Saturday 6 July 2024 at 7:30pm
Sherborne Abbey

Join us to end our season and enjoy a summer’s evening of the best of British choral music in the stunning setting of Sherborne Abbey.

Our progamme includes Vaughan Williams’ sublime Serenade to Music, commissioned in 1938 to celebrate Henry Wood’s fiftieth anniversary as a conductor. It was written for sixteen named singers, all friends of Wood and Vaughan Williams. We can’t quite match those famous voices! But sung by the full choir, it makes a lovely choral work, alongside Elgar’s grand anthem Give unto the Lord, and Howells’ wonderful Collegium Regale setting of the Te Deum. We also mark the centenary of Stanford with his lovely motet Beati quorum via, and music by Byrd, James MacMillan, John Ireland, Jonathan Dove and John Dowland complete a great evening of choral music.

Organist Simon Clarkson

Our full programme:

• Serenade to Music Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
• Laudibus in sanctis William Byrd (1540-1623)
• Flow, my tears John Dowland (1563-1626)
• Give unto the Lord Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
• Lo! The full, final sacrifice Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
• Jubilate Deo in C Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
• Seek him that maketh the seven stars Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)
• Beati quorum via Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
• Changed James MacMillan (b. 1959)
• Greater love John Ireland (1914-1992)
• Te Deum (Collegium Regale) Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

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