Quakerism and Choral Music

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There is no singing or music of any kind in a standard Quaker meeting. This has been the case since the Society of Friends (Quakers) began in the mid-17th century. However, this does not mean that Quakers shun music altogether. There are several Quaker Schools around the country, and the standard of music in this has been consistently high in most of them. In 1984, a choir and orchestra was formed to perform Tony Biggin's commissioned peace choral drama "The Gates of Greenham". The work was premiered in the spring of 1985 to a capacity audience in the Royal Festival on Easter Monday, 1985. This was followed in 1988 by a second choral drama by Tony Biggin "The Cry of the Earth".

Recently, I became aware of a new Quaker choral work, "A Quaker Triilogy". I understand that it's to be performed in March 2024 in York. I'm hoping to discover more about this, but if any York-based forumists can shed a bit more light, it woud be appreciated.

[mopsus]

Donald Swann was a Friend - I have recently performed his Requiem for the Living, which sets poetry by Cecil Day Lewis in keeping with his pacifist views.

[Pulcinella]

As a York-based forum member closely involved with A Quaker Trilogy, I'm happy to give some background.

The trilogy is the result of a collaboration between The Micklegate Singers (the choir I sing in) and the Music Department at the University of York. Thanks to a (generous) donation to the choir, we were able to commission three pieces, based on a reflection by William Penn that is often read at Quaker Memorial Meetings (and which I'll include in the next post).

The original idea was to commission and sing a piece each year for three years; we were all ready to go with the first piece in March 2020 when Covid struck, but we persevered with the collaboration, and the other two composers were selected, the pieces were written, and now all three have had their first performance.

We were delighted when University of York Music Press (UYMP) agreed to publish the work as a set, and it has just been released, following some work over summer by one of the composers to get all three in a consistent 'typesetting' style. The three composers were all graduate students in the department, and both they and the choir were delighted with this boost to their careers.

As Alpie has hinted, we are singing all three in our concert in York on 23 March 2024, and there will also be an event in the York Festival of Ideas, on 8 June 2024, when the three composers will take part in a round-table discussion (we hope chaired by Nicola LeFanu, the current chair of UYMP) to talk about their compositions.

As the commissioner (sounds like someone out of Death in Paradise!) writes in his introduction:

Each has been loved by the choir and audiences for the distinctive musical world that it creates. Each is haunting in its own way.

They are pieces that give voice to grief without the maudlin and sometimes false emotions that might come from a mass or the hymn singing at a funeral in a secular age, where overtly Christian words don't quite seem to fit with the complex emotions felt inside. The pieces also provide comfort and consolation through their beauty and their reminder to us that the departed live within us still. They remind us too, perhaps, that religious belief and spirituality are not necessarily the same thing.

We would love the pieces to be performed elsewhere.
They are available (at only £3.95 for the set) here:

https://uymp.co.uk/publications/a-quaker-trilogy

[Pulcinella]

Here is the text on which the set is based.

This is the Comfort of the Good,
that the Grave cannot hold them,
and that they live as soon as they die.
For Death is no more
than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
Death, then, being the way and condition of Life,
we cannot love to live,
if we cannot bear to die.

They that love beyond the World, cannot be separated by it.
Death cannot kill what never dies.
Nor can Spirits ever be divided
that love and live in the same Divine Principle,
the Root and Record of their Friendship.
If Absence be not Death, neither is theirs.

Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas;
they live in one another still.
For they must needs be present,
that love and live in that which is Omnipresent.
In this Divine Glass, they see Face to Face;
and their Converse is Free, as well as Pure.


William Penn (1693)

[gradus]

Thanks for posting that, I'd not come across it before.

[Pulcinella]

Hoping to give some extra life to this thread, I did a bit of Googling (duckducking, actually!) and came across this article.

https://quakerarts.net/2019/03/09/the-history-of-quakers-and-music/

[Keraulophone]

"...their reminder to us that the departed live within us still. They remind us too, perhaps, that religious belief and spirituality are not necessarily the same thing."

Such thoughts were pushed very much to the fore of my mind during my recent month in India, particularly in Kerala, South India. St Thomas brought Christianity, as did the Portuguese, Dutch and British later on, to a land where Hindus and Muslims, plus some Sikhs and Buddhists, already coexisted in harmony and mutual respect. Keralans seemed to share a common spirituality, lived out in everyday life, while maintaining their own religious traditions. Different believers often share each others' festivals, especially the more elaborate ones involving elephant processions and the like.

I found it all very inspiring.


At Chithirapuram, Kerala, S.India

[Pulcinella]

Here is a link to the York Festival of Ideas event previously mentioned.
It would be great to meet you if you're able to attend.

https://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2024/calendar/a-quaker-trilogy/