As the summer winds down and autumn edges closer, we’re excited to welcome our singers back for a new term of choir rehearsals. There’s a special energy that comes with the start of a new season—familiar faces returning, new voices joining, and the first notes of music that will shape the weeks ahead.
This term, we’re working towards a concert in November centred around the theme of remembrance —a subject that invites both sensitivity and depth of expression. At the heart of the programme is Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, a work of extraordinary beauty and introspection. Rooted in Gregorian chant and coloured with lush harmonies, the piece offers moments of serene clarity and consolation, as well as quiet emotional intensity. It’s a piece that rewards careful attention to phrasing, balance, and blend—elements we look forward to refining together over the coming weeks.
Complementing the Duruflé are works by Herbert Howells, John Tavener, and James MacMillan—three composers whose works offer different yet equally powerful expressions of remembrance and reflection. Howells’ music, often inspired by personal loss, is rich in atmosphere and subtle harmonic colour. Tavener brings a mystical stillness and spiritual transcendence, while MacMillan’s music is known for its emotional intensity and dramatic flair, rooted in his Catholic faith and Scottish heritage.
We’re also looking forward to performing William Harris’s sublime Faire is the Heaven which sets the words of Edmund Spenser to evoke a sense of ethereal beauty and celestial grandeur. We’ll honour the memory of Ronald Corp with his setting of Never Weather-beaten Sail.
As an auditioned chamber choir, we are fortunate to be able to dive straight into the musical and interpretive detail of this repertoire. With confident sight-readers around the room, our rehearsals are less about note-bashing and more about shaping the music—exploring colour, nuance, and communication. It’s in this space that the real work (and the real joy) begins.
Whether it’s the fluid chant lines of the Duruflé, the shifting harmonies of Howells, or the spiritual intensity of MacMillan and Tavener, this is music that invites deep listening and honest expression. We’re looking forward to the conversations that will emerge in rehearsal—about text, about interpretation, and about how best to serve the music as an ensemble.
Our November concert will be a chance not just to perform, but to offer something reflective and meaningful to our audience. In a world that often moves too fast, this programme allows us—and those who hear it—to pause, remember, and reflect.
We’re excited to get started. See you in rehearsal.