Music of Our Time is JAM’s annual ‘curtain raiser’. It is a special event, as we go back to JAM's roots; that of commissioning, enabling and performing new music. This concert gives us the chance to re-visit commissions and to surround them with music from our annual Call for Music.
This year we revisit three JAM commissions; The Fifth Continent by Paul Patterson (2005), Tallis's Light by Rory Boyle (2011) and Songs from the Marshes (2018), also by Boyle.
Patterson's The Fifth Continent, with words by Ben Kaye, describes the mysteries of Kent’s Romney Marsh. Set for choir, brass, organ and countertenor, this magical work starts with all the performers offstage; space and physical movement are used as an integral part of the musical structure. A sense of boundless mystery prevails, encompassing a huge range of extremes, from the dark and austere, to the serene and tranquil via storms of violent winds and high seas. It is a particular thrill to welcome back countertenor, Andrew Watts, who premiered the piece.
Songs from the Marshes by Rory Boyle, with words by Claudia Daventry, was commissioned by JAM in 2018. Boyle and Daventry set out to write a collection of modern folk songs based on subjects of a timeless nature which hark back to an earlier era. Hence the songs deal with love, death, war, ghosts and nature all relating to communities living near the sea. The world premiere of this evocative set of songs was given by the BBC Singers during JAM on the Marsh in July. Two of them receive their London premiere in this concert.
We also have the pleasure of bringing six other new pieces of vivid, vibrant music from the great pool of talent working in the UK today. These works were chosen by JAM’s reading panel from our annual, anonymous Call for Music. There will be some new names to JAM regulars alongside two who have been involved before, Phillip Cooke and Richard Peat.
These three commissions and six submissions show the vast array of talent writing music in the UK today. All the pieces use choir, brass and organ or any mixture of these forces. What is so exciting and extraordinary about the programme this year is the enormous variety of colour and texture in the pieces, from the raw power of Tallis’s Light, to the theatricality and beauty of The Fifth Continent via the tongue in cheek writing of Bad Teeth No Bar, and the individuality of the submitted works. It really is a joy to be able to program such a stimulating and varied performance!