Composers

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Duration: 35 minutes

As the Proms season begins, Aled Jones discovers how many of the nation's favourite hymns have been influenced by Britain's best-known composers, including Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He finds out who composed the inspirational tunes associated with I Vow to Thee My Country and Jerusalem, and John Rutter talks about the impact of the church on his own music.

Last on

Sun 19 Jul 2009 16:55 BBC Two only on Scotland

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  • Songs of Praise factsheet for Sunday 19 July 2009

    Composers
    Presented by Aled Jones

  • Interviews:

    BRIAN KAY has become one of the nation's favourite broadcasters. He is the Festival Conductor of the Leith Hill Musical Festival.
    Related website: http://www.trbc.co.uk/conductors2.php?condid=3

    ANDREW CLARKE is a local historian. He lives near Thaxted and is a member of the Foxearth and District Local History Society. His article about Holst in Thaxted, entitled I Ring for the General Dance can be found on the Society's website at http://www.foxearth.org.uk/holst.html

    JOHN RUTTER is known as one of the world's most successful composers of sacred music. He spoke to Songs of Praise about how the church and the hymns he heard as a young boy in school assemblies have had a profound effect on his music.
    Related website: http://www.oup.co.uk/music/repprom/rutter/

    JEREMEY DIBBLE Professor of Music at Durham University spoke to Aled about the life and work of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.
    Related website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/jeremy.dibble/

    PAUL SPICER is one of the leading choirtrainers in the UK.
    Related website: http://www.paulspicer.com/

  • Music:

    Hymn: Come Down, O Love Divine
    Tune: Down Ampney
    Music: Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872-1958)
    Words: Bianco da Siena, d. 1434. Tr. Littledale, R. F.

    Hymn: My Song is Love Unknown
    Tune: Love unknown
    Music: John Ireland (1879-1962) Words: Samuel Crossman (1624-83 or 84)

    Hymn: For All The Saints
    Tune: Sine Nomine
    Music: Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872-1958)
    Words: Bishop How, W W (1823-97)

    Hymn: I Vow To Thee My Country
    Source: BBC Songs of Praise Hymnbook #380
    Tune: Thaxted
    Music: Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
    Words: Cecil Spring –Rice (1859-1918)
    Arranger: Geoff Ellerby

    Hymn: Jesus My Lord, My God My All
    Music: Elgar
    Words: Henry Collins, 1854
    Arranger: Andrew Earis

    Hymn: The Lord Bless and Keep You
    Music: John Rutter
    Arranger: John Rutter
    Publisher: Oxford University Press

    Hymn: The Long Day Closes
    Music: Arthur Sullivan
    Words: Henry Fothergill Chorley

    Hymn: And Did Those Feet in Ancient Times
    Source: SOP Hymnbook #375 pg 700-7 Oxford University Press ISBN 0191473251
    Tune: Jerusalem
    Music: C Hubert H Parry (1848-1918)
    Words: William Blake (1757-1827)
    Arranger: Paul Leddington Wright

  • Performers:

    Aberdeen University Chapel Choir
    The Arnold Singers, Rugby School
    The Coventry Singers
    The King's Singers
    Choir and Congregation of St Mary's, Primrose Hill
    St Sepulchre Singers

  • Organists:

    Brian Almond
    Andrew Jones
    Tim Byram-Wigfield
    Max Pappenheim
    Emma Gibins

  • Featured composers:

    John Ireland
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Gustav Holst
    Sir Edward Elgar
    John Rutter
    Sir Arthur Sullivan
    Hubert Parry

Credits

Presenter
Aled Jones
Participant
John Rutter
Producer
Jennifer Page
Executive Producer
Tommy Nagra

Broadcasts

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