Lighten our Darkness

St Albans Chamber Choir

Lighten our Darkness
This programme will take the audience on a journey of spiritual light.
Littlemore Tractus was composed by Arvo Pärt in 2000 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Cardinal Newman’s birth. It is a setting of the final lines of Newman’s sermon, Wisdom and Innocence, a prayer for eternal peace.
Otčenáš (Our Father), composed by Leoš Janáček in 1901, was revised in 1906 for chorus, harp and organ. The music combines the sacred with the humanistic, employing Janáček’s characteristic Czech folk rhythms and harmony.
Gustav Holst’s The Hymn of Jesus was composed between 1917 and 1919. Taking its text from the apocryphal Acts of John, the music is mystical and visionary, moving from serene plainsong to drama and exquisite beauty.
Franz Schubert’s setting of Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd), for upper voices, was written in 1820. The familiar text is set with beautiful and lyrical simplicity. The choir will be joined by the harp, combining to create a sense of calmness and serenity.
Ecce beatam lucem (Behold the blessed Light) was composed by Jonathan Dove in 1997. The work is an ecstatic and shimmering setting of a text inspired by light and its source in the sun, the moon and the stars, as a divine creation.
The programme will also include works by Jonathan Rathbone, Charles Wood, William Wordsworth and David Bednall and will feature soloists Tom Winpenny (Organ) and Ruby Aspinall (Harp).
Please join us for a concert of music to lighten the winter darkness.