November 12, 2018, Langley, BC: Trinity Western University’s Music Department within its School of the Arts, Media + Culture presents A Remarkable Stillness—an evening of British Cathedral music from the 15th to the 21st centuries. Tickets: $10 General Admission (available through Eventbrite or cash at the door), students pay-what-you-can. Contact: music@twu.ca. www.twu.ca/music.
Like the gentle play of light cast through stained glass, the choral repertoire of A Remarkable Stillness evokes all the prismatic hues of the resurrection story. “Anyone familiar with Christian liturgical tradition would be accustomed to how wide the pendulum swings between darkness and light, highs and lows, when we retell the complete narrative of the gospel story,” says conductor Joel Tranquilla, DMA, TWU Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music.
A treat for both choral music fans and those new to the genre, the program stitches together a fairly comprehensive history of British cathedral music, featuring works from Renaissance to contemporary times.
Much like the soaring buttresses of the cathedrals in which it is often performed, British choral music was created to draw the focus heavenward. “There is remarkable capacity in the human voice to portray both joy and suffering, playfulness and heaviness of heart,” says Tranquilla. “It can raise the hairs on our arms but also calm or excite the emotions—much like a great concept album or compelling film.”
Performed by Trinity Western University’s Chamber Singers, a 16-member auditioned ensemble of advanced choral students, the evening’s repertoire features a mix of the quirky and the traditional. It includes selections from choral favourites Benjamin Britten, Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Herbert Howells—with Britten’s colourful, Rejoice in the Lamb, based on the eccentric writings of imprisoned 19th-century poet Christopher Smart—anchoring the program.
The performance will feature British-born organist Edward Norman, Trinity Western’s Instructor of Music, Organ, on the pipe organ. Norman is the former organist for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
A REMARKABLE STILLNESS
Friday, November 16 | 7:30 PM
Emmanuel Free Reformed Church
3366 Mount Lehman Road, Abbotsford
Tickets: $10 general admission (available through Eventbrite or cash at the door), students pay-what-you-can.
Contact: music@twu.ca
For more information:
Angela Lee
Trinity Western University
t: 604.513.2027 x3191
e: angela.lee@twu.ca