Music and conflict

Take a close look at this picture. The cheeky chappy, smiling fourth from the right in the second row, is Lance Corporal Cardy. our own Karen Cardy’s grandad. I’m sure many of you will have wondered about relatives who fought in both world wars – those who came back, and those who didn’t. Our concert on Saturday night, 10th March, is a chance to remember them.

The last piece in the concert is a beautiful arrangement by Nigel Short – of Tenebrae fame – of an American Civil War ballad – The Dying Soldier. Barry Flutter sings it beautifully.

Written centuries apart, Palestrina’s and Martin’s masses for double choir both speak of conflict in their own way. Palestrina apparently wrote his Missa Papae Marcelli for the Council of Trent as a plea for the continued use of polyphony in the liturgy, the success of which saw Palestrina hailed “the saviour of church music”. Martin famously wrote his ethereal Mass for Double Choir in a fervour of religious conflict, never intending it to be performed. It is one of the most seering eloquant and emotional mass settings ever written.

Do come!

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