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Elements

PROGRAMME

Katerina Gimon – Elements: Earth
EARTH
Rudyard Kipling - The Way Through The Woods
Frank Ticheli – Earth Song
Herbert Howells – Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing
Katerina Gimon – Elements: Air
AIR
Elizabeth Jennings – Spell of The Air
Eric Whitacre – Leonardo dreams of his flying machine
Katerina Gimon – Elements: Water
WATER
Oliver Tearle - Breaking the Ice
Shruthi Rajasekar – Ganga’s Peace
Eric Whitacre – Water Night
Trad. arr. Sarah Rimkus – Shenandoah
Katerina Gimon – Elements: Fire
FIRE
Robert Louis Stevenson - Autumn Fires
Morten Lauridsen – Six ‘Firesongs’ on Italian Renaissance Poems No.3
Alberto Grau – Kasar mie la gaji

Programme Notes

Earth, Air, Water, Fire; all life is here.

We sing songs for our weary world, we lament the destruction of our planet and look for hope with music about the beauty of the earth. 

This is the planet on which we live; the world. It is everything that we are.

katerina gimon: elements – earth

Elements is set of choral works that abstractly depict the four classical elements and explores the wide range of capabilities of the human voice - from overtone singing, to vocal percussion, to colourful vocal timbres. Elements features no 'text' (at least not in the traditional sense), rather a series of syllables generated through improvisation meant to evoke the sound and energy of each element.

Earth is a beautiful, texturally-driven work depicting the simple yet unexplainable beauty of the earth. The work features harmonic overtone singing by a group of soloists.

earth

Rudyard Kipling: The Way Through The Woods

Frank Ticheli: Earth Song

A cry for peace in a world torn by war, this poignant a cappella setting of an original text is filled with striking dynamic contrasts. "Sing, Be, Live, See... This dark stormy hour, the wind, it stirs. The scorched earth cries out in vain... But music and singing have been my refuge, and music and singing shall be my light..."

Herbert Howells: Take Him Earth for Cherishing

After the assassination of J. F. Kennedy, Howells was asked to write an a capella choral work for his memorial service in 1963. At the time, Howells was known for his masterpiece Hymnus Paradisi, composed in memory of his beloved son, Michael, who died aged nine. He had used a setting of  a 4th century poem by Prudentius, translated by Helen Waddell, during his compositional process for the Hymnus Paradisi, but the words never appeared in the final work; the first two lines of this poem became the epigraph. Nearly thirty years after the death of his son, Howells returned to these same words to write this memorial piece for an entire nation; ‘Take him Earth for Cherishing’. Thoughts of his son must have been intertwined in this writing process.

Katerina Gimon: Elements – Air

Air traces the movement from calm breath to thick violent winds. Together singers gradually introduce new sounds and pitches, building an intricate texture with ever-shifting emphasis.

air

Elizabeth Jennings: Spell of The Air

Eric Whitacre: Leonardo dreams of his flying machine

Soloists: Elspeth Piggott, Lorna Day & Jonny Hill

Charles Anthony Silvestri is not only a brilliant poet, teacher and historian, he is a consummate choral singer blessed with a beautiful tenor voice. When Dr. Gene Brooks called and asked me to write the 2001 Raymond C. Brock Commission, I could think of no other author whose words I would rather set.

We started with a simple concept: what would it sound like if Leonardo Da Vinci were dreaming? And more specifically, what kind of music would fill the mind of such a genius? The drama would tell the story of Leonardo being tormented by the calling of the air, tortured to such degree that his only recourse was to solve the riddle and figure out how to fly.

We approached the piece as if we were writing an opera brève. Charles (Tony to his friends) would supply me with draft after draft of revised ‘libretti’, and I in turn would show him the musical fragments I had written. Tony would then begin to mold the texts into beautiful phrases and gestures as if he were a Renaissance poet, and I constantly refined my music to match the ancient, elegant style of his words. I think in the end we achieved a fascinating balance, an exotic hybrid of old and new.

Katerina Gimon: Elements – Water

Soloists: Sarah Keirle & Megan Rickard

Water presents powerful soaring textures and lilting melodies that grow and decay like waves in the ocean.

water

Oliver Tearle: Breaking the Ice

Shruthi Rajasekar: Ganga’s Peace

For Hindus like myself, the Ganga river is the most sacred of places. Believed to be an embodiment of the goddess Ganga, the river is a site of purification, rebirth, and solace. It additionally provides vital resources to the agrarian and urban communities of the region. Like many places in the world today, however, the Ganga river is in environmental peril. By taking from ‘Mother Ganga’, we have endangered Her – one example of the widespread harm humans have done to Mother Nature.

Ancient Hindu philosophy and mythology illuminate the path forward. In addition to the origin story of Goddess Ganga and the Shanti Mantra, I turned to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Chapter 5.2 – famously alluded to in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – provides three essential values to live by: dhaamyatta (self-restraint), dhatta (giving), and dhayadhvam (kindness), all contained in the thunderous sound of ‘Da’. These are the solutions for saving our environment. But will we have the integrity to implement them? Or will Ganga and Nature fare better without us?

This piece was commissioned by I Fagiolini and its first performance date was April 22, 2021 in Live from London Spring by I Fagiolini; programme titled ‘Re-Wilding The Waste Land’.

Eric Whitacre: Water Night

In January of 1995 I spent the day with Dr. Bruce Mayhall, and in one amazing four hour conversation he basically convinced me to stay in school, finish my degree, and continue my life as a professional artist. Heavy stuff. I wanted so much to show my appreciation to him, to write him a piece worthy of his wisdom and understanding. I got home, opened up my book of Octavio Paz poetry, and started reading.

I can’t really describe what happened. The music sounded in the air as I read the poem, as if it were a part of the poetry. I just started taking dictation as fast as I could, and the thing was basically finished in about 45 minutes. I have never experienced anything like it, before or since, and with my limited vocabulary I can only describe it as a pure and perfect and simple gift. It has become one of my most popular pieces, and I’ve heard countless people who sing it or hear it describing the same feeling I had when I wrote it down. I remain eternally grateful for this gift.

Trad. arr. Sarah Rimkus – Shenandoah

Soloist: Eleonore Cockerham

“Oh, Shenandoah” is a long-lived American folk song, originating among traders and travellers on the Missouri river and evolving into a sea shanty sung around the world. Many versions of the tune and lyrics exist, but all carry the same nostalgia. This arrangement uses an accompaniment solely made up of drones from the naturally-occurring harmonic series (with an exception here and there) to turn the sea shanty into an echo of longing across an ocean.

Katerina Gimon: Elements – Fire

Fire is a fun, lively, and energetic work incorporating vocal percussion, body percussion, nasal singing, calls, nonsense syllables, as well as optional percussion.

fire

Robert Louis Stevenson: Autumn Fires

Morten Lauridsen: Six ‘Firesongs’ on Italian Renaissance Poems No.3

The Madrigali, were premiered in Los Angeles on April 10, 1988 by the University of Southern California Chamber Singers. Each of the six poems in the cycle contains romantic references to fire and the music is unified by manipulations of a sonority called the ‘Fire-Chord’, which opens the piece and is found extensively throughout the Madrigali. Stylistic features of Italian Renaissance madrigals – including word painting, modality, bold harmonic shifts, intricate counterpoint and augenmusik – are blended within a contemporary compositional idiom.

 Translation

Amor, io sento l’alma
Tornar nel foco ov’io
Fui lieto et più che mai d’arder desio.
Io arde ’en chiara fiamma
Nutrisco il miser core;
Et quanto più s’infiamma,
Tanto più cresce amore,
Perch’ogni mio dolore
Nasce dal fuoco ov’io
Fui lieto et più che mai d’arder desio.

Oh love, I feel my soul
Return to the fire where I
Rejoiced and more than ever desire to burn.
I burn and in bright flames
I feed my miserable heart;
The more it flames
The more my loving grows,
For all my sorrows
Are born of the fire where I
Rejoiced and more than ever desire to burn
 

Alberto Grau – Kasar mie la gaji

Grau’s Kasar mie la gaji is a call to the human race to save the Earth and reduce our environmental impact. The Venezuelan composer uses only one line of text ‘Kasar mie la gaji’ (The Earth is tired) throughout the piece, manipulating it in many ways; sometimes the choir whisper, speak or scream the words instead of singing. The slow introduction and middle section of the piece are a lamentation for and a depiction of our tired planet, whilst the contrasting energetic rhythmic sections are an encouragement, perhaps demand, to change our ways. Hand clapping and foot stamping in the final section build up to a mighty shout and scream to save our planet.

THE CHOIR

SOPRANOS
Eleonore Cockerham
Sarah Keirle
Charlotte Laidlaw
Elspeth Piggott
Megan Rickard

ALTOS
Jessica Conway
Lorna Day
Rachel Gilmore
Louise Wood

TENORS
Tom Klafkowski
Alexander Kyle
Louis de Satgé
Joseph Taylor

BASS
Jonny Hill
Henry Page
Edmund Phillips
Henry Saywell

THE TEAM

Artistic Director Ellie Slorach
General Director Claire Shercliff
Communications Coordinator Eve Powers
Design Sam Gee

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