Issue 38 Summer web 23 - Flipbook - Page 95
The pandemic drove the troupe online: first with
Bloomsbury Festival at Holy Cross, in a live broadcast of
Petite Messe solennelle in Rossini’s original chamber setting for just 16 musicians. Then recently with a double
bill of architectural films for Temple Bar Trust – the new
tenants of Wren’s Gateway at its home in Paternoster
Square - also ‘online’.
A current focus of Peter Murray and the trustees for
Temple Bar at Paternoster Square being the Sir Christopher Wren Dining Club, ArchiCantiores is opening up
the initiative with “Music to Dine For” evenings:
canapés, performance, and wine tasting for just 16 person
audiences in the ancient upper room. Started on 25th
April, “Coronations & Monarchs” followed the Tudor &
Jacobean coronation processions through the City into
the coronations at Westminster Abbey. 20th June will
present Wren with Purcell in “A Fairy Queen for
MidSummer”: November 28th then “A Baroque Christmas” for the last tercentenary shout as Wren’s style finally
gave in to the Neo-Classical age in London.
Circling around the heart of the Roman City (the
Barbican fort) - and the Saxon town (the foundation
chapel of St Paul’s cathedral) up to the present day, the
films trace the story of architectural places within the
Square Mile through the voices & music that Londoners
will have heard at the time of each architectural
development. “London: This City is Made for Music” will
become available later this year.
The Wren300 and Charles III coronation performances
commenced at Fishmongers’ Hall for the Architects’
Company Livery Banquet with newly-written words by
ArchiCantuor to the Jacobean Broadsheet tune,
Packington’s Pound. “The Master’s Tribute” celebrates
the Architects’ Company competition for an Eco-Pavilion
and honours the 1660 texts for the Restoration of the
Monarchy; “We shall exploit that this year to the
uttermost’” concludes Louth with Wyllie’s approbation,
“along with William Byrd’s 400th anniversary.”
Nearly all of the 65 music tracks – Old Roman Chant to
C21st composers - have been newly recorded, including
Michael Berkeley’s 400th anniversary work for the
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries “Heare us, Heare us,
Lord” with organ and Cecilia McDowall’s motet “Deus,
Portus pacis”. The composers attended their recording
session, Michael ‘online’ and Cecilia in person. The
sessions brought together both collaborating musical
directors, Ben Saul and Douglas Tang who hold the forces
together when the engagement demands more than solo
voice ensemble.
Sign up for the Mailchimp with an e-mail to
archicantiores@hotmail.com; and if you have a bright
idea for closing a large funding gap in the City Made for
Music post-production budget, please do drop us a line.
All advices gratefully received.
That focus on the “period of the event” came to the fore
when Hugh Wedderburn and fellow carvers engaged
ArchiCantiores to animate four reception-exhibitions
with the Master Carvers’ Association: titled “Patron and
Maker”, seven MCA carvers had created bespoke music
stands in honour of Thomas Chippendale Snr’s tercentenary. For the second time, ArchiCantiores had commissioned a poem from Paul Munden, “Quartet”, set to music
by ArchiCantuor. It was their convener, Marion Wyllie,
who hit upon the plural moniker for these performances.
MCA then generated the hugely successful Grinling
Gibbons Society, whose seminal tercentenary exhibition
at Bonhams and Compton Verney was mirrored during
2021 by MCA exhibitions in Dalkeith Palace and York’s
Merchant Adventurers’ Hall as well as the Dutch Church
and St Mary Abchurch in the City: ArchiCantiores
performed a hinterland narrative in each location. Ben
Harms’ carved hummingbird inspired a new poem
from Oliver Comins, “The Hummingbird was an
afterthought”, which MCA exhibited with Paul Munden’s
commissioned poem “A Linden Antiphon”.
Set to music by two composers in 2021 and part of the
“City Made For Music” films, Munden’s poem evokes
Wren’s stone pillars and Grinling Gibbons’ quirestalls in
St Paul’s Cathedral: so ArchiCantiores is rolling out both
the poem and the settings during this Wren300 year
whenever possible.
Above, ArchiCantiores premiere of The Master’s Tribute for the
Architects’ Company banquet at Fishmongers’ Hall - Credit Stuart Le Sage
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