Clonard Belfast 2022 was our first in-person concert. Our charity for this concert was The People’s Kitchen Belfast began life as St Patrick’s Soup Kitchen, in April 2017. The Brainchild of Paul McCusker, long time advocate for the homeless, and voice for the marginalised. It started quite inauspiciously, serving warm drinks and sandwiches from a tea trolley in a doorway. Seeking to help those experiencing homelessness and addiction problems. The soup kitchen grew as the need in the City was increasing and we had to increase the service to 7 days a week.
Our conductor was Tom Crowley. After graduating with an honours BMus degree from the Cork School of Music, Tom continued his studies in Romania completing a masters in orchestral conducting in the National University of Music Bucharest studying under Maestro Dumitru Goia.
Our programme drew together two works of the 20th century from either side of the Atlantic. There are many similarities, both start in a very calm tranquil way, build to climax and then ebb away. Both composers borrowed folk/ pastoral tunes from bygone times and both composers were influenced by creative time spent in Paris in the middle of the 20th Century.
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Knowing that the Fantasia would be premiered in the spacious environs of Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival in 1910, Vaughan Williams took full advantage of the opulent cathedral architecture when orchestrating a double string orchestra to evoke the impression of two answering ‘choirs’ across the buildings architecture.
There are four sections to the Fantasia. The first presents the theme initially with cello, viola and then 2nd violin sections. This then develops in a second version of the melody with all violins leading to an interlude in which the two choirs are treated responsorially. Members of the solo quartet, introduced by the viola, launch a more active central section playing variations of the Tallis theme. It is here that the music capitalises on the wonderful Cathedral acoustic to climax with the two ‘choirs’ answering one another with extreme dynamic shifts and striking harmonic contrasts. The piece subsides with fragments of the Tallis melody ending with its last sweet chord fading into silence.
Appalachian Spring: Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
“Appalachian Spring is generally thought to be folk-inspired” Copland said, “but the Shaker tune ‘Tis the gift to be simple’ is the only folk material actually quoted in the piece”.
