn, ardent or ecstatic, of his parents’ Methodist and
Baptist churches. When he moved to New York City at the end
of the 1920s he joined the thriving scene of the so-called
Harlem Renaissance, eventually appearing regularly at the
celebrated Cotton Club, where artists of the stature of Louis
Armstrong, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and later
Lena Horne and Billie Holiday performed. As a composer he
continued to take in and adapt new instrumental techniques
and creative styles, but was already steadily committed to his
own musical ideal – to compose and perform in the wider
tradition of American and European music. When swing
became popular in the ‘thirties, for example, he said, with
characteristic directness, “Jazz is music, but the swing is
business”.
Ellington certainly did not neglect “business”, however: his
adaptability and commercial resourcefulness led him to take
advantage of the booming recording industry, exploiting his
talent for focused, richly-textured numbers that would fit on a
three-minute 78rpm disc, and recording for both cheap and
more prestigious labels so as to appeal to as wide an audience
as possible. It is said that at the end of his career his recorded
legacy was bigger than that of any other artist. Yet he always
worked to preserve his individuality and focus, disapproving of
what he called “accidental music” and emphasising that his
compositions were crafted to bring out the special qualities of
a particular performer: “My music fits the tonal personality of
the player … You can’t take doodling seriously”.
The jazz historian Thomas Cunniffe notes that when asked
about his rise to fame “Ellington would inevitably say that
when he was a little boy his mother told him that he was
blessed, and that he had nothing to worry about”. A comment
that the composer made in 1965 about the first of his Sacred
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15
Concerts suggests how far this tender reassurance was the
foundation of his fascinating combination of modesty and
pride in his professionalism, graceful reticence and the desire
to communicate his vision:
"The music is the most important thing I’ve ever done or am
likely to do. This is personal, not career. Now I can sing out
loud to all the world what I’ve been saying to myself for years
on my knees."
The Sacred Concerts
In 1943 Ellington produced a concert at Carnegie Hall, New
York City, entitled Black, Brown and Beige, tracing the musical
and cultural history of Black Americans from the work songs
and spirituals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
through emancipation and up to their lived experience in the
1940s – “an authentic record of my race written by a member
of it”. One number in the concert was the seed of his three
later Sacred Concerts: the powerful spiritual Come Sunday –
originally without words, but a sensational success when
Ellington recorded it in 1958 with a text that he wrote for the
great gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. Her stupendous
performance gave overwhelmingly moving expression to
centuries of grief and courage, and led directly to the
commissioning of the Concert of Sacred Music in San Francisco
(1965) and two further Sacred Concerts in the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine, New York City (1968) and Westminster Abbey,
London (1973), as well as freely adapted and varied versions in
the United States and abroad.
In a turbulent age, these performances ran parallel to key
moments in the Freedom Movement, with Martin Luther King
Jr.’s majestic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on
Washington (1963); his 1964 address written for the
inauguration of the Berlin Jazz Festival – "Jazz takes the
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Vivace Chorus
hardest realities of life and puts them into music, only to come
out with some new hope, or sense of triumph" – and his
assassination in 1968, less than three months after the New
York concert. Ellington refused to write a “jazz Mass” (already a
popular form in the ‘sixties), determined to develop and
express a personal vision, but in this context his series of
constantly changing and self-renewing concerts, free in form
and wide-ranging, yet structured by a firm artistic and moral
purpose, can be seen as his contribution to the hoped-for and
worked-for cultural transformation.
Tonight’s performance uses an edition prepared by Roland
Perrin from a version in which John Høybye and Peder
Pedersen arranged numbers from all three Sacred Concerts.
The first two numbers, Praise God and Heaven, set out two
contrasted moods of the piece – the first direct and dynamic,
with a majestically soaring melody that challenges the idea of
“churchy” sacred music, framed by energetic dance-rhythms.
Cunniffe comments that throughout the work Ellington “leaves
audiences awe-struck at the mysteries of his harmonic
language”. Heaven is a languorous slow ballad for soprano
solo, evoking a luscious realm made up of every sweet and
pretty thing as the voice and a warm-toned alto saxophone
weave elegant patterns around a sensuous melody.
The following Freedom Suite that Ellington added for the 1968
concert has a very “sixties” feel: its first “movement” is bright,
confident and optimistic, with its advice to become "prisoners
of love, to reach beyond our reach to reach for a star", and to
develop self-awareness and personal fulfilment – "becoming
what we already are": it has all of the cheerful hopefulness that
balanced the anxieties of the decade. The suite’s second item
is slow and relaxed, the piano and sax spinning dreamy
decorative figures around repetitions of the single word
"Freedom" (in July 1967 The Beatles had released All You Need
Vivace Chorus
17
is Love, and for a moment, for Ellington, the same is true of
freedom).
There are playful roles for baritone sax and clarinet in the lively
next section, Freedom – Word you heard, including a highspirited clarinet cadenza at the end. The short recitation
Freedom is a word, with its ironic twist at the end and the
chorus musing quietly in the background, was originally
spoken by Ellington himself, and has a moving simplicity. It
leads into the swinging Sweet, fat and that, which like Heaven
has a consciously naïve text – "zestness and bestness, sugar
and cream on the blessedness" – which Ellington defended:
“Every man prays in his own language, and there is no
language that God does not understand”, he said.
The next words, "No more pains, no more chains", are a quick
reminder of the deeper context from which his commitment to
freedom arose - two of his grandparents had been enslaved.
There is a similar resonance to the invocation of freedom that
follows, in as many languages as the performance can
provide, before the reprise of the suite’s opening number, with
variations, brings it to a grand, “big band” close.
The Shepherd (its full title is the William Blake-like The
Shepherd Who Watches over the Night Flock) is Ellington’s
tribute of gratitude to Reverend John Garcia Gensel, a
Lutheran pastor in New York City “who has made many
sacrifices to help the people who live at night, by night or
through the night – if they’re lucky”, as the composer put it with
a characteristic touch of wit. Gensel was a jazz enthusiast who
ministered to the musicians of “the town”, and his steadfast
strength, courage and “big city” sophistication are touchingly
evoked in the bluesy trumpet solo.
The Majesty of God was originally the finale of the third Sacred
Concert, and its text looks forward, in the tradition of 19th
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century spirituals, to a day of universal love and acceptance.
Here it is followed by the superb Come Sunday, which
Ellington once acknowledged was “the single most beautiful
piece of music [he] ever wrote”, and which became an
immensely popular jazz “standard” piece. Its strength lies not
only in the glorious melody but also in the simple, evocative
lyrics, rooted in historical reality: Sunday was the only day (if
any) of rest from labour for enslaved men, women and
children. Its magnificent expression of hope and endurance ("I
don’t mind the grey skies ‘cause they’re just clouds passing
by") and a possible reference to the “Great Sabbath” at the end
of time, when emancipation will come forever and for all,
confirm the scope and stature of Ellington’s achievement here.
He then develops the melody in David Danced, composed for
the great tap-dancer Dr. Bunny Briggs, in which he makes a
brilliant case for dance-as-worship – disapproved of at the
time by many Southern churches, but a wonderful vindication
of Ellington’s resistance to composing a conventionally
devotional piece.
The Sacred Concert ends with three eloquently contrasted
movements. The confidently “swung” Almighty God is based on
hard facts of the lives of enslaved African Americans. When
Ellington was a boy many emancipated domestic servants still
did the back-breaking work of “home laundry”, taking in
washing and living in quarters that reeked of sulphur:
Ellington’s "world way up above" is a paradise of freedom from
hard physical labour and its stench (with a mocking reference
to escaping the fires of Hell), where finally they will themselves
be washed, dressed and caressed by angels. T.G.T.T. (Too Good
To Title) is the composer’s “attempt at capturing the image, the
reflection, of the original non-conformist – that of Jesus Christ”,
as he put it: wordless, soaring, an embodiment in sound of
serenity and freedom. The extended reprise of Praise God at
the end, elaborated with solo and dance, was devised as the
Vivace Chorus
19
finale of the concert in Westminster Abbey and repeated in
Paris and Stockholm, where it is said to have had the
audiences literally dancing in the aisles: it brings this heartwarming assertion of the dignity of all humanity to a rousing
conclusion.
Programme note © Jon Long 2023
The music used in tonight's performance is Roland Perrin's
newly-edited adaptation for a smaller band of John Høybye
and Peder Pedersen's original arrangement for soprano, mixed
choir and big band. Vivace Chorus would like to thank Roland
Perrin for his permission to use this version.
1 Praise God
Chorus, Jazz Band
Praise God with the sound of the trumpet
Praise God with the psaltery and harp
Praise God with the sound of the timbrel and dance
Praise God with the sound of the stringed instruments
The organ, the cymbals, the loud high-sounding cymbals
Let everything that has breath praise God, praise the Lord
Praise ye the Lord, praise God and dance
2 Heaven
Chorus, Jazz Band, Soprano Solo
Heaven, my dream
Heaven, divine.
Heaven, supreme,
Heaven combines every sweet and pretty thing
Life would love to bring
Heavenly Heaven to be is just the ultimate degree to be
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Vivace Chorus
Heaven, my dream, my dream, Heaven my dream
Heaven, Heaven supreme, supreme,
Heaven supreme
Every sweet and pretty thing
life would love, would love to bring
Heavenly Heaven to be is just the ultimate degree to be
Freedom Suite
3a Freedom
Chorus, Jazz Band
Freedom, freedom, freedom
To be contented prisoners of love
Or to reach beyond our reach, to reach for a star
Or go about the business of becoming what we already are
Freedom, freedom, freedom
3b Freedom
Chorus, Jazz Band
Freedom, freedom, freedom (etc)
Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah
Oo, Oo, Ah
3c Freedom (Word you heard)
Chorus, Jazz Band
Freedom, freedom
Freedom’s what you thought you heard
Freedom, freedom
Freedom’s not just one big word
Freedom, freedom
A perfect healing salve
Vivace Chorus
21
Freedom, freedom
It’s what you’ve got to have
Freedom, freedom
Freedom’s good both night and day
Up and down and all around and all the way
Give me freedom, freedom
Freedom must be won
‘Cause freedom’s even good fun
3d Freedom is a word…
Chorus, Narrator
Mmm Freedom (repeated)
Recitation:
"Freedom is a word that is spoken and sung,
Loudly and softly all around the world,
And in many languages.
The word freedom is used for many purposes.
It is even sometimes even used in the interest of freedom."
Duke Ellington
3e Freedom (Sweet, fat and that)
Chorus, Jazz Band
Freedom is sweet on the beat
Freedom is sweet to the reet complete
It’s got zestness and bestness
Sugar and cream on the blessedness
No more pains, no more chains to keep me from being free
Freedom is sweet fat and that’s for me
Freedom is sweet fat and that’s for me
22
Vivace Chorus
3f Freedom (Svoboda)
Individual declamations of freedom in many languages:
Freedom (English)
Liberté (French)
Freiheit (German)
Ελευθερία eleutheria (Greek)
Libertà (Italian)
Uhuru (Swahili)
Vrijheid (Dutch)
Libertad (Spanish)
Özgürlük (Turkish)
Liberdade (Portuguese)
आज़ादी Azaadee (Hindi)
Frihed (Danish)
ﺍﻟﺣﺭﻳﻪAlhuriya (Arabic)
Cherut (Hebrew)
自由 Jiyuna Koto (Japanese)
Frihet (Norwegian)
自由 Zi yu (Chinese)
Свобода Svoboda (Ukrainian & Russian)
3g Freedom
Chorus, Jazz Band
Freedom, freedom, freedom
To be contented prisoners of love
Or to reach beyond our reach, to reach for a star
Or go about the business of becoming what we already are
Freedom, freedom, freedom
Vivace Chorus
23
4 The Shepherd
Jazz Band
5 The Majesty of God
Chorus, Jazz Band, Soprano Solo
The beauty of God is indescribable
The power of God is un-appraisable
The sight of God is unimaginable
And we should know that the light of God
Is truth and does not a shadow throw.
The wonder of God
The future of futures,
The splendour of God
The Heaven of Heavens.
The domain of God is universal beyond end.
The beginning is love,
And only God knows when.
6. Come Sunday
Chorus, Soprano Solo
Lord, dear Lord of love,
God Almighty, God above,
Oh, please look down and see my people through.
I believe that God put sun and moon up in the sky
I don’t mind the grey skies
‘Cause they’re just clouds passing by.
Lord, dear Lord of love,
God Almighty, God above,
Oh, please look down and see my people through.
24
Vivace Chorus
7. David danced
Chorus, Jazz Band, Tap dancer
David up and danced,
David danced before the Lord.
He danced before the Lord with all his might.
Psalteries, timbrels, harps and cymbals
Rang out loud and clear.
Shouting, singing, trumpets bringing
Love to every ear.
David up and danced,
David danced before the Lord.
He danced before the Lord with all his might.
8. Almighty God
Chorus, Jazz Band
Almighty God has those angels
Away up there above,
Up there a-weaving sparkling fabrics
Just for you and me to love.
Almighty God has those angels
Up in the proper place,
Waiting to receive and to welcome us
And remake us in grace.
Wash your face and hands and hearts and soul
’Cause you wash so well,
God will keep you safely
Where there’s no sulphur smell.
Almighty God has those angels
As ready as can be,
Waiting to dress, caress and bless us all
In perpetuity.
Vivace Chorus
25
9, T.G.T.T. ("Too good to title")
Jazz Band, Soprano Solo
10. Praise God and Dance
Chorus, Jazz Band, Soprano Solo, Tap dancer
Praise God with the sound of the trumpet
Praise God with the psaltery and harp
Praise God with the sound of the timbrel and dance
Praise God with the sound of the stringed instruments
The organ, the cymbals, the loud high-sounding cymbals
Let everything that has breath praise God, praise the Lord
Praise ye the Lord, praise God and dance
Praise God with sound of trumpets
Praise God Praise ye the Lord and dance
Dance, dance, dance
Praise God and dance
Praise God with sound of trumpets
Praise God Praise ye the Lord and dance
The organ, the cymbals, the loud high-sounding cymbals
Let everything that has breath praise God, praise the Lord
Praise ye the Lord, praise God and dance
Praise God with sound of trumpets
Praise God Praise ye the Lord and dance
Praise God with the sound of the stringed instruments
The organ, the cymbals, the loud high-sounding cymbals
Let everything that has breath praise God, praise the Lord
Praise ye the Lord, praise God and dance
End
26
Vivace Chorus
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Soprano
Joanna
is
an
internationally
acclaimed British singer, composer
and choir director. Having graduated
from Oxford University with a Master
of Arts degree in Music, her career
began with seven years leading the
five-time Grammy® award-winning
vocal group The Swingles, with
whom she toured the world and
recorded six albums.
As a performer, Joanna specialises in contemporary music
(classical, jazz, pop, cabaret) and is particularly in demand as a
“crossover” soloist for works which demand more than one
style of singing; these include Will Todd’s Mass in Blue (which
she recorded for the Convivium label) and Duke Ellington’s
Sacred Concert. At the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London
she records TV and Hollywood film soundtracks and her
discography comprises solo albums, contemporary orchestral
music and choral CDs with Tenebrae. TV work includes
appearing as a judge for the Sky 1 TV series Sing: Ultimate A
Cappella, presented by Cat Deeley, and singing in the choir at
Alice and Hugo’s wedding on The Vicar of Dibley.
Described as “melodious, uplifting and accessible” Joanna’s
compositions include songs, church music and secular choral
pieces. In 2018, she made history by masterminding and
conducting the first all-female recording session ever to have
taken place at Abbey Road, recording her song Twenty-firstcentury Woman (the YouTube video features cameos from Prue
Leith and Joanna Lumley). Joanna has composed a coronation
anthem - The mountains shall bring peace - for King Charles III.
Vivace Chorus
27
Annette Walker
Photo © Irven Lewis Photography
Tap dancer
Annette Walker is a charismatic
and versatile performer across
dance, music, theatre and circus.
She has appeared in a variety of
international and national shows,
festivals, cabarets and concerts
and is one of the leading
exponents of a new generation of
tap dancers taking the stage with
grace, style, and above all,
rhythm.
As a tap dancer, Annette’s
highlights include performing at Ronnie Scott's Women in Jazz,
Turned on Tap at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the BBC Proms
2019 Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
For the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, Annette was
one of the aerialist Mary Poppinses. In theatre she played the
actor-aerialist role, Aeriella, in the UK tour of Edmund the
Learned Pig. In music she has played piano in several bands
including for Sandi Toksvig’s Mirth Control at the Women of the
World Festival and Myke Masters Band at Hideaway. Annette
has played violin in string orchestras at the Southbank Centre.
She has also worked as a band leader in music and dance
projects and was the music director for Swing Sister Swing’s
2022 theatre tour.
Annette is passionate about teaching and sharing the history of
tap dance, and is queen of the Renegade Stage at the London
Tap Jam where she occasionally swaps her tap shoes to join in
on piano with the band. As well as teaching classes in Rhythm
Tap and its jazz music connection, Annette is currently a PhD
research scholarship student of performing arts.
28
Vivace Chorus
Jeremy Backhouse
Conductor
Jeremy Backhouse is one of Britain’s
leading choral conductors. He began his
musical career in Canterbury Cathedral
where he was Senior Chorister.
Jeremy has been the sole conductor of
the internationally-renowned chamber
choir, Vasari Singers, since its inception in
1980. Since winning the prestigious Choir
of the Year competition in 1988, the Vasari
Singers has performed regularly at major
concert
venues
and
cathedrals
throughout the UK and abroad. Jeremy
and the Vasari Singers broadcast
frequently on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3
Photo © Ash Mills
and have a discography of over 25 CDs on
EMI, Guild, Signum and Naxos. Their recordings have been
nominated for a Gramophone award, received two Gramophone
Editor’s Choice awards, the top recommendation on Radio 3’s
"Building A Library" and two recent CDs both achieved Top Ten
status in the Specialist Classical Charts. He is totally committed to
the performance of contemporary music and, with Vasari, he has
commissioned over 25 new works.
In January 1995 Jeremy was appointed Music Director of the Vivace
Chorus. Alongside the standard classical works, Jeremy has
conducted the Vivace Chorus in some ambitious programmes
including Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater,
Mahler’s "Resurrection" Symphony, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and
Ivan the Terrible, then Mahler’s "Symphony of a Thousand" and Verdi’s
Requiem in the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Until July 2022, Jeremy was also the Music Director of the Salisbury
Community Choir. In 2013 the choir celebrated its 21st Anniversary
with a concert in Salisbury Cathedral, premiering a speciallycommissioned work by Will Todd, The City Garden, which they toured
to Lincoln (2014) and Guildford (2015) cathedrals. A new work from
Alexander L'Estrange was premiered in Winchester Cathedral in
November 2018.
Jeremy has also worked with a number of the country's leading
choirs, including the BBC Singers, the London Symphony Chorus,
the Philharmonia Chorus, and the Brighton Festival Chorus.
Vivace Chorus
29
All Stars Jazz Band
Tonight we are delighted to be joined by a specially-selected
group of the UK's leading jazz musicians, put together for this
concert by Guildford Jazz.
Lead alto sax:
Colin Skinner
Alto sax / clarinet:
Alan Barnes
Tenor sax:
Robert Fowler
Baritone sax:
Karen Sharp
First trumpet:
Steve Waterman
Second trumpet:
Freddie Gavita
First trombone:
Ian Bateman
Second trombone:
Paul Sykes
Piano:
Rob Barron
Bass:
Marianne Windham
Drums:
Clark Tracey
Guildford Jazz is a not-for-profit community arts
organisation, bringing Britain’s finest jazz
musicians to a local audience in an intimate and
welcoming jazz club environment.
30
Vivace Chorus
Tom’s Trust
Please help London’s disadvantaged children and young
people by supporting
The Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust
Read about Tom and the Trust’s work in helping to combat knife crime, by
visiting our website: www.tomaprhyspryce.com
justgiving.com/tomaprhys
easyfundraising.org.uk
giveasyoulive.com
(this advert has been donated by friends of Tom’s Trust)
About Vivace Chorus
Jeremy Backhouse
Francis Pott
Peter Norman
Music Director
Accompanist
Chairman
Vivace Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall, May 2014
Photo © Ash Mills
Vivace Chorus is a flourishing, ambitious and adventurous
choir based in Guildford, Surrey. We enjoy singing traditional
choral classics alongside the challenge of contemporary and
newly-commissioned music – there’s something for everyone
at Vivace!
The choir began in 1946 as the Guildford Philharmonic Choir
and was rebranded as Vivace Chorus in 2005. We have an
enviable reputation for performing first-class concerts across a
wide range of musical repertoire. Particular successes include
a sell-out performance in May 2011 of Mahler’s Symphony
No. 8, the "Symphony of a Thousand", at the Royal Albert Hall, a
highly acclaimed performance in November 2012 of Britten’s
War Requiem and another Royal Albert Hall success in May
2014 when we performed the Verdi Requiem. In 2017 we
celebrated our 70th birthday with the Philharmonia Orchestra
in the Royal Festival Hall and 2018 saw a sell-out performance
in G Live Guildford for our "Concert for Peace".
32
Vivace Chorus
Vivace thrives under the
exceptional leadership of this
evening’s conductor, Jeremy
Backhouse. Jeremy’s passion
for choral music and his sheer
enthusiasm for music-making
are evident at every rehearsal
and
performance.
He
is
supported by Francis Pott, who
an academic and composer of
international repute and an
accomplished concert pianist –
who better to accompany our
rehearsals?
is
Photo © Ash Mills
During the pandemic, we made considerable efforts to keep
singing. Jeremy ran weekly Zoom sessions, Francis shared his
encyclopaedic knowledge of composers, and we put together
two online films and a virtual Christmas Concert, raising money
for the Mayor of Guildford’s chosen charity.
We had a very successful tour of northern Spain in June 2022
(postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic), adding to
our list of foreign trips, which have so far also included singing
in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the Baltic States.
We are always happy to welcome new members, so if you
would like to try us out, do come along to any of our regular
rehearsals on Monday evenings at 7.15 in the Guildford Baptist
Church, Millmead, Guildford.
Just contact our membership secretary Becky Kerby at
membership@vivacechorus.org or pay a visit to our website,
vivacechorus.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and
Twitter - @VivaceChorus.
Vivace Chorus
33
Vivace Chorus Patrons
The Vivace Chorus is extremely grateful to all patrons for their support.
Honorary Life Patrons
John Britten
James Garrow
John Trigg MBE
Life Patrons
Joy Hunter MBE
John and Jean Leston
Platinum Patrons
Roger & Sharon Brockway
Richard & Mary Broughton
Amanda Burn
Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson CBE
Norman Carpenter
Andrea & Gunter Dombrowe
Rosemary & Michael Dudley
Geoffrey Forster
Susan & Cecil Hinton
Stephen Linton
John McLean OBE & Janet McLean
Ron & Christine Medlow
Lionel & Mary Moon
Peter Norman
Robin Privett
David & Linda Ross
Geoffrey Johns & Sheila Rowell
Catherine & Brian Shacklady
Prue & Derek Smith
Dennis & Marjory Stewart
Idris & Joan Thomas
Pam Usher
Rob and Susie Walker
Anthony J T Williams
Bill & June Windle
Maggie Woolcock
BECOME A VIVACE PATRON
If you have enjoyed this concert, why not become one of our patrons? We
have a loyal band of followers whose regular presence at our concerts is
greatly appreciated. With the valued help of our patrons, we are able to
perform a wide range of exciting music, with world-class, professional
musicians in venues such as G Live, Dorking Halls, the Royal Albert Hall
and the Royal Festival Hall. If you are interested, please contact Mary Moon
on 01372 468431 or email: patrons@vivacechorus.org.
34
Vivace Chorus
Vivace Chorus Singers
FIRST SOPRANO
Kate Peters
SECOND ALTO
Geoff Johns
Sel Adamu
Mary Somerville
Geraldine Allen
Stephen Linton
Amelia Atkinson
Valerie Thompson
Evelyn Beastall
Charles Martin
Jan Barklem
Olwyn Westwood
Mary Clayton
Peter Norman
Mary Broughton
Christine Wilks
Liz Curry-Hyde
Sarah Hardcastle
Eiri Williams
Sheena Ewen
FIRST BASS
Jo Haviland
Fiona Wimblett
Jo Glover
Paul Barnes
Liz Hampshire
Phil Beastall
Nicola Kalimeris
FIRST ALTO
Pauline Higgins
Richard Broughton
Becky Kerby
Jackie Bearman
Penny Macfarlane
Jeremy Johnson
Fran MacKay
Monika BoothbyJost
Lois McCabe
Andrew Linden
Kay McManus
Jon Long
Michelle Mumford
Jane Brooks
Val Morcom
Malcolm Munt
Sue Norton
Amanda Burn
Sonja Nagle
Chris Newbery
Robin Onslow
Philippa Curtis
Lucy Schönberger
Chris Peters
Gillian Rix
Fiona Davidge
Jo Stokes
Robin Privett
Sarah Smithies
Valentina Faedi
Rosey Storey
David Ross
Joan Thomas
Sheila Hodson
June Windle
Andrew Skinner
Hilary Vaill
Jean Leston
Elisabeth Yates
Philip Stanford
Juliet Vaill
Penny McLaren
Isobel Humphreys
Suzie Maine
Rob Walker
Christine Medlow
FIRST TENOR
SECOND SOPRANO
Rosalind Milton
Bob Bromham
Jacqueline Alderton
Lilly Nicholson
Bob Cowell
SECOND BASS
Sarah Badger
Jackie Payne
Rosie Jeffery
Peter Andrews
Jane Barnes
Linda Ross
Nick Manning
Norman Carpenter
Scarlett Close
Catherine Shacklady
Barbara McDonald
Stuart Gooch
Ann Fuller
Marjory Stewart
John Trigg
Nick Gough
Isabel Mealor
Julia Stubbs
Susie Walker
Mike Johns
Alex Nash
Nicola Telcik
Alison Palmer
Sue Thomas
SECOND TENOR
Gill Perkins
Hilary Trigg
Ewan Bramhall
Maggie Woolcock
Peter Butterworth
Kieron Walsh
Neil Martin
Richard Wood
Simon Dillon
Vivace Chorus
35
Vivace Chorus dates for your diary
The Italian Job
Saturday 20th May 2023 7:30pm
Holy Trinity Church, Guildford
Let us transport you to the splendour of St Mark’s in Venice and the
Sistine Chapel in Rome with our early summer programme of Italian
treasures. Our programme includes Allegri’s famous Miserere, which
was composed for exclusive performance in the Sistine Chapel, and
Handel’s Dixit Dominus, which was composed and premiered in
Rome. Bellissimo concerto!
A concert for Cherry Trees
Saturday 1st July 2023 7pm
Holy Trinity Church, Guildford
In July we will be putting on a very special concert, raising money for
Cherry Trees – a local children's charity we’ve supported before. Join
us for some classic sacred choruses, including Handel's Zadok the
Priest, Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and selections from the
Verdi, Mozart and Fauré requiems. We will finish with Parry's I was
glad– a rousing way to end a summer evening's music-making.
Vivace's Victorian Parlour
Saturday 11th Nov. 2023 7:30pm
St Catherine's School, Bramley
You're invited to share an evening of musical delights - exactly as our
Victorian families might have performed in their parlours! You'll be
treated to oratorio choruses from Messiah and Elijah, part-songs
from Elgar and Gilbert & Sullivan, and madrigals including Orlando
Gibbons' The Silver Swan. All that, plus solos, piano duets and the
hugely popular Albert and the Lion poems. Join us in the comfortable,
modern theatre at St. Catherine's School, Bramley, for a light-hearted
evening that's bound to make you smile!
Further details at vivacechorus.org
Printed by IMPRINT COLOUR LTD
Pegasus Court, North Lane, Aldershot GU12 4QP. Tel : 01252 330683
Vivace Chorus is a Registered Charity No. 1026337
36
Vivace Chorus
THE
ITALIAN
JOB
Hennessey Brown Music
Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Jeremy Backhouse
Allegri: Miserere mei
Pergolesi: Magnificat
Gabrieli: Jubilate Deo
Monteverdi: Beatus Vir
Handel: Dixit Dominus
Vivace
Saturday
20 May 2023
at 7.30pm
Vivace
Season A5-2023.indd 6
Holy Trinity, Guildford
Tickets: £23, students and U18 £10, plus booking fee.
Book online: at vivacechorus.org
16/02/2023 14:52
FUTURE CONCERTS
Would you
love to sing?
Are you commuting less? More
time to enjoy yourself? We
rehearse on Mondays at 7.15pm
in central Guildford. We’re an
active, friendly choir and apart
from singing locally we tour
abroad, have parties and a
walking group. We work hard
but we aim to enjoy ourselves.
Email: Becky membership@
vivacechorus.org to ensure that
we are ready to welcome you.
Duke Ellington-Programme.indd 1