Chorus - Women
Chorus - Men
Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
Baritone and chorus
Baritone and chorus
Baritone and chorus
Baritone
Chorus
Soprano and chorus
Chorus
Baritone and chorus
Chorus
Baritone and chorus

1872 - 1958
This concert commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, a great British composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores.
Vaughan Williams was born on 12 October 1872 in Down
Ampney, Gloucestershire, where his father was the local vicar.
Following his father's death in 1875 the young Vaughan
Williams was taken by his mother, Margaret Wedgewood, to live at the Wedgwood family home in the North Downs.
Though born into the privileged intellectual upper middle class (he was also related to the Darwins, Charles Darwin being a great-uncle) Vaughan Williams never took his situation for granted and worked all his life for the democratic and egalitarian ideals in which he believed.
In 1904, Vaughan Williams discovered English folk songs, which were fast becoming extinct in rural areas owing to the increase of literacy and printed music. He travelled the countryside, transcribing and preserving many songs himself. Later he incorporated these songs and melodies into his own music, being fascinated by the beauty of the music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary people. His efforts did much to raise appreciation of traditional English folk song and melody.
Vaughan Williams was 41 when World War I erupted. Though he could either have avoided war service entirely, he chose to enlist as a private in the Royal
Army Medical Corps. After a gruelling time as a stretcher bearer he was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery. On one occasion, though he was too ill to stand, Vaughan Williams continued to direct his battery while lying on the ground. Prolonged exposure to gunfire began a process of hearing loss which eventually caused severe deafness in old age.
Ralph Vaughan Williams died on 26 August 1958 and his ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey.
This cantata is excerpted from Vaughan William’s first full-length opera, Sir John in Love , which is based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor . The opera itself was not a great success; it obviously didn’t help that it shared the same libretto as Verdi’s Falstaff . But where Verdi emphasized the comedy, Vaughan
Williams tried to emphasize the love story and wound up with some beautiful music and some lovely scenes, albeit in a work with little dramatic tension or momentum.

Vaughan Williams composed the Five Mystical Songs between 1906 and 1911.
The work sets four poems by the great metaphysical poet George Herbert, from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations . While
Herbert was a priest, Vaughan Williams himself was an agnostic, which did not prevent his setting of verse of an overtly religious inspiration.
Like Herbert's simple verse, the songs are fairly direct, but have the same intrinsic spirituality as the original text. They were supposed to be performed together, as a single work, but the styles of each vary quite significantly. The first four songs are quite personal meditations in which the soloist takes a key role, particularly in the third, Love Bade Me Welcome , where the chorus has a wholly supporting role (quietly and wordlessly singing the plainsong melody O Sacrum
Convivium ), and the fourth, The Call , in which the chorus does not feature at all.
The final Antiphon is probably the most different of all: a triumphant hymn of praise sung only by the chorus.
I. Easter
II. I got me flowers
Rise, heart; thy Lord is risen, Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may'st rise:
That, as his death calcinèd thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, Just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name,
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or, since all music is but three parts vied
And multiplied;
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
I got me flowers to strew thy way:
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.
The Sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and the East perfume; if they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, And taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.

III. Love bade me welcome IV. The Call
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack'd any thing.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, And taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, my Light my Feast my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joys in love.
V. Antiphon
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King.
The heav'ns are not too high,
His praise may thither fly:
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King.
The church with psalms must shout,
No door can keep them out:
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King.
Vaughan Williams produced this plea for peace in 1937. His texts were taken from the Roman Catholic Mass, three poems by Walt Whitman, a political speech, and sections of the Bible. The phrase Dona nobis pacem ("Give us peace"), in different settings, punctuates the entire piece.
The work is in five parts, played without a break:
Agnus Dei , whose Latin text comes from the last movement in the Mass. The soprano introduces the theme, floating over the orchestra and choir: "Lamb of
God... grant us peace!"
Beat! Beat! Drums!
is based on the first Whitman poem. The drums and bugles of war burst through doors and windows and disrupt the peaceful life and labours of all: church congregations, scholars, bridal couples, farmers, city folks and their

traffic, sleepers, bargainers, talkers, singers. No regard is to be made of any pleas: even the dead will be shaken where they lie.
Reconciliation uses the entire second Whitman poem. The baritone soloist introduces the first half of the poem, which the choir echoes and varies. The baritone then continues with the rest of the poem, followed by the choir presenting a new variation of the first half. At the end, the soprano repeats a variation of the Dona nobis pacem plea of the first movement, hauntingly soaring above the final lines of the chorus.
Dirge for Two Veterans is based on the third Whitman poem, and was originally composed in 1911. Here the drums return, but now in a dirge for the father and son, "dropped together", being marched in a "sad procession" to their "new-made double grave", overlooked by the " immense and silent moon". Still, for all the solemnity, the notes of hope in Whitman's poem are set to a swelling choral paean, as if to reassure us that we have indeed learned from the carnage of the
Great War.
The last section starts with the baritone soloist and a quote from the John Bright speech with which he tried to prevent the Crimean War ("The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land..."). The movement continues with sombre quotes from the Book of Jeremiah, with the soprano and choir intervening with the Dona nobis pacem plea. The movement then continues with more optimistic texts, including a brief setting in English of the Gloria , with more than a passing nod to Handel's Messiah . It ends with a quiet coda of Dona nobis pacem , introduced by the soprano again soaring above, seemingly unconnected to the orchestra and chorus, but finally getting the choir to join in.
I. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi
Dona nobis pacem
II. Beat! beat! drums!
Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows - through doors - burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet - no happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums - so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of cities - over the rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers’ bargains by day - would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums - you bugles wilder blow.

Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley - stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid -mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums - so loud you bugles blow.
III. Reconciliation
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly, softly, wash again,
and ever again, this soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
IV.
Dirge for Two Veterans
The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finished Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.
Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-keyed bugles,
All the channels of the city streets the y’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
For the son is brought with the father,
In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropped together,
And the double grave awaits them.
Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumined,
'Tis some mother's large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.
V. Dona nobis pacem
The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as of old . . . to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on.
Dona nobis pacem
We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the
sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured
the land . . . and those that dwell therein. . .
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved . . .
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health
of the daughter of my people recovered?
O man, greatly beloved, fear not, peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong.
The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former . . . and in this
place will I give peace
Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
And none shall make them afraid, neither shall the sword go through their land.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go into them.
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; and let them
hear, and say, it is the truth.
And it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues.
And they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and they shall
declare my glory among the nations.
For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,
so shall your seed and your name remain for ever.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men.
Dona nobis pacem.

Irish born soprano Sadhbh Dennedy began piano lessons at the age of six and singing lessons at the age of fourteen. She obtained a BMus Degree in Music from the Dublin
Institute of Technology, where she studied singing with Mary Brennan. She is currently in her final year of the opera course and studies with Lillian Watson.
Opera Roles include Lisette La Rondine , British Youth Opera; Vixen The Cunning Little
Vixen , Royal College of Music; Anne Truelove The Rakes Progress , Royal College of
Music; Micaela Carmen , Blackheath Halls; Adina
L’Elisir d’Amore
, Opera South; Nausicaa
Odysseus Unwound (Julian Grant), Tête-à-Tête Productions; Shepard Boy La Boheme ,
Lyric Opera; Elsie Maynard The Yeoman of the Guard , Rathgar and Rathmines Musicals.
Sadhbh has performed as a soloist in numerous concerts in Ireland, the U.K. and France.
Of those include Monteverdi’s Vespers in Holy Trinity Church, with the London Baroque
Sinfonia (Paul Spicer), Mendelssohn’s
Lobgesang in Besançon Music Festival, France, with the Orchestra de FrancheCompé (Peter Csaba); Handel’s Messiah in The Helix
Concert Hall, Dublin, with the Irish Concert Orchestra (Marion Doherty); an d Handel’s Dixit
Dominus in Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square (Paul Spicer). She was the soloist in the commissioned world premier of Eilish Farrell’s Setanta , Dundalk, Ireland. Radio performances include the Tonight with Vincent Brown Show , (Ireland), and In Tune , (UK).
Television performances include The Late Late Show, (Ireland).
Sadhbh is supported by the Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholars Trust, the Travel and
Training Award from the Irish Arts Council, and the Opperby Stokowski Award.
Philip Tebb studied Music at Durham University where he was a Choral Scholar at the
Cathedral. He is currently studying with Russell Smythe at the Royal College of Music on the Benjamin Britten International Opera School. At RCM he has appeared in masterclasses with Valerie Masterson, James Oxley, Graham Johnson, Patrica McMahon and Petra Lang. Philip sang the roles of Harasta in Janacek The Cunning Little Vixen ,
Nicandro in Handel Atalanta (as part of the London Handel Festival), Father Trulove in
Stravinsky
The Rake’s Progress
and Antonio in Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro , and in scenes:
Zurga, Bizet Les Pecheurs de Perles Don Alfonso, Mozart Cosi fan tutte and Demetrius
Britten
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
. He is generously supported by the Stanley Picker
Trust Award, the Audrey Sacher Award and the Josephine Baker Trust. Professional opera work includes chorus with ENO, Salzburg Festival, Garsington Opera and Grange Park
Opera. In July he sang the role of Schaunard in Puccini La Boheme with Wedmore Opera.
In October last Philip performed Mahler Kindertotenlieder with the RCM Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Sir Roger Norrington at St John’s Smith Square.
Philip is in great demand as an oratorio soloist with many choral societies. Recent appearances include: Haydn The Seasons with St Neot’s Choral Society; Tippett
A Child of our Time with the Abbey Consort; CPE Bach Magnificat with Kingston Choral Society;
Handel
Alexander’s Feast
with Warwick & Kenilworth Choral Society; Vaughan Williams A

Sea Symphony with the Hackney Singers; Monteverdi Vespers with the Whitehall Choir and with the Mayfield Festival Chorus; Haydn Creation with Eltham Choral Society,
Hertford Choral Society and with the Nonsuch Singers, Elysian Singers and the Orchestra of the City; Rossini Petite Messe Solonnelle with Henley Choral Society; Bach B Minor
Mass with the English Baroque Choir and with Christchurch Choral Society.
Based in London, Elspeth Wyllie is a professional accompanist, chamber musician and private tutor. She is a founder member of the award-winning Metiér Piano Trio , performs in a piano duo with Hester Crombie, and is currently working with young professionals from Southbank Sinfonia, London Philharmonia and Glyndebourne chorus. As a member of Fidra, a duo with violinist Julia Rogers, she has given concerts in Aberdeen, Edinburgh,
London, Andalucia and Switzerland.
Elspeth grew up in south-east Scotland and began her formal musical training as a pupil at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh. She continued to study piano with Professor
Raymond Fischer while completing a degree in Music at the University of Oxford, and took part in several vocal and chamber music recitals there. In 2003, Elspeth moved to
London to study as a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music, where she specialised in piano accompaniment with teachers Andrew West and Colin Stone.
While at the Academy, Elspeth was sponsored by the Oldhurst Charitable Trust and won several prizes, including the annual Vivian Langrish Memorial Prize for Accompaniment, the Evelyn German Prize, the Frederick Jackson Memorial Prize and the J E Reckitt
Award.
1 st Violin
Ann Hubble (Leader)
Paula Tysall
Peter Newman
Julian Saxl
Pam White
Janice White
2 nd Violin
Alice Rickards
David Lyons
Rebecca Coleman
Sarah Walton
Meg Gates
Ann Binks
Viola
Deborah Kemp
Julia Davis
Sara Jones
Patricia Burchall
Cello
Una Birtchnall
Naomi Poole
Antonio Manochi
Bass
Ron Dunning

The Festival Chorus was formed in 1975. Membership is open to all, regardless of ability and experience, and there are no auditions. Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings at 8pm and new members should turn up to one of our rehearsals at Broomwood Methodist Church Hall, Kyrle Road,
SW11 6BD.
Our next concert at St Luke’s will be on Saturday 28 March 2009 and will include Hadyn's
Sopranos
Mette Ahorlu
Emma Anderson
Sarah Armstrong
Anna Barnett
Nicola Blackburn
Elisabeth Bracken
Elisabeth Brayne
Katie Cady
Wendy Caie
Jenny Cockburn
Angie Coghlan
Hilary Cole
Olivia Collier
Lesley Connors
Lena Darghough
Shelia de Bellaigne
Gabrielle De Wardener
Claudia Dyer
Felicity Ellacombe
Mary Ellis
Hatty Fawcett
Liz Freeman
Chrissy Garforth
Sarah Gilbert
Pam Griffiths
Lucy Hayward
Elisabeth Hogel
Ferelith Hordon
Fenella Huckle
Catharine Infield
Katharine Jacob
Debra Johnson
Nicola Johnston
Jenni Karley
Emily Luther
Jean Malacrida
Philippa Milnes-Smith
Harmonium Messe and Mozart's Solemn Vespere . Rehearsals start in Broomwood Methodist
Church Hall on Monday 5 January, and all are welcome.
Sopranos (cont.)
Claire Neilson
Hilary Nicholls
Liz Ovey
Andrea Pryde
Sarah Rackham
Judith Roscoe
Patricia Sadler
Hilary Ann Salinger
Laura Sandford
Marian Shaw
Charlotte Simon
Mary Spencer-Pryse
Libby Spurrier
Samantha Thompson
Yvette Vanson
Frances Walton
Jane Westland
Ann Wheeler
Elizabeth Willcocks
Jane Winlow
Jane Wonham
Sarah Wood
Altos
Justine Abbott
Joanna Armandias
Maggie Baird
Susan Barrett
Heather Belgorodtseva
Helen Bird
Carolyn Chambers
Maura Chanda
Alison Cohen
Judith Coles
Jennifer Cremer
Jane Eyres
Altos (cont.)
Erica Fitzgerald
Stella Fleming
Islay Fullerton
Victoria Garel-Jones
Judith Gartrell
Gill Gray
Antonie Grieg
Harriet Hall
Sally Haslam
Lesley Hazel
Dorothy Hintze
Fiona Hoffman
Madeleine Johnston
Su Lambert
Sally Lang
Claire Macintosh
Nikki Marsh
Pippa McDonald
Polly McLelland
Charlotte Millar
Johanna Outram
Ann Pettifer
Melanie Purnell
Christine Radcliffe
Catherine Rawlinson
Nicky Road
Zoe Robson
Pam Royle
Val Shepherd
Isla Smith
Karin Snelson
Laura St John
Sue Summers
Brenda Turner
Gertrud Wienecke
Cynthia Wild

Tenors
Roger Appleton
Tom Dodd
Charles Ellis
Ron Gould
Richard Harries
John Hazel
Mick Jubb
Omar Khan
Andrew Purkis
Basil Strong
Peter Vincent
Robert Wood
Basses
Will Anderson
Miguel Azaola
Chris Birchall
Tony Brook
Nicholas Cady
Alistair Cheetham
Terry Coghlan
Peter Dannheisser
Owen Davies
Trevor D'Cruz
Mark Garner
Basses (cont.)
Martin Haddon
Peter Hodgkinson
Paul Infield
Tillman Lenz
Lewis Phillips
David Rathbone
Edward Sadler
Tim Sanders-Hewett
Roland Smith
John Spencer
Chris Stent
Mike Wooldridge
Some material for this programme was excerpted from Wikipedia and other public domain Internet websites.