Commissions

Hertfordshire Chorus has been commissioning new works regularly since 1999, demonstrating our commitment to the future of choral music and extending the repertoire for ourselves and others. We have established a Choral Commissions Fund to ensure the continuance of this important activity. Email us if you would like to know more. commissions@hertfordshirechorus.org.uk

Steve Block – Solaris
The Chorus is currently rehearsing its latest commission, Steve Block's Solaris, which will be premièred at the Barbican on 22 May 2010. “The title Solaris represents the Sun as a great parent figure, creating a variety of progeny including the phenomena of sunspots, solar flares, solar wind and of course aurorae. The piece combines the science, the myths and the history in a three-part narrative. Part One (Sunspots) deliberates on the very nature of sunspots, speaking as it were from the surface of the Sun itself. In Italian, it is based closely on Galileo’s original writings. Part Two (The Journey) begins with a massive orchestral solar flare as Solaris ‘reaches out to the blank vastness’. The Chorus describes the 93 million mile journey to the Earth, at the end of which they ‘seek celestial paths of attraction’. This is interrupted by the Children’s Chorus with their processional Yoik, calling the solar wind down to them. As Part Three (Aurora) opens, the solar wind reaches Earth’s magnetic field and is drawn down into the polar night - the aurora begins. The lights dance and sing through the night in celebration of their parent Solaris. As dawn approaches, the stars begin to shine through the great curtains of fading light and the piece draws to a close, suspended ‘on the edge of eternity’.” Steve Block

Other commissions are:

Orlando Gough – Ice
The Chorus premièred Orlando Gough's Ice at London's King's Place on 14 January 2009. Using atmospheric music and text from Matthew’s Henson’s journal, Ice commemorates the first trip to the North Pole in 1909. “The lyrics of Ice are taken from Henson’s book The Conquest of the North Pole. Henson wrote of his time in the Arctic ‘I have been to all intents and purposes an Esquimo.’ This remark was the inspiration for one section of the piece, which is little an elaboration of a traditional Esquimo (Inuit) style of singing, katajjak. Katajjak is a two-person hocketting game in which extraordinary, sometimes dog-like sounds are exchanged with increasing intensity and speed until one person gives up. Ice also incorporates a moving setting of Hold On - sung by Negro slaves escaping to Canada via the ‘Underground Railroad’ in the first half of the nineteenth century.” Orlando Gough

Howard Haigh – Land of Light
Land of Light is an exuberant work which draws its inspiration from medieval Spain, which was, for a short and glorious time, the most cultured and progressive region in the known world. Scored for chorus and Latino-Blues band Land of Light combines flamenco rhythms, Moorish modes, Sephardic love songs and gypsy chants. Land Of Light premièred at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge in July 2005, performed by Hertfordshire Chorus and Howard Haigh’s band, LAVA under David Temple’s direction. Three further performances testify to its success (Hertfordshire Chorus, October 2005; Crouch End Festival Chorus, July 2006; Hertfordshire Chorus at Barbican Hall, April 2008). A Hertfordshire Chorus recording is available. 

Will Todd – Mass in Blue
Set in Latin and following the structure of the standard six-movement mass, the mood of this 40-minute uplifting and innovative work is one of celebration. Mass in Blue (originally entitled Jazz Mass) combines the powerful forces of choir, soprano soloist and jazz band in a weave of 12 bar blues and up-beat grooves. Mass in Blue was first performed at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in July 2003 with Will Todd at the piano. Will’s wife, Bethany Halliday, performed the soprano solo alongside the Blue Planet Orchestra and Hertfordshire Chorus, conducted by David Temple. This work has proved very popular and has been performed many times.

"Pure, exhilarating and exciting jazz…complex and yet straightforward: instantly accessible"

musicOHM.com

A Hertfordshire Chorus recording is available.

Roland Perrin – songs from the cage
Roland Perrin's setting for choir and big band was premièred by Hertfordshire Chorus with The Blue Planet Orchestra in St Albans in April 2002. songs from the cage sets six poems by the American hedonist, enemy of pretension and genius Charles Bukowski (1920-1994). His work portrays the ecstasy and pain of living life without boundaries.

songs from the cage incorporates jazz, Latin American and African musical styles and reflects at different times the abandonment to pleasure staring unblinkingly into the void of human existence.

“a performance which pulled from all points of a musical compass and which was a credit to its composer Roland Perrin, to the orchestra, choir and their conductor David Temple.”

Iain Scott

A Hertfordshire Chorus recording is available.

Edward Gregson – The Dance, Forever the Dance
This 30-minute work was commissioned by Hertfordshire Chorus with funds provided by the Foundation for Sports and the Arts, Eastern Arts Board and the Holst Foundation. It was given its first performance by the Chorus in St Albans Cathedral in 1999, when Diana Moore (mezzo-soprano) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Symphony Orchestra were conducted by Michael Kibblewhite. The Dance, forever the Dance is a symphony for voices and orchestra in four movements: a majestic Dance of Joy, the lyrical Dance of Love, the sinister Dance of Death, and the exuberant Dance of Life . The text is from a variety of sources (including Byron, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, and WH Auden) all using ‘dance’ as a metaphor for life.