A summer concert of American music | Whitehall Choir

In 1965 the Southern Cathedrals Festival commissioned Leonard Bernstein to writeChichester Psalms to be sung at Chichester Cathedral by the choirs of Chichester, Winchester and Salisbury. Each movement, written in Hebrew, sets a psalm as well as excerpts from another paired psalm. Its exuberant feel seems fitting for the focal point of our summer concert. We will be performing the version for choir, countertenor solo, harp, percussion and organ and are delighted to be joined by Roderick Morris, Keziah Thomas and James Godfrey as well as our regular accompanist Ian Tindale on the organ.

The other large-scale work is Morten Lauridsen’s Lux aeterna in the version for choir and organ. Alongside several other contemporary American composers (Lauridsen was born in Washington state in 1943), his music is accessible and full of lush harmonies. Lux aeterna was written in 1997 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The cycle draws on sacred texts, all of which feature ‘light’, with references to two of his earlier works, Les chansons des roses and O magnum mysterium.

Shorter choral works by Charles Ives, Ola Gjeilo and Jake Runestad, and Aaron Copland’s Preamble for a solemn occasion for organ complete the programme.