Summer Concerts 2026
Choral music of Passereau - Taverner -
Lauridsen - Inscoe - Jenkins - Rutter.
‘ Il est Bel et Bon ‘ ( He is handsome and good ) - Passereau
Is a conversation between two women about the merits of their husbands ! The song is indicative of general popular music in France, and the Low Countries, circa 1530, which featured double entendres and obscenities, apparently. The song ends in a flirtatious finale !
‘ Mother of God ‘ - John Taverner
Tavener wrote this piece in memory of his mother.
Being a prayer to Mary, ‘ Mother of God ’ the text is inspired by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1842), a famous Russian romantic poet, a contemporary of Pushkin who strongly
influenced Lord Byron. The first performed in 1985 by the
Choir of Winchester Cathedral.
‘ Dirait-on ‘ - Morten Lauridsen
Lauridsen wrote this piece and it became so popular that he decided to add four other poems to make up the cycle, of which this then became the last of his Rose Cycle, based on the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke ( 1875 - 1926 ).
“ I read so much poetry, and if I find a poem by a poet that interests me, then I’ll go out and buy his complete works,….that…happened with Rilke, and I was astonished to find that at the end of his life he wrote four hundred poems in French !“ ( Lauridsen’s conversation with Bruce Duffie, 1999 )
Thus liking the phrase “ so they say,” or, perhaps more accurately, “ one says,” this is therefore Lauridsen’s attempt at a French folk song.
' Wouldn’t it be nice ‘ - arr. Will Inscoe
Will Inscoe arranged this song for a family choir of pro’s from both bride and groom’s side to sing at his sister’s wedding in 2018, when he was 15. It is in the popular a capella style
that uses voices to supply the distinctive harmonies
of the instrumental accompaniment.’
Brian Wilson, the musical genius behind the song and the Beach Boys whose music was brought to life by the musicianship of the LA session musicians now recognised as the “ wrecking crew “, a crude term, for the very gifted musicians who brought their skills to many “ Pop “ records coming out of LA in the late 1950’s until the 1970’s. A musical treat, brought together here, with music and lyrics arrangement by Will Inscoe.
‘ The Armed Man ‘ ( Excerpts ) - Sir Karl Jenkins
We return to sing a few of the pieces from
‘ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace ‘ written in 1999 by the Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins as a reflection of the passing of ‘the most war-torn and destructive century in human history’ and as a message of hope that the world of the future would have more peace and fewer wars. But will we ever learn !?
The most prolific composer of the modern age he is the first living composer to have achieved the honour of being voted number one at the prestigious 2026 Class FM Hall of Fame Award for the above work.
‘ When the Saints go marching in ‘ arr. Sir John Rutter
One of Cantabile D’Eymet’s favourites and finishes our concert. Arranged in the 1990 this lively ‘ Dixieland style ‘ version was song by the Cambridge Singers.
Although extremely popular the origins of this ‘ traditional ‘ African- American spiritual in terms of song and its lyric are unknown. Though scholars attribute a version known to many as an American Protestant hymn from the late 1880, early 1900 this version “ is decidedly different . “ Rutter, here, gives his homage to the African- American spiritual.