The Song of Songs, or The Song of Solomon, is an erotic love poem in the Old Testament and a source of inspiration for composers through the ages.
For Cantores’ summer concerts, conductor John Holloway has chosen music from the Renaissance and our own time featuring settings of words from the poem. The concerts are in Highnam Parish Church on Saturday 24 June, and in Cirencester Parish Church on Saturday 1 July; both at 7.30pm.
The central piece is the mass for double choir “Ego Flos Campi” by Juan Gutierrez de Padilla, a Spanish composer born in Malaga in 1590 but who spent most of his life in Mexico. There are definite Latin American flavours in his music. The same words, as set by Venetian composer Francisco Guerrero (b. 1528), will make for an interesting comparison. Two further motets, one by Guerrero and the other by Spanish polyphonic genius Tomas Luis de Victoria, make up the Renaissance section of the programme.
Bridging a gulf of several centuries, we come to two settings of “My beloved spake”, one by Patrick Hadley and the other by John Sanders, organist at Gloucester Cathedral until quite recently. Alongside these comes William Walton’s famous 1938 setting of “Set me as a seal upon thine heart”.
John Holloway is a composer, as well as conductor of Cantores and Tewkesbury Choral Society, and we are very pleased to be giving another performance of “The Garden”, which he first wrote for Cantores in 2009. And John Wright, an old friend of the choir, will complement the choral works with some solo organ pieces.
So do come! It promises to be an interesting concert, with some familiar and some lesser known pieces to delight your ears.