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A L O N D O N C O R O N A T I O N

A U S T R A L I A N C H A M B E R C H O I R

Rhys Boak – organBruno Siketa – concert masterDirected by Douglas Lawrence

Saturday 25 March at 2.30pm and 6.00pm Christ Church, CastlemainePresented by the Castlemaine State Festival

Sunday 26 March at 3pm Church of the Resurrection, Macedon

Sunday 2 April at 3pm The Scots’ Church, Melbourne

Sunday 11 June at 3pm St John’s Anglican Church, Flinders

Kenya. For millions of British and Australian newspaper readers during the 1950s, that name would be synonymous with the Mau-Mau and with a long police action in that country. But as of 6 February 1952, the name would be most immediately associated with the whereabouts of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, when the news came to them that the Princess’s father, George VI, had died after years of poor health. The King’s widow lamented to her mother-in-law, Queen Mary: ‘I was sent a message that his servant couldn’t wake him. I flew to his room, and thought he was in a deep sleep, he looked so peaceful – and then I realised what had happened.’ Delays in Kenya caused a Palace official to

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express his astonishment: ‘You mean to say that she hasn’t been told? Please tell her as quickly as possible.’

Once back in London (having braved the dangers, then great, of air travel), the new Queen told her Privy Councillors: ‘By the sudden death of my dear father I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty ... My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work, as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over.’

Elizabeth II’s coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953: the first-ever coronation to be televised, and only the second to be broadcast over the radio. Altogether 480 musicians took part in the proceedings, including 182 boy sopranos, 37 male altos, 62 tenors, and 67 basses. The dignity and splendour of the event – virtues captured in the documentary A Queen Is Crowned, with a script by Christopher Fry and narration by Laurence Olivier – made an instructive contrast with Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838, where (as then Prime Minister Lord Melbourne disgustedly noted) ‘what was called an altar was covered with plates of sandwiches, bottles of wine etc.’

CORONATION GLORIA – Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (arranged Rhys Boak) Born in Dublin, 30 September 1852; died in London, 29 March 1924. A passionate Anglophile monarchist who, nevertheless, would have been tempted to commit physical violence against anyone who queried his Irish patriotism, Stanford seems forever doomed to serve as a kind of historiographical double-act with Sir Hubert Parry. In similar fashion, lazy journalists used to blur the obvious distinctions between GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc by

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appropriating Bernard Shaw’s flippant coinage ‘the Chesterbelloc’. Actually Stanford and Parry – born four years apart – had an often discordant relationship, Parry quailing at Stanford’s ferocious temper, Stanford resenting Parry’s inherited wealth and left-wing sympathies, privately referring to Parry as ‘the plutocratic radical’. Earlier in their careers, though, they managed outward courtesies. Both were asked to write music for Edward VII’s 1902 coronation. Parry’s I Was Glad, to be heard later in today’s concert, is well remembered; Stanford’s contribution has scarcely been remembered at all. It shares with Parry’s work not mere grandeur of utterance but more specific traits, such as the B flat major key – particularly useful for trumpeters, since that key falls naturally in the instrument’s most eloquent register – and numerous detailed felicities of word-setting (such as the little flourish at ‘We worship Thee’) which give the lie to the once-widespread myth that no composer on English soil between Purcell and Britten could master English texts.

Glory be to God on high and on earth peace, goodwill towards men, We praise Thee, we bless Thee, ae worship Thee, we glorify Thee, We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, That takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord; have mercy upon us. Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, Art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS – Gregorian chant Associated with the feast of Pentecost ever since it came to be notated in the ninth century, Veni Creator Spiritus is attributed to

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Rabanus Maurus, an Archbishop of Mainz who died in 856. Known for his erudition as Praeceptor Germaniae, ‘the teacher of Germany’, we are told in Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints that Rabanus lived so austere a life that he touched neither meat nor alcohol. Rabanus’s melody and words were taken over by early Protestants (Luther’s Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist turns the Latin text into rhyming German), while the melody’s contours fascinated twentieth-century composers as diverse as Maurice Duruflé and Paul Hindemith. Duruflé quoted it in his Prélude, Adagio et Choral Varié for solo organ; Hindemith, in the finale of his Second Organ Concerto. The English version sung here is by John Cosin, who became Anglican Bishop of Durham after the downfall of the Cromwellian republic and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire, Thou the anointing Spirit art, who dost Thy seven-fold gifts impart.

Thy blessed unction from above, in comfort, life and fire of love, Enable with perpetual light the dullness of our blinded sight.

Anoint and cheer our soiled face with the abundance of Thy grace. Keep far our foes, give peace at home; where Thou art guide, no ill can come.

Teach us to know the Father, Son, and Thee, of both, to be but One; That through the ages all along this may be our endless song;

Praise to Thy eternal merit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

BEHOLD, O GOD, OUR DEFENDER – Herbert Howells Born in Lydney, England, 17 October 1892; died in Putney, England, 23 February 1983.

Whilst Herbert Howells’s output is not vast, it is larger than anyone would suppose from the small proportion of it habitually performed. The same few works by him (A Spotless Rose, the Collegium Regale, the hymn tune Michael, a handful of the solo

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organ Psalm Preludes) are apt to be heard repeatedly, while other productions no less significant lie forgotten. In the latter category is the present anthem, the result of a 1952 commission to write an anthem for the coronation, scheduled for June of the following year. If the commissioners expected Howells – who looked to Psalm 84 for his text – to give them something obviously festive, they misjudged their man. Howells supplied a remarkably restrained work, full of the lush textures and poignant harmonies to be found in most of his larger and better-known productions. It is striking how often Howells, compared with other English composers of his time, seems to speak with a French accent. This piece’s final choral chord-progression would scarcely be out of place in Messiaen (who remained largely unknown to English audiences in 1953), while every now and then phrases in the organ part suggest – probably by accident rather than design – the style of Franck.

Behold, O God our defender:and look upon the face of Thine Anointed. For one day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.

LET MY PRAYER COME UP – Sir William Henry Harris Born in London, 28 March 1883; died in Petersfield, England, 6 September 1973.

Known with affection and respect as ‘Doc H’ (a pun on the ‘Toc H’ philanthropic movement so influential among returned British soldiers during and after the First World War), Harris served as conductor for the coronations in 1937 and 1953, having previously worked as an organist at Oxford and Lichfield, as well as being organ professor at the Royal College of Music for thirty-four years. His connection with the monarchy was closer than these bare facts suggest, since he gave musical training to the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor Castle during the 1940s. Probably his most frequently performed composition is the 1925 anthem Faire is

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the heaven, though his hymn tune Alberta is still fondly known to numerous congregations as one of several settings which Cardinal Newman’s metrically recalcitrant Lead, Kindly Light has inspired. Let My Prayer Come Up uses words from Psalm 141 in the King James Bible, and was first heard at the coronation of Harris’s erstwhile royal pupil.

Let my prayer come up into Thy presence as incense:let the lifting up of my hands be as an evening sacrifice.

CONFORTARE – Sir George Dyson (arranged Rhys Boak) Born in Halifax, England, 28 May 1883; died in Winchester, 28 September 1964.

Like Sir William Henry Harris, Sir George Dyson left a deep impact upon English musical education. In 1937 he became the Director of the Royal College of Music and his own compositions tended to be underrated as a result. It did not help Dyson’s cause that his oratorio Nebuchadnezzar appeared in 1935, four years after the young William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast had pretty much cornered the market in Old Testament choral mayhem. But for a long time another large choral work of Dyson’s, The Canterbury Pilgrims, enjoyed considerable acclaim, introducing a great many English choristers to the poetry of Chaucer. For George VI’s coronation in 1937 he produced an anthem, O Praise God in His Holiness, and for Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 he composed the noble, and beautifully scored Confortare, to lines from the books of Joshua and Deuteronomy. The exhortation ‘Be strong and of a good courage’ could have been his epitaph.

Be strong and of a good courage.Keep the commandments of the Lord, thy God, And walk in His ways.

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REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAY – attributed to John Redford Birthdate and birthplace unknown; died in London, October or November 1547.

In sharp contrast to most sixteenth-century English music, which waited till the twentieth century to be rediscovered, this short anthem was known to historians since the 1770s. It came down to us through its inclusion in the Mulliner Book, a heterogeneous collection of approximately one hundred compositions assembled for private use early in the reign of Elizabeth I by one Thomas Mulliner, an Oxford organist. Sir John Hawkins, friend of Dr Johnson and author of A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, seems to have been the first person to ascribe Rejoice to John Redford, who certainly produced more pieces found in the Mulliner Book than any other figure. Redford, it is worth noting, had literary as well as musical gifts, being the author of a morality play, The Play of Wit and Science. The attribution of Rejoice to Redford has been disputed, mainly because Redford died two years before Edward VI’s Protestant government made compulsory the use of English for sacred choral works, and forbade composers to use more than one note of music per syllable. Still, it is entirely possible that clandestine syllabic vernacular settings had been conceived and circulated well before the 1549 Book of Common Prayer mandated them. The text comes from Philippians 4:4–7, and much later Purcell would set a slightly different version of it (in which, for example, ‘softness’ becomes ‘moderation’ and ‘with giving of thanks’ becomes ‘with thanksgiving’).

Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice. Let your softness be known unto all men: the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing: but in all prayer and supplication, let your petitions be manifest unto God with giving of thanks.

And the peace of God,

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which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesu. Amen.

ORGAN PRELUDE ON RHOSYMEDRE – Ralph Vaughan Williams Born in Down Ampney, England, 12 October 1872; died in London, 26 August 1958.

Whilst Vaughan Williams’s output for the organ is bigger than most people suppose, for all practical purposes he might as well have written only one organ piece, so completely have his other solos for ‘the king of instruments’ been ignored. Dating from 1920, this prelude is the only one of his organ compositions to retain its popularity in recitals and church services, the second in a set of three, all incorporating Welsh hymn tunes. In fact this prelude has become much more famous outside Wales than the original hymn-tune, by a nineteenth-century Anglican clergyman, John David Edwards, ever managed to become. Vaughan Williams’s treatment assigns to the player’s right hand an elaborate but calm filigree, surely meant to evoke the flute duet from Sheep May Safely Graze by the composer’s greatest musical hero, JS Bach.

O CLAP YOUR HANDS – Orlando Gibbons Baptised in Oxford, 25 December 1583; died in Canterbury, 5 June 1625.

This item will not be performed in Castlemaine Appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal by James I in 1615, Gibbons had a lifespan not much longer than Purcell would have, three generations later. He succumbed to apoplexy – not, as rumour had it, the plague – soon after the accession of James I’s successor Charles I, in whose employ he had already been an organist. O Clap Your Hands dates from 1622 and belongs within the genre of the full anthem; that is, it contains no extended solo sections, such as the verse anthem habitually possessed. Its rich, eight-part sonority

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has made it a choral favourite ever since the composer’s own time, and in the eighteenth century, when William Boyce produced his anthology of Anglican cathedral music, he happily included it.

O clap your hands together, all ye people: O sing unto God with the voice of melody. For the Lord is high, and to be feared: He is the great King of all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us: And the nations under our feet. He shall choose out an heritage for us: even the worship of Jacob, whom He loved. God is gone up with a merry noise: and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises unto the Lord our King. For God is the King of all the earth: Sing ye praises with the understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon His holy seat. For God, which is highly exalted, Doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, And to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, And ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

LEAD ME, LORD – Samuel Sebastian Wesley Born in London, 14 August 1810; died in Gloucester, 19 April 1876.

Combative, vitriolic, and supercilious, Samuel Sebastian Wesley inspired among most of his contemporaries the same sentiments which former British cabinet minister Ernest Bevin unforgettably voiced in the following century about his own Labour Party colleague, the habitually boorish Richard Crossman. On being told

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that Crossman was ‘his own worst enemy,’ Bevin retorted in his Somerset drawl: ‘Not while Ah’m alive, he ain’t.’ Embittering Wesley above all were the circumstances of his birth: he was an illegitimate son of the eccentric composer Samuel Wesley, with everything that illegitimacy meant at the time, in terms of social disrepute. By strength of will combined with impressive creative as well as performing talent, Samuel Sebastian transcended his upbringing’s disadvantages to become one of his country’s most respected organists and a greatly skilled composer of sacred works, such as this one. He issued Lead Me, Lord in 1861 as part of a bigger publication called Praise the Lord, O My Soul, although some authorities have speculated that it was written back in the 1840s. Whatever its true date, its main theme is ingratiating and memorable. Then again, Wesley had a knack for conceiving melodies that might look commonplace on paper but that haunt the mind for decades. The best-known instance of this knack is the hymn tune Aurelia, usually sung to words beginning ‘The Church’s one foundation.’

I WAS GLAD – Sir Hubert Parry (arranged Rhys Boak) Born in Bournemouth, 27 February 1848; died in Rustington, England, 7 October 1918.

Few indeed are the pieces in the vast corpus of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry which have enjoyed such great public appeal: the beloved, heaven-storming Jerusalem, of course; Blest Pair of Sirens, where Parry achieved the almost impossible by doing choral justice to words by Milton (a poet so rich in ‘verbal music’ – Bernard Shaw’s phrase about Shakespeare – as to defeat lesser composers); and the anthem I Was Glad. At Edward VII’s coronation it proved to be so popular among musicians and listeners alike that all three British coronations since then – 1911, 1937, and 1953 – have included it. So did the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. British musicologist Keith Anderson supplies the following summary of the

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work, which uses words from Psalm 122: ‘The work starts with an introduction, originally entrusted to the large orchestra employed for the occasion, leading to the entry of the six-part choir with the opening words. In the original coronation version fanfares led to cries of Vivat from the King’s Scholars of Westminster School ... with a shift of key and mood for the semi-chorus O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, before the march rhythm resumes and the full choir sings Peace be within Thy walls and plenteousness within Thy palaces.’

I was glad when they said unto me,We will go into the house of the Lord.  Our feet shall stand in Thy gates,  O Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is builded as a city,  That is at unity in itself.  Vivat Regina! Vivat Regina Elizabetha! O pray for the peace of Jerusalem,  They shall prosper that love Thee.  Peace be within Thy walls,  And plenteousness within Thy palaces. 

INTERVAL (There will be no interval in Castlemaine)

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I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU COMFORTLESS – William Byrd Born in London, circa 1539;died in Stondon Massey, England, 4 July 1623.

I Will Not Leave You Comfortless has an unusual origin, in that it has been often sung to English-language words since at least the nineteenth century, yet Byrd originally set a Latin text, Non vos relinquam orphanos. The work can be found in the second (1607) volume of Byrd’s Gradualia. Given the difficulties involved in making a syllable-by-syllable translation from any tongue into another tongue (difficulties which many an opera libretto will confirm), it is surprising how few problems of accentuation are audible here. Any listeners hearing I Will Not Leave You Comfortless for the first time would assume that Byrd had composed it in English. Of particular note is his use of ‘alleluia’ refrains structurally, not as all-purpose concluding jubilation. The words come from John 14:18.

I will not leave you comfortless, alleluia. I go, and I will come to you, alleluia. And your heart shall be joyful, alleluia.

O LORD OUR GOVERNOUR – Healey Willan Born in Balham, England, 12 October 1880; died in Toronto, 16 February 1968.

At the 1953 coronation, Willan flew (metaphorically) the Canadian flag. Though English by birth and initial training, he had made his home in Canada during 1913, and for most of the time since then he had been in charge of music at Toronto’s Anglo-Catholic church of St Mary Magdalene. Extraordinarily prolific – his list of works contains eight hundred items – he is now remembered through only a handful of his pieces, including the present opulent anthem. Harmonically and in its striding rhythms, O Lord our Governour suggests Elgar, an entirely appropriate influence in the

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circumstances. Today we take for granted affordable long-distance travel, usually secured online through a few keystrokes and a credit-card. Willan’s career should remind us of how recent a thing in world history this opportunity for international journeying is. In 1953 Willan, even after more than thirty years’ employment in Toronto, lacked the money to visit England, so that he could hear his work performed in Westminster Abbey. His friends needed to take up a collection in order to raise the sum required for his voyage.

O Lord our Governour:How excellent is Thy Name in all the world.Behold, O God our defender:And look upon the face of Thine Anointed.O hold Thou up her goings in thy paths:That her footsteps slip not.Grant the Queen a long life:And make her glad with the joy of Thy countenance.Save, Lord, and hear us, O King of heaven,When we call upon thee. Amen.

THOU WILT KEEP HIM IN PERFECT PEACE – Samuel Sebastian Wesley Dating from around 1850, this is one of Wesley’s two or three most celebrated anthems, and has retained a firm place in the esteem of England’s cathedral choristers ever since Wesley’s own day. Its invocation of blessed repose – drawing on Isaiah, St Matthew’s Gospel, and St John’s Gospel as well as on the Psalms – bespeaks a sensitivity and unselfconscious piety in Wesley’s nature, beneath the quarrelsome exterior which he showed to the world.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,whose mind is stayed on Thee.The darkness is no darkness with thee, But the night is as clear as day:The darkness and the light are to Thee both alike.God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.O let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee.

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For thine is the kingdom, The power and the glory, for evermore.

SANCTUS, from MASS IN G MINOR – Ralph Vaughan Williams Vaughan Williams wrote his Mass in G Minor during 1922 at the urging of Sir Richard Runciman Terry, choirmaster of Westminster Cathedral. Around 1900 Terry and his Westminster singers had begun systematically resuscitating the sixteenth-century sacred repertoire, then largely unknown in England. Byrd, Tallis, Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria, John Taverner, Christopher Tye: these were among the composers whom Terry revived. Vaughan Williams’s music reflects their influence, but is by no means a mere imitation of them. It employs, for instance, repeated consecutive fifths which they would never have countenanced. Terry gave the work’s first liturgical performance, but it had actually been heard earlier (December 1922) in a secular context: Birmingham Town Hall. Thanking the composer for his achievement, Terry said: ‘I’m quite sincere when I say that it is the work one has all along been waiting for. In your individual and modern idiom you have really captured the old liturgical spirit and atmosphere.’ From the Mass, we shall hear today the Sanctus.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

THE OLD HUNDREDTH – arranged Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rhys Boak This item will not be performed in Castlemaine

This arrangement of a sixteenth-century metrical psalm tune (which was Genevan originally) now ranks as one of Vaughan Williams’s greatest popular hits, along with The Lark Ascending and the Tallis Fantasia. The trumpet fanfares originally turned up in a 1930 cantata; the rest dates from 1953, the octogenarian RVW having

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clearly wanted to show younger composers that when it came to furnishing coronation music, he still needed to be reckoned with. Its use of a serene trumpet counter-melody makes one wonder if Vaughan Williams had in mind the elegiac trumpet solo which Respighi memorably included in the penultimate movement of The Pines of Rome. And could it be a coincidence that Respighi’s solo is likewise in G major? Yet the main drama comes with the deliberately, joltingly crude harmonisation of the last verse, where the mostly root-position chords sound so flinty that they threaten to strike sparks from the walls.

All people that on earth do dwell,Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell;Come ye before Him and rejoice.

The Lord, ye know, is God indeed; Without our aid He did us make;We are His folk, He doth us feed,And for His sheep He doth us take.

O enter then His gates with praise;Approach with joy His courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless His Name always,For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good;His mercy is for ever sure;His truth at all times firmly stood,And shall from age to age endure.

To Father, Son and Holy Ghost,The God Whom Heaven and earth adore,From men and from the angel hostBe praise and glory evermore. Amen.

JUSTORUM ANIMAE – William Byrd As is now well known, Byrd led, in religious terms, a double life. Outwardly an obedient Anglican serving Elizabeth I’s court, he

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remained inwardly a Catholic, who by some miracle escaped the persecution meted out to so many of his co-religionists. More and more, with advancing years, he spent time outside London, in the Essex village of Stondon Massey. Here, his landowning patron Sir John Petre remained a discreet Catholic and Byrd could therefore practise the old faith with some guarantee of safety from the secret police. Justorum Animae comes from his 1605 collection of Latin motets. An English translation of the original words (from the third chapter of the Book of Wisdom) runs: ‘The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, but they are in peace.’ Here the music is performed by a brass ensemble.

O TASTE AND SEE – Ralph Vaughan Williams Yet another contribution by RVW to Elizabeth II’s enthronement, and one which demonstrates that he could manage intimate choral meditations quite as well as The Old Hundredth’s big dramatic gestures. The introduction is the only time in the piece where the organ can be heard. Thereafter the choir performs a cappella, the concluding employment of parallel octaves between sopranos and basses being an unmistakable sign of Vaughan Williams’s authorship, echoing as it does similar passages in his unaccompanied Mass setting. The words come from Psalm 34:8.

O taste and see how gracious the Lord is: Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

ZADOK THE PRIEST – George Frideric Handel (arranged Rhys Boak) Born in Halle, Germany, 23 February 1685;died in London, 14 April 1759.

Probably the greatest pieces written for any British coronation are the four anthems which Handel furnished for the enthronement of George II and Queen Caroline (11 October 1727, Westminster

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Abbey). Of these, Zadok the Priest is much the best known and has been included in every subsequent coronation ceremony. At the time he wrote them, Handel had only recently (February 1727) obtained British citizenship, in one of the last legislative acts of George II’s father, George I, who when still merely Elector of Hanover had employed the composer as his Kapellmeister. As for Zadok, it shows how similar the composer’s operatic and sacred muses actually were, because its arpeggio-dominated prelude has at least as theatrical an impact as anything which can be found in what Handel wrote for the stage. The source for the words is 1 Kings 1: 38–40.

Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king. And all the people rejoiced and said: God save the King! Long live the King! May the King live for ever! Amen! Hallelujah!

© RJ Stove, 2015, 2017

The AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER CHOIR was established by Douglas Lawrence in 2007. In its first ten years, the choir has made five CDs and given over 200 concert performances, many of which were recorded for broadcast on ABC Classic FM or 3MBS FM. The ACC has given one hundred concerts in Europe, performing in Germany, Poland, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France. In Australia, Douglas Lawrence and the singers of the ACC have supplemented regular performances in key Victorian centres with interstate visits, performing in Canberra, Sydney, Albury, Bowral and Wagga Wagga. Wherever they perform, they are met with resounding accolades from audiences and critics alike. In 2016, the choir expanded its regular commitments by undertaking to present all its a cappella programs in Sydney and Bowral. This expansion will require an increase in funds.

“The Australian Chamber Choir inspired the audience with the finest choral music” Ostfriesischer Kurier, Germany, 2007

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“… choral works of the top rank, as lucidly articulated as you could desire” Clive O’Connell, The Age, 2007

“… resounding jubilation burst forth in Orlando Gibbons’ anthem O Clap Your Hands, considered one of the greatest treasures of Anglican sacred music. The women’s precise, treble-like intonation was carefully balanced with the full-bodied tenors and sonorous basses, and together they gloried vociferously in the mighty polyphony of the work” Echo, Darmstadt, 2009

“The sound was quite simply phenomenal” General-Anzeiger, Bonn, 2011

“… not many come up to our standard. The Australian Chamber Choir did” Ulrich Böhme, Organist, Thomaskirche, Leipzig, 2011

“Douglas Lawrence … blends the voices of … 18 young hand-picked and super-musical singers into a finely-tuned ensemble” Berlingske Tidende, Denmark, 2013

“the audience was overcome with admiration of the angel voices of the Australian Chamber Choir” Zielona Góra University News, Poland, 2013

“A standing ovation from the large audience was rewarded with an encore. … The programme was particularly interesting due to the performance of less familiar works by Australian composers which the audience loved” Legnickie Conversatorium Organowe, Poland, 2013

“The choir’s flawless intonation, impeccable blend, marvellously pure intervals, seamless contrapuntal vocal movement and their careful emphasis on text … delivered an exceptional concert” Martin Duffy, Sydney Morning Herald, 2014

“Australian choir in super league” Dagbladet, Denmark, 2015

“They created a sound as pure as crystal, beautifully blended, clearly articulated and unanimous in execution …” Sounds Like Sydney, 2016

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The singers today were Sopranos: Elspeth Bawden, Felicity Bolitho*, Grace Cordell, Amelia Jones*, Elizabeth Lieschke, Megan Oldmeadow*, Erika Tandiono, Ellie Walker, Jennifer Wilson-Richter Altos: Elizabeth Anderson*, Melissa Lee, Hannah Spracklan-Holl, Isobel Todd, Ailsa Webb Tenors: Jesse Bartle, Alastair Cooper-Golec*, Joshua Lucena, Ben Owen, Timothy Reynolds, Linton Roe Basses: Lucien Fischer, Luke Hutton, Mitchell Relf*, Nicholas Retter, Alasdair Stretch, Lucas Wilson-Richter* * denotes soloist

The instrumentalists today were Trumpet 1: Bruno Siketa Trumpet 2: Dani Rich Trombone: Daniel McIlvride French horn: Evgeny Chebykin

Bass Trombone: Lucas ClaytonTimpani: Ben Dickson Scott Weatherson (Castlemaine) Organ: Rhys Boak

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER CHOIR INCABN 49434510467 434 Brunswick RdWest Brunswick VIC 3055www.AusChoir.org

CHAIRMAN Dr Robin Batterham AO

VICE CHAIRMAN Stuart Hamilton AO

SECRETARY Geoffrey Scollary

TREASURER Richard Bolitho

PATRONS Barry Jones AC John Griffiths Oficial de la Orden de Isabel la Católica

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Douglas Lawrence OAM

MANAGER Elizabeth Anderson

PUBLICITY Prue Bassett

DESIGN Dianna Wells

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PLANNED GIVING

BEQUESTS We warmly acknowledge bequests from the following people:

Rosemary GleesonMargaret LawrenceLorraine Meldrum

DONATIONSWe are grateful to our wonderful donors:

Major Donors Dr Merrilyn Murnane and the Rev Max Griffiths

$25,000+ Robin Batterham

$15,000+ the late Bob Henderson

$10,000+Anon Thorry Gunnersen Peter Kingsbury Alana Mitchell

$5,000+Sally Brown Patricia DukeMichael Elligate Hellen Fersch the late Hector Maclean Schapper family trustJanet and Mark Schapper

$3,000+ Iris and Warren Anderson Bruce and Jennie Fethers John Griffiths and Berni Moreno Arwen HurCheryl and John IserBarbara KristofPhilippa MillerAlma Ryrie-JonesGeoff and Angela ScollaryHarry Williams

$1,000+James and Barbara Barber Heather and Ian Gunn Stuart and Sue Hamilton Caroline LawrenceGeorge and Anne LittlewoodSarah and Peter MartinRowan McIndoe Kate and Barry Michael Leonie Millard and Matthew Pryorthe late Elisabeth Murdoch Cathy ScottStephen Shanasy David and Lorelle Skewes Brian SwinnFrank WestGlen WithamRobert and Helen Wright

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$500+ Elizabeth Burns, Margaret Callinan, Barry and Nola Firth, Dianne Gome, Ferdi Hillen, Richard Hoy, Paul Nisselle, Joan Roberts, Annette and David Robinson, Muharrem Sari, Pauline Tointon

$200+David Beauchamp and Lynn Howden, Jennifer Bellsham-Revell, Barbara Braistead, Madge and Tony Correll, Michael Edgeloe, Mary-Jane Gething, Anne Gilby, Tom Gleisner and Mary Muirhead, Alan Gunther, Herb and Eve Hahn, Tom Healey and Helen Seymour, Alan Larwill, Marian and Graham Lieschke, Pamela Lloyd, Heather Low, Cathy Lowy, Bradley Maclarn, Penelope Maddick, Chris Maxwell, Mary McGivern-Shaw, Hilary McPhee, Michael Edgeloe, Stephen Newton, Ian Phillips, Lenore Stephens, Eric Stokes, Robert Stove, Ross Telfer, Mel Waters, Jenny and Wallace Young, Margaret and Paul Zammit Other donors 1 January 2016 to 18 March, 2017Gordon Atkinson, Rita Bagossy, Mary Barlow, Maggie Bell, Howard Bishop, Robert Boelen, Elizabeth Braithwaite,

Other donors (continued)Margot Breidahl, Roderick Brown, Ken Cahill, Nicholas Capes, June Cohen, Greg Coldicutt, Christine Cronin, Bernadette Day, Noel Denton, Michael Dolan, Margaret Flood, Pamela Furnell, Sylvia Geddes, Christine George, Stephen Gray, Clare Green, Jean Hadges, Penny Hamilton, Carol Harper, Trang Hoang, Jane Hockin, Annemarie Hunt, Carole Hynes, Anthea Hyslop, Margaret Irving, Lester Johnson, Huw Jones, Garry Joslin, Diana Killen, Jerry Koliha, Dawn and Peter Lord, Rosaleen Love, Dorothy Low, Sue Lyons, Mary Malone, Dubravka Martin-Hanson, Anthony McClaran, Jack Mckenzie, Maryanne Molenaar, Rosemary and Bruce Morey, Ailsa Morgan, Evelyn Mortimer, Malcolm Nagorcka, Ross Nankivell, Margaret Newman, Christine Newman, Omar Nuhoglu, Julianna O’Bryan, Margaret O’Dowd, Jacqui Oldham, Ross Philpott, Anna Price, Margaret Price, Zena Roslan, John Rowe, Cynthia Rowe, Linda Russell, Avril Skurnik, Robin Stretch, Gabrielle Tagg, Andrew Turner, Mark Tweg, Myfanwy Van De Meene, Chris Van Rompaey, Angela Were, Rodney Wetherell, Christopher White, Charles Williams, Wendy Wright, Susan Wright

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