Advent by Candlelight 2008
St Mary's and St Cyriac's 4.00pm, Advent Sunday, November 30th (St
Andrew's Day). Admission by programme at the door, £6 per person. All
profits go towards the work of the locally-based charity Emmaus.
One of the most popular events regularly staged in Swaffham Prior, and the only one to incorporate both of its neighbouring historic churches, is the annual concert of music and readings that celebrates the season of Advent, the harbinger of Christmas.
As always, the readings will be presented by residents of Swaffham Prior and those living nearby, whilst the choral music will, as ever, provided by the dynamic Cambridge Voices, one of this country's finest chamber-choirs, directed by their ever -flamboyant conductor and founder, Ian de Massini. As well as readings of prose and poetry interleaved with a host of varied choral items, the concert always includes audience participation within the seasonal advent hymns, including the great O come, O come, Emmanuel. Over its many years of existence, this unique event has formed itself into an organic entity that satisfyingly straddles the division between the sacred and secular, whereby the profound Christian poetry of former Swaffham Prior resident Edwin Muir can lie comfortably side-by-side with the wordly wit of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde.
Complementary music spanning 1,000 years, from the plainsong of Abbess
Hildegard to the polychoral complexities of Sir John Tavener, come to life in
the venerable vaults of both St Mary's Church (perfect for fast-paced
items) and of St Cyriac and St Julitta's (which, with its cathedral-like
acoustics, is perfect for great canvases of sound surrounding the whole
audience). The climax of the event is undoubtedly the giving of the Advent
Blessing followed by the collective singing of Lo, he comes with clouds with
descending for full organ, choir descent and audience. The joyous effect is
utterly spine-tingling and sends one away with a suitable spring in one's
step back down to St Mary's church for mulled wine and mince pies, the
perfect community gathering that brings this great event to a close.
This year's event will include two distinct themes. The first, to be marked in St Mary's church at the beginning of the concert, is St Andrew, patron-saint of Scotland, whose feastday falls on November 30th, the very day that we are holding this year's Advent by Candlelight. To mark this occasion, Ian de Massini has specially composed a dazzling, show-stopping arrangement of one of Scotland's most well-known folk-hymns, Amazing Grace. Also, the concert will begin with another beautiful Scottish ballad, Oh my love is like a red, red rose, with words by the Scottish bard Rabbie Burns and arranged especially for Cambridge Voices by their director. There'll also be dedicatory motets to St Andrew from two of the greatest Renaissance composers, Palestrina and Victoria.
The other theme, this year, will be the 90th anniversary of the Great Armistice that brought the awful ravages of World War I to a close. To mark this, the final choral item, to be sung in the darkness and growing cold of St Cyriac's church, will be De Massini's haunting musical reenactment of the Christmas Truce during W.W.I - We will remember them - and will include poems and songs composed during that war, including the now-famous poem about the Poppies of Flanders that has forever coloured our Acts of Remembrance each year.
The central portion of our Advent by Candlelight will of course examine the religious heart of the season of Advent. For this, Cambridge Voices will provide us with a great variety of music, from the exuberance of Zelenka (contemporary of Bach) to the unbelievable eccentricity of double-murderer Gesualdo, alongside the transcendent beauty of Josquin and the magnificence of double-choir, 10-voice brilliance from St Mark's, Venice with music by Gabrieli. As always, the choir have commissioned a new work for Advent by Candlelight and this year it will be De Massini's elaboration of Mozart's only piece for double-choir, Venite populi. De Massini has re-worked the piece so that an accompanying orchestra is no longer required, which is just as well as St Cyriac's Church is usually filled to capacity for our annual Advent by Candlelight!
If you are new to the village, or have never been to this event in the past, why not make this your first time?! The atmosphere is unique, and no religious affiliation is needed: the variety of music and word will feed your hear and mind for weeks after! As ever, we like to charge for the programme (£6) which gives one person admission to the concert and, once the minimal expenses are paid (hire charge of the two churches, material costs for the mulled wine and concert programmes, candles: note that the choir and readers offer their services for free), all profits go then directly to the locally-based charity, Emmaus, a very well-run institution based in Landbeach and who organise work and shelter, and a step back into the harsh reality of life, for those who have run into difficult circumstances. I hope to see you there! P.S. Don't forget to bring a coat!