NCS Summer Concert: From Newbury to Trondheim - A concert of British and Norwegian folk music.

Newbury Choral Society

The programme includes, McDowall: Fancy of Folk Songs, Holst: I love my love , Finzi: My spirit sang all day, Rutter: Sprig of thyme, Gjeilo: Ubi Caritas, Grieg: Våren (The Spring) and Gade: Morgensang (Morning Song)

In their next concert, Newbury Choral Society will be performing traditional British folksongs in a programme shared by the Trondheim Male Voice Choir. This will be the second time that the two choirs have shared a stage after the successful visit of the Choral Society to Trondheim in October 2019.

Folksongs are a long established form in music, with their focus on basic human experience, including love, joy, pain, sorrow and grief. Many composers have found inspiration in folk tunes, and much has been done to preserve and sometimes retell them in more sophisticated style. Some songs deal with love, from the exuberance of youthful love to the pain of separation. Some songs are warnings, others are profound explorations of joy, while yet more are heroic and historical.

Amongst the songs to be performed by the Trondheim Male Voice Choir are several whose composers will be familiar to English audiences. The first of these is Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978), a graduate of both the Royal College of Music and the Juilliard School. Born in Norway, he now lives in the United States. Ubi Caritas uses the traditional Latin text, moving from unison to more modern harmonic techniques.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), considered one of the leading Romantic composers, was at the forefront of establishing a national form of music in Norway. Landkjenning, one of his most frequently performed choral works, uses legends around King Olav I, who flourished in the 990s, while Våren is an ode to spring, always welcome after a long, hard Norwegian winter. Sangerhilsen (Singers’ Greeting) speaks for itself.