News and Reviews

Lark in the Park 2019

Why not visit our stall at the Lark in The Park on 24th August 2019?

Details about our March concert

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Uttoxeter Choral Society Spring Concert 2019

Uttoxeter Choral Society will be performing two of the most famous and popular choral works, namely Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor and Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in Excelsis, at Doveridge church, on the 30th of March 2019.

The ‘Requiem’ is a seven part work scored for choir, and for Soprano and Baritone soloists. It originated as a five part version and was first performed on the 16^th of January 1888 at the church of La Madelaine in Paris, a church associated with contemporary Camille Saint Saens, who was the young composers’ tutor; and who became a lifelong friend.

The final form of the work was the result of adding two sections in 1899-1890, the extended Offertory and the 1877 Libera me, completing the seven movements of the work, to bring it into the more conventional form as used in Johannes Brahms ‘German Requiem’, which is similar in structure and in use of soloists. At this time it was also reworked for full orchestra.

The composer apparently had no particular motivation for writing his Requiem, which uses the litany of the Roman Catholic Mass for the departed; although some biographers suggest a possible association with the death of his parents. Fauré himself is reputed as saying that, ‘My Requiem wasn't written for anything – for pleasure, if I may call it that’… This later version was also first performed at the Madeleine church in 1893 and was also used at his own funeral in November 1924. Faure’s work was largely unrecognised nationally during his lifetime, except in his native France and in England, where many admired his works. The composer is also known for many of his charming and melodic short compositions, for example the gentle Moonlight (Claire de Lune) written to accompany a song by lyricist Paul Verlaine; and his Pavane, a piano piece with the rhythm of the traditional Spanish dance from which the name arises.

Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in Excelsis Deo, was written around 1714-15 while the composer was music master at the Ospedale della Pietà in Vienna an orphanage and music school for girls. This would account for the emphasis on soprano and alto voices. The work has as its libretto, parts of the Roman Catholic Mass, possibly dating from the fourth century AD (when the Roman occupation of Britain was coming to an end).

The work has its origins in a ‘Gloria’ written by Giovanni Maria Ruggieri, a Venetian composer and an early contemporary of Vivaldi. It begins by praising God almighty and continues with a plea for ‘peace to my (God’s) people on earth’...

Both Requiem and Gloria are familiar works to the Choral Society (and to many choirs throughout the world) and have justifiably maintained their popularity. Both have been recorded many times…but not yet by Uttoxeter Choral! We can but hope.