大象传媒

Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with a concert entitled 鈥淢usic for the Soul鈥�: Vaughan Williams and Tippett.

Tallis: How shall I sing that majesty (Third mode melody)

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

8.15: Interval

Tippett: A Child of Our Time

Lauren Fagan, soprano
Madeleine Shaw, Mezzo soprano
Samuel Sakker, tenor
Simon Shibambu, bass
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus
David Hill , conductor

The oratorio A Child of Our Time was Tippett鈥檚 artistic and emotional response to the events that led to the 鈥楰ristallnacht鈥� pogrom of November 1938. Tippett used as his formal and historical models the Bach Passions and Handel鈥檚 Messiah which share with this contemporary morality the subject of the death of an individual set against the universal background of human suffering. His use of the spiritual as a contemporary equivalent for the Lutheran chorale of the Bach settings draws the listener more closely into the drama through the spirituals鈥� unique verbal and musical metaphor.

The Tallis melody that is the basis for Vaughan Williams鈥� Fantasia is one of nine he contributed to the Psalter of 1567 for the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. It is heard in its complete form three times and serves as the source for a wonderful miasma of variants and developments in this rich orchestral composition written for a large string orchestra divided into three parts. Although it is not specifically religious music, it seems to speak to the spirit.