We’ve started rehearsals at Crosskeys RFC now, and things are running quite smoothly. At the time of writing, we have found success in remembering our usual repertoire and slowly rebuilding our singing strength in order to rehearse new stuff asap. We’re on the right track!

Unfortunately, we have received some very sad news. A founder member and dear friend of the choir, Gerry Pritchard, has passed away. His love for the choir was evident: every rehearsal, performance, event, Gerry was there to give support, have a laugh and was always a true gentleman. He knew the choir library like the back of his hand and every time I asked about a piece, it was in front of me within 10 seconds. The choir sees this as a huge loss and, on a personal level, I will miss him dearly. Rest in peace, Gerry.

Composers of the Month

Carl Orff – 10th July, 1895—29 March, 1982

Orff studied at the Munich Academy of Music and with the German composer Heinrich Kaminski and later conducted in Munich, Mannheim, and Darmstadt. His Schulwerk, a manual describing his method of conducting, was first published in 1930. Orff edited some 17th-century operas and in 1937 produced his secular oratorio Carmina Burana. Intended to be staged with dance, it was based on a manuscript of medieval poems. This work led to others inspired by Greek theatre and by medieval mystery plays, notably Catulli carmina(1943; Songs of Catullus) and Trionfo di Afrodite(1953; The Triumph of Aphrodite), which form a trilogy with Carmina Burana. His other works include an Easter cantata, Comoedia de Christi Resurrectione (1956); a nativity play, Ludus de nato infante mirificus (1960); and a trilogy of “music dramas”—Antigonae (1949), Oedipus der Tyrann (1959), and Prometheus (1966). Orff’s system of music education for children, largely based on developing a sense of rhythm through group exercise and performance with percussion instruments, has been widely adopted. In 1924 in Munich he founded, with the German gymnast Dorothee Günther, the Günther School for gymnastics, dance, and music.

In the late 20s he became part of the League of Contemporary Music in Munich which presented works by Bartók, Hindemith, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Around this time he also collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and participated in the new Bach Music Club, activities which placed him firmly outside the mainstream and in avant garde circles. Orff’s relationship with the Nazi party has been the subject of heated debate. He was in the minority of German composers who responded to the Nazi call to write new music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream after Felix Mendelssohn had been banned. His defenders point out this music had already been composed as early as 1917. Nevertheless, as a music teacher during the Nazi regime he tried to integrate his ideas into the music policies of Hitler Youth. After the war, along with other composers who had remained active during the Nazi era, he was placed on a blacklist, as someone in potential need of denazification. He helped clear his name with the help of an American friend and by citing his involvement with the Munich resistance group, The White Roses.

Orff is responsible for the recorder being taught in schools as a way to introduce children to music. He saw it as a useful instrument to initiate children as it relies on rhythm rather than memorisation.

To start with a bang, here is an extract from Carmina Burana, ‘O Fortuna’ by Atalanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4

James MacMillan – 16th July, 1959

MacMillan first became internationally recognised after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdieat the BBC Proms in 1990. His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world. His major works include percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which has received close to 500 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and five symphonies. Recent major works include his Percussion Concerto No.2 for Colin Currie, co-commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Edinburgh International Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and, and his Symphony No.5, written for The Sixteen, which was premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival.

MacMillan enjoys a flourishing career as conductor of his own music alongside a range of contemporary and standard repertoire, praised for the composer’s insight he brings to each score. He has conducted orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra among others. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie until 2013 and Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2000-09.

MacMillan was due to conduct the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Dutch premiere of his Christmas Oratorio in January 2021, but was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. Also,  another major new work, Fiat Lux, is scheduled to receive its world premiere by the Pacific Symphony. Other recent highlights include a major feature at the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival as part of his 60th birthday year, with performances of works such as Quickening, A Scotch Bestiary, Woman of the Apocalypse and the world premiere of MacMillan’s Symphony No.5 Le grand inconnu, alongside which MacMillan conducted his Symphony No.2. 

MacMillan founded his music festival, The Cumnock Tryst, in October 2014, which takes place annually in his native Ayrshire. MacMillan was awarded a CBE in 2004 and a Knighthood in 2015.

Here is one of my favourite pieces from MacMillan performed by The Sixteen – Miserere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkJXMjBc5y8

Alan Menken – 22nd July, 1949

As a young man, Menken enrolled in a premedical program at New York University but ultimately graduated with a degree in music. He then earned money by performing in clubs, composing advertising jingles, and providing accompaniment for ballerinas at practice. A career break came when playwright and lyricist Howard Ashman picked Menken to collaborate with him on the 1979 play God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, based on a novel by Kurt Vonnegut. Although they attained mild success with that production, it was not until 1982 that they achieved significant critical and commercial acclaim with the Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors. The duo subsequently adapted their score for the 1986 film.

In the late 1980s Jeffrey Katzenberg, at the time chairman of Walt Disney Studios, offered the team a list of projects. Menken and Ashman chose to tackle an animated musical version of the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Little Mermaid,” which was released in 1989. The resulting collaboration earned Menken two Academy Awards and his first of numerous Grammy Awards, among other accolades. The team’s next Disney project, Beauty and the Beast (1991), was nominated for best picture and earned Menken another two Oscars.

Ashman died in 1991 after having begun work with Menken on what would become another Disney success, Aladdin (1992), and Menken subsequently teamed up with lyricist Tim Rice. Aladdin became one of Disney’s biggest animated hits, and it netted Menken two more Academy Awards. Newsies (1992), a live-action Disney musical for which Menken wrote songs (with lyricist Jack Feldman), was less successful. For his next two Disney films, Menken collaborated with lyricist Stephen Schwartz on Pocahontas (1995) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). Pocahontas won Menken his seventh and eighth Oscars, in the categories of best musical or comedy score and best original song (Colours of the Wind). Menken later worked with David Zippel on the score for Hercules (1997) and again with Schwartz on the music for Enchanted (2007). Other films for which he contributed scores included Tangled (2010; with lyricist Glenn Slater), Mirror Mirror (2012; Menken wrote lyrics for all but one song), and live-action remakes of Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Aladdin (2019).

Here is a version of Go the Distance from Hercules by BYU Vocal Point featuring the All-American Boys Chorus. Risca Male Choir also has its own version of the same song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6uxP7wTw8