Cantilena
2014 Season
2014 SEASON
SATURDAY 8th FEBRUARY, 7.30pm
Carols for Candlemas
St Michael’s Church, Partridge Green
A sequence of music celebrating the end of Christmas including George Dyson’s A Christmas Garland, medieval carols and seasonal music from the 16th and 20th centuries
Tickets £12
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20th FEBRUARY – 20th MARCH
THURSDAYS 10.30-11.30am
Vocal Work Out Classes
St John’s Church, Broadbridge Heath, RH12 3LD
Give your voice a New Year overhaul. Open to all singers. Suitable for all levels – sight-reading not necessary!
All 5 classes £38, drop-in class £10
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SATURDAY 17th MAY, 7.30pm
A Garland of Songs
St Nicolas Church, Cranleigh, GU6 8AS
Music with a floral theme to celebrate Cranleigh in Bloom.
The Seasons - Alec Rowley
Flower Songs – Michael Hurd
Two Eastern Pictures – Gustav Holst
Madrigals and Partsongs
Tickets £12
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SATURDAY 11th OCTOBER, 7.30 pm
Hymns to the Virgin
St John’s Church, Broadbridge Heath, RH12 3LD
Music written across the centuries in honour of the Virgin Mary
Tickets £12
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How to buy tickets:
Email cantilena.info@gmail.com
Phone 01483 275489
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Cantilena is a small chamber choir for female voices based in the Horsham/Cranleigh area. Many of the singers are music teachers and most play an instrument to a high standard: all have a love for singing and a desire to tackle a varied and challenging repertoire. Previous concerts have included Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass, Byrd’s Mass for Three Voices, Fauré’s Messe Basse, medieval carols, plainsong, themed madrigals and partsongs for a Flower Festival, barbershop arrangements. Cantilena sings a cappella as well as accompanied by organ, piano and other instruments as necessary. Cantilena is also available for weddings and functions. Forces can vary from a soloist, duet or small consort to the full ensemble including instruments.
Our first concert of 2014 was our now traditional Carols for Candlemas. This took place on Saturday 8th February at a new venue, St Michael's Church, Partridge Green where we had a wonderfully warm welcome from Fr William and his congregation. The programme was a mixture of medieval carols, renaissance polyphony and music from the 20th century. The firm favourite of the audience was Britten's In the bleak midwinter, so much for him not being liked! It was very atmospheric and we did sing it very well. The church was lit by many candles as befits Candlemas, and we thought we might need them when there was a power cut shortly before the concert. Luckily the electricity was restored in time and we were able to perform our main piece which needed the piano (digital) - George Dyson's A Christmas Garland. This turned out to be a brilliant piece and we all had the music going round our heads for ages after the concert. 2014 is the 50th year since he died, so we should hear more of his music this year and rightly so. Have a look at our programme page for more on this Candlemas concert.
After our very successful Carols for Candlemas concert, we returned to Cranleigh for our May concert A GARLAND OF SONGS where we celebrated Cranleigh in Bloom with a floral themed programme.
The music included English madrigals by Morley, Wilbye and Weelkes, the very evocative Two Eastern Pictures by Holst, some Edwardian partsongs by Stanford, Bridge and German and a fine set of pieces entitled The Seasons by Alec Rowley. We included a couple of duets, one by Handel and, as no programme about flowers can possibly leave it out, the Flower Duet from Lakmé by Delibes.
The concert took place in St Nicolas Church on Saturday May 17th.
Our third concert was on Saturday 11th October at 7.30 pm in St John’s Church, Broadbridge Heath where we enjoyed the lovely acoustic and good facilities. For the audience there were comfortable chairs in which to enjoy our beautiful singing, plus refreshments after the concert!
The programme, Hymns to the Virgin, celebrated the wealth of wonderful music written in honour of the Virgin Mary, spanning ten centuries. It was really difficult to whittle down the possible pieces to a programmable length as there is so much lovely music to choose from. Most of the pieces were originally written for high voices and we included works by well known composers, Verdi and Holst, as well as less familiar ones such as Dufay and Charpentier, the latter being a particular favourite of mine. It is not often that you will hear Verdi and Dufay in the same concert!
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend we sang the services in Chichester Cathedral. Music list below. As you can see, we were quite busy! This was no mean feat as there were only ten of us at each service, plus our wonderful organists, Hugh Crook (on Saturday) and David Hansell (Sunday). We sang four services in all, with three on Sunday but were fortified by regular visits to the Cathedral Refectory! The Sanders Te Deum I think was my highlight as we pulled off a hard piece in 6 parts! But the standard all weekend was phenomenal. The clergy and vergers were lovely, very supportive and friendly and seemed genuinely very pleased with us. Looking at the music list again, no wonder we were a bit tired at the end, but what a way to spend the bank holiday!
Sat 23 Aug
Evensong 5.30
Responses: Darlington
Canticles: Marshall in C
Anthem: Mendelssohn - Laudate Pueri
Sun 24 Aug
Mattins 10am
Responses: Darlington
Canticles: Sanders
Anthem: Morales - In die tribulationis
Eucharist 11am
Hurd - Missa Brevis (no Kyrie)
Communion motet: Mozart - Ave verum corpus
Evensong 3.30
Responses: Darlington
Canticles: Mag - de Rore; Nunc - plainchant
Anthem: Costantini - Confitemini Domino
Mass at St Michael's, Partridge Green
A new venture for Cantilena in 2014 has been singing a fully choral mass at St Michael's, Partridge Green. We aim to do this 3 or 4 times a year.
On Sunday 1st June we sang the Byrd Three Part mass with Costantini's Confitemini Domino as the introit and Mozart's Ave verum corpus as the communion motet.
Then, on 7th September, the mass setting was Michael Hurd's Missa Brevis with motets by Mendelssohn (Laudate Pueri) and Morales (In die tribulationes).
On Sunday 7th December all the music was by Fauré.
Our next visit is Sunday 7th June with the mass setting by Byrd in Three Parts and Panis Angelicus (Franck) as the communion motet.
2013 Season
Cantilena’s concert in Cranleigh, Carols for Candlemas, which celebrated the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth with his much loved Ceremony of Carols, was a great success. Performing to a numerous and very appreciative audience the singers thoroughly enjoyed the programme and that was very much in evidence in the quality of the performance. Harpist Heather Wrighton was wonderful - we won't want to do the Britten with piano again! - and she made the Rutter Dancing Day really come alive. The unaccompanied pieces, themselves varied (plainsong sung in almost darkness in procession with candles, a work by Palestrina, a little performed piece by Britten plus a carol written for the lucky girls of Putney High School by David Hansell), contrasted well with the two main works with harp. The concert was on 9th February 2013 at 7.30 pm and we performed in the comfortable, warm and welcoming venue and excellent acoustics of Cranleigh Baptist Church.
Our next concert was on Saturday 25th May 2013 in Holy Trinity Church, Rudgwick, RH12 3EB. Entitled Courtship and Love, the music consisted of madrigals and songs from medieval to modern times, and included Eric Whitacre's beautiful Five Hebrew Love Songs and a jolly romp by Vaughan Williams about Falstaff called In Windsor Forest. The talented Cantilena ladies include six string players who played Elgar's Salut d'amour in an arrangement by one of them and various other instruments were featured in the medieval pieces. Something for everyone as was proved by post-concert comments in which everyone had a different favourite piece. The Whitacre was probably the work which moved people the most but the medieval music was much appreciated as it was unfamiliar to many.
REJOICE!
Cantilena continued their celebration of Benjamin Britten’s Centenary with works by 20th century composers writing in the English Cathedral tradition, including Britten himself, in their final concert of 2013 on Saturday 12th October in St Nicolas Church, Cranleigh.
These were the works performed:
Benjamin Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb and Missa Brevis
Wayne Marshall: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis
Michael Hurd: Missa Brevis
John Sanders: Te Deum
Malcolm Singer: Psalm 100
With Philip Scriven (organ) also contributing a solo piece: Simon Preston's 'Alleluyas'.
Unfamiliar pieces for a lot of the audience but all thoroughly enjoyed, especially the Malcolm Singer which always goes down well!