Aylesbury Lunchtime Music presents

Aylesbury Consort of Voices

Print version
4 January 2024

Starts: 12:45pm, Doors: 12:15pm

Duration: 1 hour (approx.)

St Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury

£7 adults on the door (<18s & carers free)

Aylesbury Consort of Voices

Programme

  • 1526-1594

    Arise, Shine O Jerusalem (de Palestrina)

    Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina is considered the leading composer of late 16th-century Europe.

  • 1848-1918

    Welcome Yule! (Parry)

    Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (1848 – 1918), was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. As a composer he is best known for the choral song “Jerusalem”

  • 1925-2021

    Ding dong merrily on high (Llewellyn)

    “Ding Dong Merrily on High” is a Christmas carol. The words are by the English composer George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848–1934).

  • 1978-

    Northern Lights (Gjeilo

    Ola Gjeilo is a Norwegian composer and pianist, living in the United States. He writes choral music, and has written for piano and wind symphony, publishing through Walton Music, Edition Peters, and Boosey and Hawkes.

  • 1787-1863

    Silent Night (Gruber)

    “Silent Night” (German: “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht”) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011.

  • 1548-1611

    O Magnum Mysterium (de Victoria)

    O magnum mysterium has an associated plainchant melody, and in this form has been sung since the middle ages. However, the text has appealed to many composers over the years. Many of the most notable composers of the renaissance made settings, including William Byrd, Jacob Clemens non Papa, Cristóbal de Morales, D. Pedro de Cristo, Palestrina (article on the setting) and Tomás Luis de Victoria. Victoria went on to publish a mass based on his motet in 1592.

  • 1894-1930

    Bethlehem Down (Warlock)

    “Bethlehem Down” is a Christmas carol composed in 1927 by British composer Peter Warlock. It is set to a poem written by journalist and poet Bruce Blunt.

  • 1929-1988

    Coventry Carol (Leighton)

    The “Coventry Carol” is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors.

  • 1870-1952

    Behold that star (Talley)

    Joyful & tuneful spiritual alternating between solo phrase and choral response.

  • 1961-

    Quem Pastores laudavere (Bassi)

    Thou whom shepherds worshipped

  • 1956-

    In the stillness (Beamish)

    Sally Beamish OBE (b. 1956) is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music.

  • 1964-

    Hodie christus natus est (Dubra)

    Rihards Dubra (born 1964) is a Latvian composer. Many of his works are religiously influenced.

  • 1892-1983

    A spotless rose (Howells)

    A Spotless Rose is one of Howells’s most well-known and enduring works, a tender, if somewhat slight unaccompanied choral piece that encompasses much of Howells’s early choral writing and points towards the glories of Collegium Regale and beyond.

  • 1978-

    Ubi Caritas (Gjeilo)

    “Ubi caritas” is a hymn of the Western Church, long used as one of the antiphons for the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday.

  • 1899-1963

    O magnum mysterium (Poulenc)

    Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899 – 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the piano suite Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the Organ Concerto (1938), the opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir, and orchestra.

  • 1510-1556

    Magi veniunt ab oriente (Clemens non Papa)

    The wise men came from the East.

    The wise men came from the East to Jerusalem
    asking questions and saying:
    Where is he that is born [King of the Jews],
    whose star we have seen?
    We have seen that star in the East,
    and we have come [with gifts] to worship the Lord.

    Herod questioned the magi what sign they had seen
    [above the new-born king?] We recognised that brightly shining star
    whose lustre lights the world and us.
    We [have seen, and] have come to worship the Lord

  • 1824-1874

    The three kings (Cornelius)

    This is a Christmas carol by the German composer Peter Cornelius. He set “Die Könige” for a vocal soloist, accompanied by Philip Nicolai’s hymn “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (“How Brightly Shines the Morning Star”), which he erroneously thought was an Epiphany hymn. In fact, it is an Advent hymn in which the morning star is an allegory for the arrival of Jesus, not the Star of Bethlehem.

  • 1899-1963

    Hodie christus natus est (Poulenc)

    Today Christ is born

Performers

  • Aylesbury Consort of Voices

    Vocal ensemble

    Aylesbury Consort of Voices is a performance choir of sixteen hand-picked singers, performing music from the sixteenth century to the present day.
    Read More

Key information for concert goers

When

Every Thursday at 12:45pm (except August & over Christmas). Performances last around 60 minutes. Please enter quietly as there is a noon service in the Lady Chapel.

How much?

Entry is £7 per adult (card or cash), under 18s and carers are free. The price includes a programme. Donations are welcomed to subsidise the larger ensembles.

Where?

Performances are at St Mary’s Church in the heart of Aylesbury Old Town. See directions for further details.

Do I need to book?

No, just turn up. Doors open at 12:15 pm. Make sure you arrive in good time to get a seat.

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