Choral Music for John Piper

[jean]

The opportunity has arisen for the devising of a programme of choral music to accompany the opening of an exhibition of works by John Piper.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/john-piper

All suggestions gratefully received.

[ardcarp]

One thinks of Myfanwy Piper's collaborations with Britten. The Turn of the Screw springs to mind...but that's hardly a practical suggestion for inclusion in a concert! Piper's most visited work must be the glass in Coventry Cathedral. Again, The War Requiem might be a big ask! But anything by Britten (eg Flower Songs, Hymn to St Cecilia, Hymn to the Virgin, etc, etc) would chime in with Piper's life and times.
Sorry not to be more helpful.

[jean]

It's a good start!

Piper also did the glass in Liverpool Cathedral of course, but I don't think we can replicate the Pierre Henry Liverpool Mass.

[DracoM]

Have you talked to the Duffy bros?

I'd echo ardcarp in suggesting a Britten, esp the Flower Songs.

[Pianorak]

John Piper had strong Welsh connections, ie Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, painting trips to Snowdonia and to South Wales.

Perhaps some of Grace Williams's work: The Dancers, Choral Suite (1951); Missa Cambrensis(1971);
Ave Maris Stella, for SATB chorus a cappella; Two Psalmsfor contralto, harp and strings (1927)

[Mary Chambers]

It's a good start!

Piper also did the glass in Liverpool Cathedral of course, but I don't think we can replicate the Pierre Henry Liverpool Mass.

In Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, that is.

There should certainly be Britten. He designed almost all of Britten's operas, as well as the memorial window in Aldeburgh Church.

[jean]

Sorry - for a moment I forgot therre was another one!

[vinteuil]

.

... I think he designed some stuff for works by Alun Hoddinott - worth exploring?


.

[Pulcinella]

One thinks of Myfanwy Piper's collaborations with Britten. The Turn of the Screw springs to mind...but that's hardly a practical suggestion for inclusion in a concert! Piper's most visited work must be the glass in Coventry Cathedral. Again, The War Requiem might be a big ask! But anything by Britten (eg Flower Songs, Hymn to St Cecilia, Hymn to the Virgin, etc, etc) would chime in with Piper's life and times.
Sorry not to be more helpful.

So, various settings of the Coventry Carol would seem appropriate.

[ardcarp]

So, various settings of the Coventry Carol would seem appropriate.

...maybe especially the glorious one by Kenneth Leighton?

[Pulcinella]

...maybe especially the glorious one by Kenneth Leighton?

Indeed, but I didn't want to offend our friend on this forum who can't stand his music by naming names!

[Dafydd y G.W.]

...maybe especially the glorious one by Kenneth Leighton?

Leighton came to my mind too.

Mathias would be another composer appropriate both for the "mid-century modern" aesthetic and for the Welsh connexion.

Late Howells (the sparer more astringent style he moved towards has something of the m.c.m. about it).

[ardcarp]

I thought this was a neat summary of Piper's painting style:

http://www.artlyst.com/reviews/john-piper-effortless-mastery-of-composition-and-technique/

Interesting that he toyed with the abstract in the interwar years before moving back to the representational. One wonders if a composer who did likewise (for 'the abstract' read serialism) might chime in. Stravinskty? Bernstein? Any others??

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Interesting that he toyed with the abstract in the interwar years before moving back to the representational. One wonders if a composer who did likewise (for 'the abstract' read serialism) might chime in. Stravinskty? Bernstein? Any others??

Eh?

So ... Bernstein "toyed with the abstract (read Serialism) before moving back to the representational" (?read ... ???) did he? I must've missed that. And Stravinsky's interwar works are "toying with serialism" before he moved back to the "representational" late works, such as ... ?

[BasilHarwood]

Eh?

So ... Bernstein "toyed with the abstract (read Serialism) before moving back to the representational" (?read ... ???) did he? I must've missed that. And Stravinsky's interwar works are "toying with serialism" before he moved back to the "representational" late works, such as ... ?

What a helpful response to an interesting thread. Look how clever you are!