This month has had a variety of things happening. We’ve had plenty to work on, including my own new pieces and some more festive items in preparation for future events, and those have all been going well. The guys have been hard at work in HQ making sure the building is safe to work in, and we’re all wrapping up warm as we need windows open to comply with safety regulations in order to rehearse in our usual practice venue.

However, COVID is still around…

A member of the music team unfortunately returned a positive PCR test and I took a rehearsal on my own. Then, I returned a positive PCR and we had to cancel a rehearsal to give the choristers time to take LFTs and PCRs in case they caught it. So far, none of the choristers have returned a positive test since I fell ill, which means that our safety regulations are working. Soon, the choir can come back to rehearse with the music team in my place until I am allowed back out.

This is now the new normal. We are pleased with how we approached the situation and grateful for the fact that nobody returned positive test in the choir. For now, we can come back safely and continue to make progress on our sound and items. But, we are aware that this may happen again, so we feel as though we will be better equipped in approaching the scenario in the future.

Composers of the Month

Aaron Copland (14 November 1900 – 2 December 1990)

Aaron Copland's name is synonymous with American music. It was his pioneering achievement to break free from Europe and create concert music that is characteristically American. In addition to writing such well-loved works as Fanfare for the Common Man, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring, Copland conducted, organized concerts, wrote books on music, and served as an American cultural ambassador to the world.

While studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Copland became interested in incorporating popular styles into his music. Upon his return to the US, he advanced the cause of new music through lectures and writings and organized the famed Copland-Sessions concerts.

As America entered first Depression then war, Copland began to speak to the concerns of the average citizen in those times of trouble. His intentions were fulfilled as works from Billy the Kid to Lincoln Portrait to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Appalachian Spring found both popular success and critical acclaim.

Aaron Copland was one of the most honoured cultural figures in the history of the United States. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kennedy Center Award, the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "Oscar", and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany were only a few of the honours and awards he received. In 1982, the Aaron Copland School of Music was established in his honour at Queens College of the City University of New York.

Here is the New York Philharmonic performing Fanfare for the Common Man with James Levine conducting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMVB0B1_Ts

Hilary Tann (2 November 1947)

Born in Llwynypia, Glamorgan (Wales), Tann holds degrees in music composition from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and Princeton University. Her compositions are published by Oxford University Press. Tann's orchestral works have been released on the North/South Recordings CD Here, the Cliffs, – "music of great integrity, impeccable craft, and genuine expressive ambition" Robert Carl, Fanfare 36. Her overture, "With the Heather and Small Birds," commissioned by the 1994 Cardiff Festival, is her tribute to the land of her birth.

She is currently the John Howard Payne Professor of Music at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where she has been since 1980, teaching courses on music theory and composition, in addition to founding the Union College Orchestra.[4] Tann was the invited Guest Composer-in-Residence for the 2011 Women in Music Festival, Eastman School of Music, where her commissioned work, "Exultet Terra" for SATB double chorus and double reed quartet was given its world premiere[5] and the 2013 Women Composers Festival of Hartford.

Here is an extract of her choral piece Paradise by National Youth Choir of Wales. Watch from 3:12 for her piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ModSURmU8

Aleksandr Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887)

Borodin’s father was a Georgian prince and his mother an army doctor’s wife, and he was reared in comfortable circumstances. His gift for languages and music was evident early on, and as a schoolboy he learned to play the piano, flute, and cello and to compose music. From 1850 to 1856 he studied at the Medico-Surgical Academy, specializing in chemistry, and received a doctorate in 1858. From 1859 to 1862 he studied in western Europe. On his return to Russia he became adjunct professor of chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy and full professor in 1864. From this period dates his first major work, the Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major (1862–67), written as a result of his acquaintance with Mily Balakirev, of whose circle (The Five) he was a member, along with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, and César Cui. Borodin began his Symphony No. 2 in B Minor in 1869, when he also began work on his operatic masterpiece, Prince Igor (completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Glazunov). Act II of Prince Igor contains the often-played “Polovtsian Dances.” He also found time to write two string quartets, a dozen remarkable songs, the unfinished Symphony No. 3 in A Minor,and his tone poem In the Steppes of Central Asia.

Borodin’s musical work was never more than relaxation from his scientific work. In addition to his research and teaching, he helped found medical courses for women in 1872. In the 1880s pressures of work and ill health left him little time for composition. He died suddenly while at a ball.

Borodin’s compositions place him in the front rank of Russian composers. He had a strong lyric vein but also was noted for his handling of heroic subjects. He had an unusually fine rhythmic sense and excelled in the use of orchestral colour and in the evocation of distant places. In his symphonies and string quartets—among the finest of the Romantic era—he developed a formal structure in which the musical material of a movement was derived from a single initial motif. His melodies reflect the character of Russian folk melodies, and like other composers of the Russian national school he used striking harmonies unconventional in western European music.

Here is an extract of his choral version of ‘Polovtsian Dances’ from Prince Igor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGNObWgU2Qw

I hope you enjoy these extracts. We can’t wait to see you all soon!