The first version of Abendlied was composed in 1855 when Josef Rheinberger was just fifteen years old. It is perhaps his most famous choral work, paying homage to the great sacred music of the Renaissance with short moments of imitative writing blended with glorious homophony.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Crossing the bar is rich in extended metaphor: the threshold separating life and death is likened to a sandbar which a ship crosses as it moves from the safety of the harbour to the oceanic expanse on the other side. The figure of Christ is compared to the ‘Pilot’ who directs the journey.
i Timor et Tremor, iii Tenebrae factae sunt
Quatre Motets pour un temps de pénitence (Four Penitential Motets), FP 97, are four sacred motets composed by Francis Poulenc in 1938–39. He wrote them on Latin texts for penitence. The text for the first motet, Timor et tremor (Great fear and trembling) combines verses from psalms 54 and 30. The third motet, Tenebrae factae sunt (Darkness fell upon the Earth), is a responsory for the matins of Holy Saturday,
The Lamentations of Jeremiah foreshadow the work of Willaert and the Venetian school. The Lamentations are for eight voices in two groups of four, who answer each other antiphonally and then gradually build to a climax as the groups increasingly overlap, eventually singing together in eight independent contrapuntal parts.
The fourth motet of Duruflé's Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens (Four motets on Gregorian themes).
Harris wrote a number of services and anthems of which the finest is Faire is the heaven. Scored for double choir, the anthem was written in 1925.
Beati quorum via is one of three Latin Motets, Op. 38. Stanford may have composed the three motets at the end of the 19th century, possibly when he was a teacher at the Royal College of Music.
Flowing and expressive, it features homophonic sections, melismatic lines, and optional soaring soprano solos. Adoro te devote is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Nepalese Earthquake in 2015.
Aylesbury Consort of Voices (Vocal ensemble)
Aylesbury Consort of Voices was founded by Charles Pope in the 1950s. It has evolved into a choir of sixteen singers, performing music from the sixteenth century to the present day.
We are very fortunate to now have Edwin Pitt Mansfield as our Music Director. Ed is a Singing Teacher, Conductor, Baritone and Examiner – well known as an established teacher and educator, frequently leading workshops and seminars across the UK. Specialising in working with gifted teenagers and professional performers, he is Singing Teacher at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, an examiner for Trinity College London, and former and past Chair of The Association of Teachers of Singing (2022 – 2024). He also teaches out of his studio in Watford and in central London and is a deputy vocal teacher at the Royal College of Music, Junior Department.
Aylesbury Consort of Voices is proudly sponsored by 1st Homecare. 1st Homecare is an award-winning home care provider with branches in Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. It also provides Live In care. Please visit www.1st-homecare.com for contact details and more information.
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