(Andrew
Butler)
The Pietermaritzburg Amateur Music Society
(PAMS) will present a concert titled Musique
Sacrée on May 21 in the Lutheran Church in Hayfields,
Pietermaritzburg.
Paris is a beautiful city with tree-lined
spacious boulevards. On the banks of the majestic river Seine stands Notre Dame
Cathedral, a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture and the focal point of
Catholic Paris for seven centuries. When entering the Cathedral with light
flooding through the magnificent stained glass rose windows, it is possible
that you might also hear the sound of a choir singing.
The PAMS concert of French music begins
with the brief Kyrie of the
Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance, Guillaume Dufay, in which one
finds an early example of music set to the text of the Mass, with, for us
listening with our ears of hindsight, or hindsound, its starkly primitive
atmosphere, strange cadences and hollow harmonies.
Then, four centuries later two works of the
French Romantic composer Gabriel Faure, two brief choral gems, an Ave Maria and the Cantique on a text of Jean Racine, the 17th century dramatist, both
predating Fauré’s famous Requiem, and, as in that wonderful
masterpiece, both revealing a sophisticated restraint and a seamless beauty
that is characteristic of all his music.
Then on into the 20th century, we find an
example of the liturgical music emanating from Taize in Burgundy, where an
ecumenical community was founded in 1940. The music was composed mainly by
Jacques Berthier, whose style was necessarily simple and yet effective, easily
accessible to the many congregants who have gathered there over the decades.
Christopher Cockburn who is one of the
leading organists in South Africa has kindly agreed to be the soloist on the
organ in the first half of the programme. He will play two movements from Léon
Boëllmann's Suite Gothique Op 25 – the
Prière à Notre-Dame and Toccata. Cockburn will also accompany
the choir in the other works.
Cockburn writes: "Léon Boëllmann was a
younger contemporary of Gounod and, like him, lived for most of his life in
Paris. Although he composed music in a number of different genres, he is mainly
remembered today for his organ music, and particularly the four-movement Suite Gothique which regularly appears
on recital programmes around the world. The two movements being played in this
programme are strongly contrasting. The Prière
à Notre-Dame is a slow, quiet meditation with a serene, song-like melody.
The dramatic Toccata presents a slightly sinister theme in the
pedals accompanied by the continual rapid figurations on the keyboard which are
characteristic of the French organ toccata as a genre. It begins softly but ends
with a powerful statement of the theme using the full resources of the
organ."
PAMS Musical Director Nigel Fish has
selected for the main work on the programme the Messe Solennelle of the 19th century Paris-born Charles Gounod. One
of no less than 16 settings of the Mass that he composed, this one is known as
the St Cecilia Mass as it was first performed on St Cecilia's day (November 22)
in 1855 - St Cecilia being the patron saint of music and musicians.
Establishing Gounod as a major composer of
his day, this work is scored for three vocal soloists. Performing this work with
the choir will be soprano Annalie Herbst-van Rooyen, tenor Sandile Mabaso and
bass Andrew Butler. Its highly persuasive style is by turns gentle, exultant,
stirring and yearning - if one listens carefully one can almost smell the
incense - and unusually, ending with three rousing prayers: the Church, the
Army, the Nation.
The concert will take place on May 21 at 14h30
in the Lutheran Church, Hayfields in Pietermaritzburg. Tickets R100 (R50
students) on sale at the door or available from Pink Heather at the Quarry
Shopping Centre in Hilton.
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