Midsummer Songs & Sonnets

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After two years of lockdown Glasgow Chamber Choir return to Houston & Killellan Kirk on 19th June with their Midsummer Concert!

About Midsummer Songs & Sonnets

Listed Under Music Events

Michael Bawtree - Conductor
Chris Nickol - Organ

Our midsummer concert brings together joyful motets from Bach and Schutz from the 16th and 17th centuries with music from more recent times by British jazz pianist George Shearing, and American composers Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen. After two years of lockdown, choir members have chosen some of their favourite pieces from the GCC library, and the all-time favourite Faire is the Heaven by William H Harris also finds a place in the programme.

Bach’s motets are both a challenge and a joy for any choir. Der Geist hilt unser Schwachheit auf is written for double choir and was composed in 1729. It sets words from St Paul’s letter to the Romans, as well as the hymn Komm Hieliger Geist, Herre Gott by Martin Luther. There is some dispute as to whether Lobet den Herrn, Alle Heiden is by Bach, but it is a fine motet, and sets words from Psalm 117.

Heinrich Schutz’s joyful motet Jauchzetdem Herren (Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth) was composed 100 years before the Bach motets, in 1619 and is a setting of words from Psalm 100. It is set for two choirs which echo one another throughout.

George Shearing composed Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare in 2001, and they are popular settings of well-known texts in a jazz idiom. Eric Whitacre’s settings are full of romance and luminosity, creating a web of sound. Lauridsen was born in 1943 and is best known for his choral works. His set of Nocturnes contain settings of poems by Rilke, Neruda and Agee.

Tickets: Adults £10 / Students £5, online or on the door

With a current membership of around 30 singers, Glasgow Chamber choir was founded in 1994 and has developed into one of Scotland’s finest amateur choirs. Directed since 2005 by Michael Bawtree, its repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present day and has included the Scottish premieres of works by James Whitbourn, Hans Gál, Jan Dismas Zelenka, Richard Bush and Judith Bingham.

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