Commissioning a piece for an ensemble

[ardcarp]

Not quite: the Sumsion is the well-known anthem: They that go down to the sea in ships ?1979
Sorry to be a pedant.

You are right, of course!

the actual amount was 7 000 euros

...and in my case, nil. I've just finished arranging two of Eric Coates' works for choir (Sleepy Lagoon and, you've guessed it, the Dam Busters' March) for SSATB. Why, you ask? Well, Exeter has a small network of suburban roads named after British composers, e.g. Britten Avenue, Elgar Close, Coates Drive, and some local festival has come up with the idea of a choir walking the area and stopping at each location to sing an appropriate ditty....hopefully followed by a herd of grateful admireres. Yes, well. While choral pieces by Elgar, Britten, Parry, Purcell abound, it seems the organisers have drawn a blank at Eric Coates' choral oeuvres.

[Roger Judd]

à propos commissions that rather gloriously didn't turn out as expected, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms for the Southern Cathedrals Festival of 1965 is a classic case in point. The three Cathedral organists, Alwyn Surplice (Winchester), Christopher Dearnley (Salisbury) and John Birch (Chichester) were all greatly alarmed when the ms. arrived. Not only by the orchestration (3 trp, 3 trb, timp, 5 percussion, 2 harps and strings), but that the choirs had to learn the Hebrew - not at all what was expected, but the result ... genius! The composer's own slimming down of the orchestral score has given the piece a much greater 'usefulness'.
RJ

[Richard Barrett]

I've just finished arranging two of Eric Coates' works for choir (Sleepy Lagoon and, you've guessed it, the Dam Busters' March) for SSATB.

That is a fairly intrepid thing to take on.... what did you do for lyrics?

[ardcarp]

à propos commissions that rather gloriously didn't turn out as expected, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms for the Southern Cathedrals Festival of 1965 is a classic case in point. The three Cathedral organists, Alwyn Surplice (Winchester), Christopher Dearnley (Salisbury) and John Birch (Chichester) were all greatly alarmed when the ms. arrived. Not only by the orchestration (3 trp, 3 trb, timp, 5 percussion, 2 harps and strings), but that the choirs had to learn the Hebrew - not at all what was expected, but the result ... genius! The composer's own slimming down of the orchestral score has given the piece a much greater 'usefulness'.
RJ

I was present at an excellent performance conducted by John Birch at a SCF c. 1975 (I am a bit hazy about the exact year)) with all three choirs and a great orchestra...quite un-fazed by the scoring. JB was a brilliant all-round musician I.M.O.

[ardcarp]

what did you do for lyrics?

Do you really want to know?

Well, when I was at Prep School (in the 1950s) it was still fashionable to glorify war, and we used to sing the middle section of the Dam Buster's to (now) cringing words that I guess our music master had made up. Unbelievably I can still remember them. You asked for it:

Proudly with high endeavour
We who are young for ever
Won the freedom of the sky
We shall never die (boom boom boom)
We who have made our story
Part of our Country's glory
Know our hearts will still live on
While Britons fly.

The main bit I just set to 'Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo DOO DEE DOOO DE DOOO'

You want more? Well somebody in the current vocal ensemble came up with:

A sleepy lagoon, a tropical moon
And two on an island.


A sleepy lagoon and two hearts in one
In some lullaby land (!!!)

The fireflies' gleam reflects in a stream
They sparkle and shimmer.

A star from on high falls down from the sky
And slowly grows dimmer

The leaves from the trees all dance in the breeze
And float n the ripples.

We're deep in a spell as nightingales tell
Of roses and dew.

The memory of this moment of love
Will haunt me for ever.

A tropical moon a sleepy lagoon [and here I was itching to insert a leaky balloon]
And you.

Wish I could find the vomit emoticon.

[Richard Barrett]

'Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo DOO DEE DOOO DE DOOO'

I think that's my favourite bit

[makropulos]

à propos commissions that rather gloriously didn't turn out as expected, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms for the Southern Cathedrals Festival of 1965 is a classic case in point. The three Cathedral organists, Alwyn Surplice (Winchester), Christopher Dearnley (Salisbury) and John Birch (Chichester) were all greatly alarmed when the ms. arrived. Not only by the orchestration (3 trp, 3 trb, timp, 5 percussion, 2 harps and strings), but that the choirs had to learn the Hebrew - not at all what was expected, but the result ... genius! The composer's own slimming down of the orchestral score has given the piece a much greater 'usefulness'.
RJ

Very interesting what you say about them being "alarmed". I'm giving a talk at Chichester Cathedral on 11th May about the story of how this work was commissioned, and I have copies of all the correspondence in front of me between Bernstein and Walter Hussey. I wonder if Hussey didn't share the news about Hebrew with John Birch? Because Hussey already knew in February 1965 of Bernstein's intentions, and wrote on 2 March to say that he was quite happy with Hebrew, and that it could be "printed phonetically as in Bloch’s Sacred Service". As for the scoring, Hussey offered LB "strings" and "other players ... if you wished, for example trumpets and trombones, percussion, piano and harpsichord". So while it must have been a bit of a jolt to see two harps and five percussionists, LB wasn't wildly out of line since Hussey had offered him trumpets, trombones and percussion. When you say the "composer's own slimming down" do you mean the version for organ, harp, percussion (1 player)? It can work very well, but I'm not sure how much of the arrangement is Bernstein's work - there's no manuscript material for it in Library of Congress, which is unusual. He certainly approved it (and it was published as early as 1966) but would like to know more about the circumstances of the arrangement.

[Finzi4ever]

Do you really want to know?

Well, when I was at Prep School (in the 1950s) it was still fashionable to glorify war, and we used to sing the middle section of the Dam Buster's to (now) cringing words that I guess our music master had made up. Unbelievably I can still remember them. You asked for it:

Proudly with high endeavour
We who are young for ever
Won the freedom of the sky
We shall never die (boom boom boom)
We who have made our story
Part of our Country's glory
Know our hearts will still live on
While Britons fly.

[/SIZE]

Love the Sleepy Lagoon lyrics, but prefer the more standard: God is our Strength & Refuge hymn version for Dambusters which is in most (public school) hymnals. Perhaps this is a tad 'religious' for your secular walk through the streets of Exon. but less jingoistic for sure.