Music for Galway and Galway 2020 present Abendmusik: Resounding Landscape

~ Glorious music by Handel and Purcell with a world premiere by Rhona Clarke ~

Music for Galway with Galway 2020 is buoyed up to present Abendmusik: Resounding Landscape, following the warm and enthusiastic reception its inaugural Abendmusik concert received in October. The second, in this new series of vocal and choral concerts, will be live-streamed from St. Nicholas Church Galway on Sunday, 22 November / 7pm.

The delightful programme of music features HENRY PURCELL Welcome to all the pleasures, a world premiere of RHONA CLARKE's O Vis Aeternitatis, and GEORGE FREDERIC HANDEL Dixit Dominus.

Falling on the feast of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, the opening ode of the concert Welcome to all the pleasures, was the first of a number of works by Purcell, at the behest of the Musical Society of London, to celebrate the saint's feast day. Christopher Fishburn wrote the text which celebrates music as divinely inspired, and Purcell’s youthfully exuberant setting was an immediate sensation with the public.

Fishburn’s ode sets the tone for the whole programme, which alludes to the Galway 2020 theme of landscape. We are invited to consider our landscape – our earthly domain – resounding not just to music, but to the vibrations of divinity present in our world.

This incarnational perception of music is mirrored in Hildegard’s vision of the Word dressed as flesh, “divinity breathed into being”, and dramatically expressed in Rhona Clarke’s new motet O vis aeternitatis which uses not just Hildegard’s text but fragments of her original melody.

The programme ends as it began, with another work of youthful effervesence: Dixit Dominus. Handel responds with relish to the violence and drama of psalm 110, which he wrote at 22 whilst in Italy. The dazzling display of virtuoso lines for both voices and instruments must have astonished the Roman public at the time but there are also moments of sublime stillness, in which can be sensed the prophetic nature of the text.

Speaking about the Resounding Landscape programme, Mark Duley, creator of the Abendmusik series, said:

"In our current circumstance, it is good to be reminded by Fishburn in his text that “in music, we find relief from sorrow and grief”. And we can salute the venerable building of St. Nicholas church where for 700 years music has resounded and prayer has been valid: “Hail to this Happy Place, the Ark of Universal Harmony”.

For further media information:
Mary Folan, Publicist, mobile 0863927081 / email [email protected]

Music for Galway with Galway 2020 presents

ABENDMUSIK: RESOUNDING LANDSCAPE

To be streamed live from St. Nicholas Church, Galway
Sunday, 22 November 2020
Time: 7pm

Programmme
Resurgam | Irish Baroque Orchestra | Peter Whelan, director

HENRY PURCELL Welcome to all the pleasures

RHONA CLARKE O Vis Aeternitatis (premiere)

GEORGE FREDERIC HANDEL Dixit Dominus

Booking: €12 tickets for the live stream link can be purchased online at www.musicforgalway.ie