Around Britain in Song

Finchley Chamber Choir

This evening's concert represents a whirlwind tour in music around these isles. Folksong is at the heart of the traditional culture of many countries and Britain is no exception, yet at by beginning of the 20th century, with creeping urbanisation, it was beginning to get lost. As little of it had been written down Vaughan Williams and Holst (along with Cecil Sharpe) began touring the country in an attempt to preserve it for posterity by notating and recording it. These composers then took things a step further by making colourful and attractive arrangements of some of these tunes for unaccompanied choir. Being a nautical nation it's not surprising that many of these concern sailors. Tonight one can hear four settings by Vaughan Williams and two by Holst. Receiving their first performance are a new set of four arrangements by composer-in-residence Richard Cox which take us to the four quarters of our nation with “Londonderry Air”, “David of the White Rock” “Afton Water” and “A Roving”. There are also two settings each by Delius, Grainger and Elgar, the latter pair written after Sir Edward had enjoyed days out in the countryside – Mill Hill and Totteridge to be precise! Completing the programme are Moeran's seven Songs of Springtime to Elizabethan poems, a monarch who is celebrated in the Choral Dances from Britten's opera Gloriana.