Thanet Festival Choir presents Howard Goodall's Eternal Light

Thanet Festival Choir is delighted to be revisiting Howard Goodall’s inspirational Eternal Light, last performed by the Choir in 2015.

Talking about composing the work, Goodall said – ‘Most requiems are based, one way or another, on the medieval church’s Mass for the Dead, which is made up of a series of sections (‘movements’) beginning with the ‘Kyrie Eleison’ (Greek meaning Lord have mercy) and ending with ‘In Paradisum’ (Into paradise). Although the traditional requiem text calls for ‘eternal peace, rest and light’ for those who have died, it also emphasises judgement and everlasting damnation for anyone who transgresses the Roman Catholic Church’s code of behaviour, as seen from the perspective of the Middle Ages. I did not feel at ease with this approach to the appalling pain of loss and grief, so in an attempt to provide some solace for the living that mourn, I stripped down the old Latin texts to a few phrases in each movement and laid beside them words from English poems from across the last 500 years’.

The progsramme will also include Goodall’s setting of The Lord is my Shcpherd, perhaps best known as the theme tune to ‘The Vicar of Dibley’, John Sanders’ immensely moving Reproaches, and James MacMillan’s setting of Psalm 96, A New Song.