Music runs through the story of Arion which begins with a singing competition in Sicily. Arion wins the prize and this puts his life in danger: his newfound wealth excites the greed of the sailors who are supposed to be bringing him back to Corinth and they threaten to kill him. They allow Arion to sing one last song and the power of his singing attracts dolphins to the ship.  At the end of his song he jumps overboard and one of the dolphins carries him to safety.  So Arion’s musical gift gets him into trouble but it is also his salvation.   The idea of being rescued by a music-loving dolphin is very appealing. In Robert Graves’account of the myth the dolphin could not bear to be parted from Arion and accompanied him back to court where “it soon succumbed to a life of luxury.”  However Herodotus says that after his rescue and return to Corinth Arion failed to return the dolphin to the sea and it died there.  Apollo placed the dolphin among the stars and next to it Arion’s lyre in recognition of his musical skill.  This is one of the mythical explanations of the origins of the constellations Delphinus and Lyra. It seems natural to sing a story that has singing at its heart. When I was asked by the Nicholas Berwin Charitable Trust to write a choral work for Making Music something that would be within reach of many choirs and involve children this story struck me as ideal: the men of the chorus could be the bloodthirsty sailors and the women could create an atmosphere of mystery for the arrival of the dolphins represented by children’s voices. There would be one solo voice: Arion the marvellous singer. Andrew Fardell the conductor who was advisor to this commission had suggested that I might use the same instrumentation as a popular arrangement of Orff’s Carmina Burana a work that as well as using children’s chorus features a solo countertenor. I thought the magical otherworldly quality of this

Partita Dell'Amante. Aus: Italienische Madrigale. Par SCHUTZ HEINRICH. Tonalité : a-Moll - SWV 4 (op. 1 #4)/ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Saluto Nocevole. Aus: Italienische Madrigale. Par SCHUTZ HEINRICH. Tonalité : mixolydisch - SWV 12 (op. 1 #12)/ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Aus: Israelsbrünnlein. Geistliche Madrigale. Par SCHEIN JOHANN HERMANN. Johann Hermann Schein’s Israelsbrünnlein, published in Leipzig in 1623, is a supreme achievement not only among the works of this composer, who had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig since 1616, but also for the entire body of German music written during the first half of the 17th century. Among the 26 motets written “in the Italian madrigal manner” 23 are settings of Old Testament texts, a fact to which the collection owes its title. The source for the text of this collection is the “inexhaustible fountain” of the Psalms, the books of Moses, the Prophets, the Songs of Solomon, and other books of the Old Testament./ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Tonalité : B-Dur -. Par HARTMANN HEINRICH. Gattungen: Motetten, Psalmen, deutsch - Verwendung / Anlässe: L Hautbois und Dank, Psalmvertonungen - Langue : Allemand / Mottet / Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Psalm 93. Par PACHELBEL JOHANN. Tonalité : C-Dur - / Mottet / Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Par SCHONDLINGER ANTON. Gattungen: Psalmen, deutsch - Verwendung / Anlässe: L Hautbois und Dank - Verwendung / Kirchenjahr: Pianoingsten - Langue : Allemand / Psaumes / Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Be Not Afeard is a work by John Joubert for Solo Soprano and Unaccompanied SATB Choir. Commissioned by Music Sales to commemorate William Shakespeare's death the 400th anniversary of which falls in 2016 the work sets a speech from Act 3 Scene 2 of his final play 'The Tempest'. The work lasts around 4 and a half minutes.

The harmonic turns and piano configurations in La vie ant?rieure ??? the ???former life??? ??? seem almost exuberantly lyrical. At the beginning the archaic sounds and words of the male choir conjure up a dream world that is soon flooded with the power of the waves and the rich polyphonic harmony of the choir and the piano. With the outcry ???C???est l? que j???ai v?cu!??? [I have lived there] which expresses the fervent yearning to return to a past life the collective desperately reinforces the longing for the past. Once more the women???s choir conjures up this lost paradise in an undulating soft sound before the desolate sadness is pierced by the power of the music of the piano postlude creating a moment that is completely in the present.

Aus: Israelsbrünnlein. Geistliche Madrigale. Par SCHEIN JOHANN HERMANN. Tonalité : F-Dur - Horn, Paul (Arr.) - Scandrett, Robert (Trad.) - #17/ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

This work for soprano solo and SATB chorus was commissioned by the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music.Tavener:'In the Orthodox Church the Lament of the Mother of God is normally sung on Holy and Great Friday. Inits full length it lasts about half and hour and it is intoned by the Priest or Bishop while the people venerate the Epitaphios (or Shroud of the Dead Christ) which is in the centre of the church and decorated withflowers.The Lament must be sung with an ikon-like stillness and great purity. It grows in intensity as it climbs in tessitura but without anything sudden or remotely melodramatic.For the Orthodox Church there is never thesense of absolute desolation felt by the Western Church on Good Friday. Hence the cry of the Mother of God 'Dost thou change my grief to gladness by thy Resurrection?' followed by the full forces: 'Rise O God and judge theearth.'Mother of God also features in the film Philomena starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan and directed by Stephen Frears.

Aus: Italienische Madrigale. Par SCHUTZ HEINRICH. Tonalité : a-Moll - SWV 11 (op. 1 #11)/ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Aus: Italienische Madrigale. Par SCHUTZ HEINRICH. Tonalité : dorisch - SWV 15 (op. 1 #15)/ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB

Aus: Italienische Madrigale. Par SCHUTZ HEINRICH. Tonalité : dorisch - SWV 3 (op. 1 #3)/ Répertoire / Choeur SSATB