NIGHT DAY

Sunday, 28th June, 7·30pmSt Paul’s Church, Armitage Bridge

alsoHelena Summerfield

Jonathan BriggSue Ogden

withSaxophonesSynthesizerPiano

Taneli Clarke,Percussion

Featuring the KirkleesYoung Musician of the Year:

Swingle selectionWard SwingleMorten Lauridsen

Nocturnes

Summer Concert 2015

Conductor: Alexander Douglas • Registered Charity Nº 507768

Wedding? Celebration? Special service?

can provide you with that all-important vocal element to make your event even more special, whether you require the full choir or a smaller ensemble taken from its ranks.

For more details, contact the Secretary, Ruth Wilson, on (01422) 822342

Much easier to win than the National Lottery!

The 100 Club is a fun way to support the choir and maybe win some cash! Pay £1 weekly for a ticket. Numbers are drawn monthly and three prizes awarded:

1st: £50 2nd: £25 3rd: £15

The Club gives a valuable boost to choir funds, and enables us to present more exciting programmes with fine guests. Please join; the more participants there are, the bigger the prizes can be!

For more details, contact the Treasurer, Pete Smith, on (01924) 848624

Bookings 100 Club

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CONDUCTORAlexander DouglasAlex is becoming known as one of the UK’s most versatile choral directors, working across a wide spectrum of genres and in a variety of contexts. Having worked nationally as a choral animateur, he served as Music Director for the Blaenau Gwent Chorale before becoming Chorusmaster

for a major community oratorio project for Welsh National Opera. He then graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with an MA in Choral Conducting and relocated to Manchester. He gained invaluable experience of directing a large chorus as the ABCD Conducting Apprentice with the Bradford Festival Choral Society last year. As well as The Huddersfield Singers, Alex is the Music Director of the Aletheian Ensemble (a chamber orchestra), the Veritas Orchestra (a jazz orchestra), AINE (a gospel ensemble which reached the final of the BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year Competition 2014) and the professional chamber choir Voces Laus Deo. He is also very active as both a composer and arranger. Alex is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. More information can be found on his personal website: http://alexanderdouglas.wix.com/info

ACCOMPANISTSue Ogden, PianoSue started piano lessons at the age of eight. She gained a BA (Hons) in Music at Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1978, studying piano with Martin Roscoe, as well as playing the organ and harpsichord. She completed a PGCE in 1979 and has since worked in the Huddersfield area, teaching music from Primary through to FE level. After more than

20 years in the Primary classroom, Sue now focusses on piano teaching and accompanying, working part-time for Kirklees Music School. Over the past 25 years she has appeared with various local choirs and amateur dramatic societies, performing a wide range of music from Bach to Buddy Holly. She accompanies classes at Holmfirth Musical Festival and plays for the Kirklees Primary Music Festival. Sue has played for The Huddersfield Singers since 2002, and in 2013 was appointed as accompanist to Denby Dale Ladies Choir, conducted by her daughter Sarah, herself a professional singer.

TONIGHT’S GUESTS

Kirklees Young Musician of the Year 2015

Taneli Clarke, PercussionTaneli is a few months away from completing a Masters degree in Music (specialising in solo performance) at the University of Huddersfield. In September 2014 he became the first percussionist to win the prestigious Keldwyth Award (Cumbrian Young Musician), then in February 2015 he became the first percussionist to win Kirklees Young Musician of the Year. Whilst an undergraduate, Taneli received

the highest mark ever awarded by Huddersfield University for any form of recital, and was the only student in over ten years to successfully study solo performance on multiple instruments (starting as predominantly a tuba player). Taneli is the current Conducting Scholar with Huddersfield Choral Society and has conducted the University choir, orchestra and brass

band. He has played with Hammonds Saltaire, Carlton Main Frickley Colliery and Brighouse & Rastrick brass bands, and sings in a

barbershop quartet. Taneli is also in demand as a composer and arranger, having been commissioned

by both the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain and

Huddersfield Choral Society.

As a pioneer of new music, Taneli has performed

a number of UK and European premieres and recently gave the

world premiere of a new arrangement for marimba of Israeli composer Avner

Dorman's Mandolin Concerto, accompanied by Huddersfield University's string orchestra.

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TONIGHT’S GUESTS

Helena Summerfield, SaxophonesHelena graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1997, having studied Classical saxophone with John Harle, Simon Haram and Will Gregory. During her time at the Guildhall, Helena also enjoyed performing in the under- and postgraduate Big Bands under the guidance of Scott Stroman and Martin Hathaway. Although she works primarily as a music educator in Manchester, Helena continues to be an active performer. She has toured with the singer Carmel and is a regular face on the Manchester jazz circuit. This summer, Helena can be heard at the Manchester Jazz Festival in How monkey found his swing with acclaimed storyteller Ursula Holden Gill, and Evolution: Seeds and Streams—the Irwin Mitchell mjf Originals commission by John Ellis and moving-image artist Antony Barkworth-Knight. Helena holds the baritone saxophone chair for Alexander Douglas in the Veritas Orchestra.

Jonathan Brigg, KeyboardsJonathan hails from Bradford. He studied music at the University of Manchester and later gained a scholarship to support doctoral research at the University of York. His teachers include John Casken, Kevin Malone and William Brooks, and he has also been taught and mentored by Richard Ayres, Martijn Padding, Magnus Lindberg, Julian Argüelles and John Taylor. As a composer, Jonathan has been selected for the European Composers Development Scheme and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Composers programme, and was shortlisted for Opus 2013 with the Britten Sinfonia. He was a recent prizewinner at the Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, gaining a commission for the Dutch National Youth Orchestra. Jon’s contemporary jazz group, Stoop Quintet, was recently selected by Young and Serious to perform in the London Jazz Festival, where their sound was characterised as “ostinato-esque melodies followed by chaos” (Blue Flamingo Music). Jon is active as a conductor, and has been both a Huddersfield Choral Society Conducting Scholar and, in 2013, conductor of The Huddersfield Singers. He will soon relinquish his post as Music Director of Cantores Olicanæ, having recently moved to London.

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PROGRAMME

How do I love thee? ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Ward Swingle

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Sherwin arr. Michael Neaum

Hail, Smiling Morn ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Reginald Spofforthwith Sue Ogden, Piano

Night and Day (jazz instrumental) ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Cole PorterHelena Summerfield, Alto Saxophone • Jonathan Brigg, Piano

You Are The New Day ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ John David arr. Peter Knight

KirKlees Young Musician of the Year 2015 To the Gods of Rhythm ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Nebojša Jovan Živković South Kolora ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Alex Stopa White Knuckle Stroll ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Casey Cangelosi Il Sognio di Paciocchino ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Nebojša Jovan Živković

Taneli Clarke, Percussion

Way Over Yonder ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Carole King arr. Pete Churchillwith Sue Ogden, Piano • Jonathan Brigg, Keyboard

✯ INTERVAL ✯

Nocturnes (choral song-cycle) ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Morten Lauridsen i: Sa Nuit d’Été (Rainer Maria Rilke) ii: Soneto de la Noche (Pablo Neruda) iii: Sure on this Shining Night (James Agee) iv: Epilogue – Voici le soir (Rainer Maria Rilke)

with Sue Ogden, Piano

Vocalise, op. 34 no 14 ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Sergei RachmaninoffHelena Summerfield, Soprano Saxophone • Sue Ogden, Piano

Christmas carol medley ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ arr. Ward SwingleSchedrifka – Pastores a Belén – O du fröhliche

with Sue Ogden, Piano • Jonathan Brigg, Keyboard • Taneli Clarke, Percussion

Sonata for Alto Sax and Piano, first movement ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Phil WoodsHelena Summerfield, Alto Saxophone • Sue Ogden, Piano

Fly me to the moon ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Bart Howard arr. Gwyn Arch with Sue Ogden, Piano

KirKlees Young Musician of the Year 2015 Africa Hot ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ John Wooton Land ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Takatsugu Muramatsu Ein Liebeslied? ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Nebojša Jovan Živković Der Kleine Paganini ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Nebojša Jovan Živković

Taneli Clarke, Percussion

The Silver Swan ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Orlando Gibbons arr. Ward Swinglewith Catherine Styring, Soprano

Sue Ogden, Piano • Jonathan Brigg, Keyboard • Taneli Clarke, Percussion

O let me live for true love ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ ‥ Thomas Tomkins arr. Ward Swinglewith Helena Summerfield, Flute

Sue Ogden, Piano • Jonathan Brigg, Keyboard • Taneli Clarke, Percussion

“Playing by Ear”

“Earwig van Beethoven”

“Blow Your Own Trumpet”

“Singing by Ear”

WHY NOT JOIN

?The choir is always very keen to welcome new members of all voice parts. If you have a good voice and can sight-read, come along to a rehearsal. The Huddersfield Singers offers:

Challenging, varied music

Three annual concerts

High musical standards

A friendly atmosphere

Rehearsals take place on Mondays, 7:30pm at Huddersfield Methodist Mission, HD1 1QA

For more information, please speak to a choir member or find full details on our website:

http://www.HuddersfieldSingers.com/

Do you have a MUSICAL EAR?

Perhaps you have theVOICE OF AN ANGEL?

Is singing PIANO your FORTE?

Do you preferBEETHOVEN to the BEATLES?

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Although at any given time we experience ‘day’ or ‘night’, as Allan Fowler once wrote, “the sun is always shining somewhere.” I doubt Cole Porter

was thinking about anything scientific when he penned what is arguably his most popular contribution to the Great American Songbook, but the title became so linked with him that the first major biopic about him bore it, and it has since been applied in many contexts (I used to play in a venue called the Night and Day Café as a schoolboy). Tonight, it is our latest concert theme. The Francophile American vocal arranger Ward Swingle became a legend in his own lifetime as the founder of the jazz a cappella group, The Swingle Singers—a group that has continued for decades after his retirement. Sadly, he passed away in January this year, so we offer four lesser-known arrangements as a tribute. Elizabeth Barrett Browning supplied the textual inspiration for the first of these, How do I love thee?, a delightful SATB motet that doesn’t really sound like Swingle until you listen to the modulations, which point to a certain ‘jazz awareness’. It was written for his daughter Kathryn’s wedding, and the burnished intensity of the last 22 bars rewards careful listening. London’s Mayfair district is immortalised in Manning Sherwin’s popular A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, another enduring ‘standard’ whose creative origins remain more of a mystery than not. Tonight our upper voices will perform this SSAA arrangement written for the legendary British singing pedagogue Pamela Cook and her Cantamus choir, featuring the now-typical truncated form of the song and some unusual harmonic rhythms. Hail, Smiling Morn may be associated with Christmas here in Yorkshire (not unlike Handel’s Messiah), but the song’s content has nothing to do with the season of Christmas (also true of Messiah), so this is an opportunity to nod to a little local heritage without taking ourselves too seriously. The song’s A-A-B-B structure is entirely straightforward, and as we sing the darkness away we welcome the Huddersfield Singers’ previous conductor, Jonathan Brigg, to the stage in his jazz piano incarnation to play an instrumental duet of Night and Day with guest saxophonist, Helena Summerfield. —Alexander Douglas Night and Day was written for the 1932 musical play, Gay Divorce. The song has been recorded by dozens of artists; Fred Astaire introduced it on stage, and his recording was a number-one hit. He performed it again in the 1934 film version of the show, renamed The Gay Divorcee, and it became one of his signature pieces. Tonight we will be performing an instrumental version of the song with sections of improvisation. —Helena Summerfield

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You Are The New Day is by Welsh songwriter John David. He recalls: “The inspiration for New Day was quite simple; I had just had a major blow in my personal life, and was sitting alone late at night on the settee feeling very low, and watching an ominous story on the news about the very real possibility of nuclear war. I started singing to the (hopefully) soon-to-arrive new day like it was an entity that would rescue me from the depths. If the sun came up and the birds started singing as usual then I could believe that it really was the new day in which life would go on, and in which hope would survive.” At this point we will hear from the multitalented Taneli Clarke, who will provide his own verbal introduction to his percussion programme. We close our first half by returning to a concept encapsulated in John David’s New Day – “hope is my philosophy” – and sing Pete Churchill’s arrangement of the Carole King song, Way Over Yonder. Although we have no Hammond organ, you will hear its colour being evoked by Jon as the choir, having recently explored gospel music, taps into some of its energy and style in a ‘soul music’ context, albeit with a chamber choir æsthetic.

✯

Morten Lauridsen’s choral music enjoys significant and enduring popularity for various reasons. Nocturnes is one of his seven choral song-cycles and one of the least well known here in the UK (in its entirety). The first of the four pieces, Sa Nuit d'Été, evokes a different type of burnished intensity to the Swingle piece heard earlier—in truth, the crowning achievement of Lauridsen’s harmony is the way in which it manifests ‘secular spirituality’ by evoking both darkness and light at the same time. The subtleties of rhythm only add to the same effect. For a German-language poet, Rainer Maria Rilke managed to write four hundred poems in French, and his own quest to articulate the challenges of communion with others and with one’s spirit in the alarming dissolution of the early twentieth century is seen in this poem. Lauridsen evokes an almost Byronic romanticism with the second nocturne, Soneto de la Noche, in which the great Pablo Neruda is his partner. Lauridsen’s signature metric modulations provide the bedrock for the harmonic rhythm in which some startling and glorious key-changes are executed, driving a conceptual wedge into the idea of light and love, and away from darkness, as he contemplates a specific vision of eternity articulated by the poet. Arguably the most demanding of the four nocturnes, the reward for listeners and singers is great indeed if both parties can stay the distance… as the third movement is

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a wonderful poem by American James Agee that reminds one of the spirit and concept of the great metaphysical poets. Sure on this Shining Night is a succinct tone poem that finds Lauridsen at his most assured, with more of the ‘hope is my philosophy’ thread throughout. Deservedly popular and in the perfectly-judged key of D¨, the effect of vocal radiance is immediately supplanted by a different dimension of abstruse harmony as we return to Rilke in the Epilogue – Voici le soir and the same type of rhythmic displacement we encountered at the start, marking the singular circularity of this cycle. —Alexander Douglas We have two contrasting solo saxophone pieces tonight, demonstrating the different sides – indeed, the night and day – of the instrument. Vocalise was composed in 1912 and continues to be one of Rachmaninoff’s most popular works. Its lyrical quality is ideally suited to the timbre of the soprano saxophone. The Sonata for Alto Sax and Piano by American saxophonist Phil Woods was composed in 1980, and celebrates the jazz idiom. After a slow, reflective intro, it gains pace with semiquaver runs and jazzy riffs for both saxophone and piano. Both players must take a creative as well as a re-creative attitude; in the words of Woods, “the important idea is for the performer to take part in the creation of the work and to have fun.” —Helena Summerfield Between Helena’s two solo items, we step out of season with the Swingle-arranged Christmas carol medley combining the Russian carol, Schedrifka (better known as Carol of the Bells), a Puerto Rican carol, Pastores a Belén, and the German O du fröhliche. Initially, Russian text is eschewed for syllabic representations before the tenors feature in the second carol. The third carol’s diatonic homophony evokes both the UK and USA, but with German text! Fly me to the moon literally offers ‘light relief ’ and gives our lower voices a little break. Written in 1954, its arrival was well timed, as it predated the ‘Space Race’ between the USA and the USSR by just a couple of years. Taneli returns for his second solo performance before we close with a pair of Swingle arrangements. All sorts of composers got the Swingle treatment; here it’s Orlando Gibbons’ turn with The Silver Swan. The polyphonic writing is archetypally choral, but the addition of the ‘rhythm section’ – as opposed to a ‘continuo’ – creates an interesting aural palette of ‘old’ and ‘new’. The finale will feature all the performers in Ward Swingle’s second foray into the sixteenth century: Thomas Tomkins’ O let me live for true love. It is basically a four-part madrigal with added rhythm section. While all sorts of interpretations have been advanced for “fa la la la la”, we we leave you to do the work of hermeneutics for yourselves! —Alexander Douglas

Huddersfield Grammar SchoolThe co-educational school for girls & boys age 3 to 16

Tel: 01484 424549 | www.huddersfield-grammar.co.uk Follow us on facebook

Creating the perfect picture. Everyday is an ‘Open Day’.

NEXT CONCERT: WINTER 2015

Programme design: Richard Hallas Richard@Hallas.net • www.hallas.net • (01484) 460280

Programme printing: RiverDigital Ltd info@riverdigital.co.uk • www.riverdigital.co.uk

THE HUDDERSFIELD SINGERS President Conductor Accompanist Laurence Jones Alexander Douglas Sue Ogden

Vice Presidents Pam Cooksey John Horrocks-Taylor Philip Powell Philip Honnor Hilary Pollard Gordon Sykes Heather Powell

Registered Charity Nº 507768

Web Site http://www.HuddersfieldSingers.com/

A Christmas Ceremony Benjamin Britten A Ceremony of Carols Geoffrey Bush A Christmas Cantata

…and a selection of carols and other original Christmas music

Saturday, 5th December 2015 at 7:30pmHoly Trinity Church, Trinity Street, Huddersfield