The Chandos Singers, conducted by Malcolm Hill, are one of Bath’s leading chamber choirs. Their most recent concert took place in Magdalen Chapel in December, when works performed included the Christmas Oratorio by Camille Saint-Saëns and the Three Biblical Scenes by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672).
The choir’s St Patrick’s Day concert will include a dramatic ballad by the Poet Laureate Robert Southey (1774-1843), about an ancient pilgrimage site dedicated to St Patrick. The cleric and Purcell scholar Ernest Hawkins (the 150th anniversary of whose death falls in 2018) set this text to suitably powerful music by Henry Purcell.
Whilst St Patrick moved from England to work in Ireland, Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) moved from Ireland to work in England. Chandos will present one of Stanford’s opus 135 set of three English choral works, little performed in comparison with his three Latin motets. In Eternal Father, a setting of words by Robert Bridges, the melody is harmonised by the choir, and little counterpoint is included – a contrast to the rest of the programme.
The programme also includes a set of exciting but little-known psalm settings by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621). In the first months of 1618, Sweelinck grouped his nine accompanied polyphonic psalm settings to form a presentation volume (it is not known for whom), indicating that, if the whole set were to be performed, keyboard works should be inserted in a couple of places. Sweelinck soon incorporated these works into his Cantiones sacrae, and sent the new compilation to be published in Amsterdam; the volume appeared in 1619.
The concert will be held in the serene surroundings of the Magdalen Chapel on Holloway, Bath. A chapel is known to have existed on this site in the 11th century, and a leper hospital was built close by in the 12th. Both were under the care of the Abbey monks. The current building is 15th century. Despite severe bomb damage in 1942, it remains an active centre of worship.
Interval refreshments will be available.