Post by jk on Aug 14, 2021 8:52:46 GMT
This is the fourth forum to be graced with a topic of this name (the fifth if you include the restart of my "hobby" forum). Once again, the idea is to take the weight off the "classical" thread, certainly now that BBT is my only active forum these days.
It was Silken (a name familiar to most of you) at PSF who was instrumental in getting it set up in the first place. So it's only fitting that I dedicate this first piece to her. The version I heard on the radio this morning of Cecilia McDowall's Standing as I Do Before God is the one whose CD notes I dip into below, performed by Trinity College Choir Cambridge under Stephen Layton with Anita Monserrat (soprano). As this is unavailable at YouTube, I've linked another studio version (go to YT for details).
"Standing as I do before God (2013), for soprano solo and choir, is a setting of Seán Street's reflection on words spoken by nurse Edith Cavell on the eve of her execution on 12 October 1915. After the German occupation of Brussels in November 1914, Cavell sheltered wounded British, French and Belgian soldiers and helped the Allies to escape to neutral territories. In the following year she was betrayed by an informer and arrested. She was then tried for treason and condemned to death. Recorded by the Anglican chaplain, the Reverend Stirling Graham, her last words were: 'Patriotism is not enough: I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.' These words are engraved below her statue, which stands in St Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square, in London. McDowall's piece is a sombre lament, which combines solemnity with eloquent intensity. The lonely night spent by Cavell in a German military prison before her execution by firing squad is poignantly evoked in this emotionally committed tribute to an exceptional and compassionate woman." [Source]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_McDowall
It was Silken (a name familiar to most of you) at PSF who was instrumental in getting it set up in the first place. So it's only fitting that I dedicate this first piece to her. The version I heard on the radio this morning of Cecilia McDowall's Standing as I Do Before God is the one whose CD notes I dip into below, performed by Trinity College Choir Cambridge under Stephen Layton with Anita Monserrat (soprano). As this is unavailable at YouTube, I've linked another studio version (go to YT for details).
"Standing as I do before God (2013), for soprano solo and choir, is a setting of Seán Street's reflection on words spoken by nurse Edith Cavell on the eve of her execution on 12 October 1915. After the German occupation of Brussels in November 1914, Cavell sheltered wounded British, French and Belgian soldiers and helped the Allies to escape to neutral territories. In the following year she was betrayed by an informer and arrested. She was then tried for treason and condemned to death. Recorded by the Anglican chaplain, the Reverend Stirling Graham, her last words were: 'Patriotism is not enough: I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.' These words are engraved below her statue, which stands in St Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square, in London. McDowall's piece is a sombre lament, which combines solemnity with eloquent intensity. The lonely night spent by Cavell in a German military prison before her execution by firing squad is poignantly evoked in this emotionally committed tribute to an exceptional and compassionate woman." [Source]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_McDowall