Composers speak about Good Friday concert
The St Peter’s Cathedral Good Friday Meditation concert has become very popular with Adelaide audiences over the years.
For Good Friday 2022 (15th April 3pm), the St Peter’s Cathedral Music Foundation is supporting the premiere performances of three new works to be presented by the Cathedral Choir, from local composers Jodie O’Regan, Rachel Bruerville (Cathedral Administration Assistant 2018-2021) and Anthony Hunt (Cathedral Director of Music 2020-present).
Psalm 22 (Jodie O’Regan)
Psalm 13 (Rachel Bruerville)
Psalm 91 (Anthony Hunt)
Rachel first met Jodie in 2015 when she played cello in Jodie’s musical setting of Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester, with community choir Voices in the Wilderness (St John’s, Halifax Street). They connected as composers and singers, and are both particularly passionate about community music making.
Jodie says of her experience working with church musicians: ‘Here in Adelaide, I’ve sung with choirs associated with St John’s in the Wilderness, and for several years led the children at Crafers Church of the Epiphany. When we went to the US (2018-2020), I had a composing residency at a Presbyterian church in Nashville. Music for these services ranged from contemporary Christian rock to Thomas Tallis, so my options were wide open as a writer. This was where I wrote the first version of this Psalm 22, and although it leans more to Tallis than Christian rock, perhaps a little Nashville is in there somewhere!’
While Rachel’s new work is for the unaccompanied Cathedral Choir, and Anthony’s new work is for the Cathedral Choir and organ, Jodie’s setting of Psalm 22 is a longer-form work which also includes three soloists:
“The piece is for choir, organ, solo baritone, solo contralto, and solo handbell ringer. Emotionally the Psalm has two distinct voices – the anguished despair of the first verses contrasts with the expansive assertion of faith in the second half. I thought this would work well with two soloists, and I wanted the gravitas of a baritone voice for the despairing verses. Inspired by Mendelssohn’s Elijah where a contralto responds to Elijah’s anguish so beautifully with “O rest in the Lord”, I decided to have a contralto for the other voice.
I have written for Alex Roose (the baritone soloist) before and have great respect for his relationship to text and the dignity he radiates as a performer. I have admired the contralto Emma Woehle from afar, heard her richness as a soloist in several works, but we haven’t worked together before so I’m very excited to hear her.
Adelaide also happens to have a resident virtuosic solo handbell ringer – Ali O’Connell. I have scored for her specifically because she’s an extraordinary musician and handbells seem rare in Australia. I have been involved in choral and ensemble performances in the Cathedral and thrilled at the sound of its acoustics and its organ, so it will be wonderful to be on the congregational side of the beautiful space and hear everyone together.”
Anthony’s setting of Psalm 91 has been commissioned by the Arnold family as a 92nd birthday present for Lynn’s mother Jean Arnold. Describing the text, Anthony says:
“Psalm 91 is a great cry for protection. It begins with the statements that those who believe in God shall be protected, that God is a stronghold, and the writer of the Psalm affirms ‘My God, in him will I trust.’
So, if Jodie’s setting of Psalm 22 came originally from Nashville, and the setting of Psalm 91 by Anthony was at the request of the commissioner, what inspired Rachel to set Psalm 13 as a Good Friday piece?
Rachel has an honest and practical answer to this question: ‘When Anthony Hunt approached me about writing a new piece for Good Friday, he asked me – “Are you interested? Do you have time?!” – he himself very aware that working composers in Adelaide are very busy people! I answered – “I would love to make time for this even though I don’t have much time… I would also love for you / the Dean / someone from the Cathedral to please choose the text for me, as searching for text is a very time-consuming process!”
So, although the initial appeal of the text was the appeal of efficiency, I had complete confidence in Ant to choose meaningful text for this context. He came back with Psalm 13:3 – Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death. – sung in Latin. Setting just the single verse of the Psalm has allowed me to distil the focus to what I see as the core message – pleading – hear me, O Lord.’
A composer’s creative process can be a mysterious thing, sometimes even to the composer themselves! Jodie asked Rachel about her process: ‘When I write, I start by figuring out a palette of ideas. Do you do something similar? And if so, what was your palette for this psalm?’
Rachel: ‘I sometimes wish that I had a standard sort of process for composing, as Jodie describes! I love the idea of the “palette”, in that it implies exploring a number of possible directions for a piece to go. The way that Psalm 13 unfolded, however, was based on a single idea – one single, chant-like vocal line – which then developed around itself. I probably could have tested out some more ideas, however, time was of the essence!’
Jodie also asked Rachel specifically about writing for singers: ‘Do you think being a professional choral alto influences how you write for choir, and in particular, for the inner parts?’
Rachel: ‘I absolutely think it does, in that I will put myself in all my singers’ places. In the process of writing for choirs of any standard, I will always sing out loud – soprano, alto, tenor, bass parts – sadly I’m limited to my own octave (I’ve always wanted to be a bass), but even so, I need to know that each part will flow as naturally as possible, and I feel that fellow singers appreciate this. Some composers may find this limiting as compared to instrumental writing, but it’s something I really value and enjoy, and that I think results in a more “accessible” final product (and both Jodie and I don’t think of the word accessible as a negative one!)’
Finally, on the subject of text setting for composers, Rachel asked Jodie: ‘Do you approach your text setting differently for something like Psalms or standard liturgical texts which have been set many times by different composers, versus brand new text that you might write yourself or have commissioned by a living writer?’
Jodie: ‘With new text, the audience of course doesn’t know the story, so I think clear delivery of text has to be the highest priority – I approach setting the text the way an actor prepares delivering lines. But with liturgical text, people not only already know the words but often have deep personal and shared connections to the words. This means on the one hand I don’t need to focus on making sure every word is clear, I can instead work with the sounds in the text to support the underlying emotions of the words rather than the literal meaning. But also, I need to be cognizant and respectful of people’s connections to the text.
I have been at Good Friday services where people have wept during readings of Psalm 22, and that was on my mind when I was setting this piece. I drew on ideas from The Messiah, Elijah, Adagio for Strings, Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil and (surprise!) Bohemian Rhapsody, but I didn’t listen to other composers’ settings of the Psalm because I needed a clear head. I don’t know if you feel like this Rachel, but when listening to the great works of the great composers setting the exact text I am going to set, I can feel like, well, that’s so sublime and completely fills my head so that I can’t imagine any other way to do it.’
Rachel: ‘Yes, it’s often hard to get those more well-known versions out of my head – there is certainly a difference in being positively influenced by previous work and unintentionally engaging in plagiarism... Fortunately, I’d never heard any settings of Psalm 13:3, and like you I decided not to seek them out this time – perhaps I will after the premiere!’
Jodie, Rachel and Anthony are very much looking forward to hearing their new music for the first time on Good Friday, and are incredibly grateful to the Cathedral and Music Foundation for their support of living composers.
The concert on Friday 15th at 3pm is open to all, no bookings required.