Songs for summer

It is customary for the Bristol Chamber Choir to return to its roots in its summer concert, and this year is no exception. Founded in 1837 as the Bristol Madrigal Society, one hundred and eighty years later it will still be singing madrigals, in spite of its change of name. Six of these will be from Thamas Morley's collection in praise of Queen Elizabeth the First, 'The Triumphs of Oriana', and are by less well-known composers of the era, such as Michael East and Daniel Norcome. In between these pieces will be Italian madrigals from the collection known as 'Il Trionfo di Dori', which inspired Morley to make his collection.
Robert Pearsall, one of the founders of the Bristol Madrigal Society, will be represented by three part-songs, two of which the choir has not sung for about a hundred years. And the concert will end with Sir Hubert Parry's setting of Keats's poem 'La belle dame sans merci'. This was written by Parry for the Bristol Madrigal Society to mark the retirement of Dan Rootham, after conducting it for fifty years. The music has been edited from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library by the Choir's Director, Gordon Pullin. While not quite in the popularity stakes as 'Jerusalem', 'I was glad' or 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind', it is nevertheless the work of a master-craftsman and a great tribute to the status and history of the choir.