In the Midst of Life:
Music for Lent
Saturday 28th March 6:00pm
The Symbel Choir perform works
by Kerensa Briggs, Herbert Howells
and Thomas Tallis
- Kerensa Briggs Media Vita
- Herbert Howells Requiem
- Thomas Tallis Lamentations
Admission by donation
Refreshments available after the concert
The text of Media vita is attributed to Notker, a learned Benedictine of St Gall
who died in 912. The story goes that he composed it while watching workmen
build the bridge of Matinsbruck, in so doing risking their lives.
Kerensa Briggs’ atmospheric setting of the text was commissioned by
Siglo de Oro and Patrick Allies in 2015 to celebrate 500 years since the birth
of the English Renaissance composer John Sheppard.
Briggs describes how ‘The piece draws inspiration from both the intensity
and ebb and flow found within Sheppard’s work and the text itself.
False relations and imitative writing remain but these ideas are incorporated
into a rich harmonic language and reflective sonority, depicting an awareness
of death in life alongside a hope for redemption or salvation.’
The Requiem by Herbert Howells was written in 1932, but first published
almost fifty years later in 1981.
It is set for unaccompanied choir with soloists, using a combination of texts
from the traditional Requiem mass and other sacred sources:
Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd"), Psalm 121 ("I will lift up mine eyes"),
"Salvator mundi" ("O Saviour of the world" in English), "Requiem aeternam"
(two different settings), and "I heard a voice from heaven".
Thomas Tallis wrote the Lamentations of Jeremiah in the 1560s for the liturgy
of Maundy Thursday.
At the time, musical settings from the Book of Jeremiah were common in England
during the Christian Holy Week.
The texts, which lament the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians,
held significance for Roman Catholics amid the turmoil surrounding the rise
of Protestantism.
The Lamentations were written during the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I
who, although a Protestant, allowed Latin to be sung in religious services.
Although Thomas Tallis remained an “unreformed Roman Catholic,”
his style adapted as England alternated between Catholicism and Protestantism.
"We are a choir based in London, primarily made up of recent graduates.
Under the musical direction of Anthony Chater, we are delighted to be
in residence monthly at St Peter’s, Belsize Park and St Barnabas, Pimlico.
We also sing at several churches in central London on an ad hoc basis,
including The Charterhouse and Holy Trinity, Sloane Square.
Our name comes from Old English and translates roughly as
‘feast, banquet, social gathering’.
This celebrates the sense of belonging and togetherness fostered by
collective music making.
We hope our singing is a feast for your ears, and we can often be found
at the nearest pub or green space after rehearsals."