The Sincerest form of Flattery
Simon Lindley on mirror image in composition.
Introducing a new work to a group of singers involves elements of persuasion and promotion as well as teaching the notes. Enthusiasm for the product you are charged with "selling" is also important. Sometimes, voice parts which fit, quodlibet like, around an instrumentally independent accompaniment have a translucent quality - Peter Hurford’s evergreen Herrick setting Litany to the Holy Spirit is a superb example. Maybe he would concede something of the influence of Gerald Finzi’s seamless instrumental lines as being seminal to his miniature masterpiece. Certainly it was Hurford’s formula that 1 shamelessly essayed in a short Marian piece for upper voices written 20 years ago for a Mothers’ Union Service. Germane to this conscious homage was the delight that our young singers had experienced on being introduced for the first time to the Litany to the Holy Spirit.
On articulating this tactic to choristers of a later generation in a discussion on repertoire generally over a pre-rehearsal cuppa, a challenge was laid down: "a lot of your arrangements and pieces are too bland, the gift-wrapping too carefully tied; what we like is a bit of action, drama - spectacular key changes even".
Working at that time on Sir William McKie’s effulgent Royal Wedding antiphon We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God, I was struck (as before and since) by the lovely, deft key shifts and determined to try something of the same. The result was a short anthem celebrating the Silver Wedding of a chorister parent which, besides acknowledging the McKie work, unconsciously recalls something of the magic of Sir William Harris’s superb Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men.
The 'Litany to Mary', to give the Ave Maria its published title, has found many friends in choirs of all types. Its first hearing was an evening Mothers’ Union gathering for which a choir had clearly been requested but not arranged. Nothing in the library seemed suitable for preparation at very short notice, and, with 'Hommage a Hurford' at the back of my mind, the boys were despatched for fish and chips after Evensong, returning at about 7 for Service at 7.30. A fair copy of the vocal line with a cue or two was made on a "Banda" master and a quick-witted soloist was allotted the first verse. All everyone else had to do was imitate it; the accompaniment sketched on the back of an envelope was, in effect, improvised - being written down later. The formula has been tried again (Evening Prayer -Matthew Mark, Luke and John and a choral carillon - O God my heart is ready spring to mind) and, though both have done reasonably well, neither has enjoyed the consumer support of the Litany to Mary. Maybe under pressure the urgency combines with imagination more tellingly than one realises at the time.
Panic is, clearly, a great catalyst.
User-friendly vocal music provokes vivid responses from young folk. A degree of judgement on a composer is often forthcoming from those of tender years, with occasionally devastating results for one’s morale.