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Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30 - (1943) (Paperback)
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Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30 - (1943) (Paperback)
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List price R263
Loot Price R196
Discovery Miles 1 960
You Save R67 (25%)
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(BH Large Choral). for SATB with SATB solos and organ Imogen Holst
orchestrated the work for wind quintet, percussion, organ (ad lib)
and strings (1952), and there is also a version for SSAA and organ
arranged by Edmund Walters (1966) Text: Christopher Smart
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes Difficulty level: 3 One of Britten's
most popular and performed works in this genre, Rejoice in the Lamb
was written for the 50th anniversary of St. Matthew's church,
Northampton in 1943. The remarkable vicar, Walter Hussey, was a
great patron of the arts. His vision for St. Matthew's and later
for Chichester Cathedral, where he moved to become Dean, is one of
the most fascinating stories in the history of the Anglican Church
in the last century.Britten called his work a Festival Cantata and
it is structured with choral and solo movements. The text by the
supposedly mad Christopher Smart (1722-1771) is part of a poem
called Jubilate Agno which he composed in a mental asylum having
been committed there by his father-in-law for apparent religious
mania. He died in a debtors' prison. It was W.H. Auden who brought
the poem to Britten's attention. It is easy to see why Britten was
so attracted to Smart's poem. It has great colour, drama, bizarre
imagery, and the central issue of the individual against the crowd,
or against authority, was one to which Britten was to return
repeatedly in his works. Britten had developed a deep interest in
Purcell's music at this time and had made keyboard realisations of
accompaniments for a number of songs which he performed with Peter
Pears. Purcell's influence can easily be heard in the Hallelujah
sections. The challenges in this work are many and varied though
the difficulty level is not great overall. It is an ideal concert
work and is popular with performers and audiences alike. Practical
issues include really quiet singing while projecting the voice at
the start; dealing with the rhythmic complexities of the first
quick section ('Let Nimrod the mighty hunter') and getting the most
out of the words and the dynamic contrasts here; the unanimity of
the dotted rhythms in the Hallelujah sections; the fielding of four
soloists who can put across the character of these zany movements
(the cat, the mouse, flowers); the realisation of the depth of
passion in the 'For I am under the same accusation as my Saviour'
section; the brilliance of the final quick section with all the
bizarre musical instrument rhymes; and finally realising the
'stillness and serenity' of the slow music before the final
Hallelujah. There is much to consider and much devil in the detail.
However, the work is emphatically worth any amount of effort to
realise Britten's inspiration. Duration: 17 minutes Paul Spicer,
Lichfield, 2011
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