Horsham Chamber Choir promises feast of spiritual and meditative music

SussexWorld

Horsham Chamber Choir’s autumn concert promises a feast of spiritual and meditative compositions combining contrasting musical styles as well as an exercise in modulation by the choir.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. It's always

00:06a huge pleasure to speak to Timothy Peters, who is the Music Director of Horsham Chamber

00:11Choir. Now Tim, you've got a fantastic sounding concert coming up, St Mary's Church in the

00:15Causeway in Horsham at 4.30 on Saturday, November the 9th. Now I know that you always like to

00:22challenge your choir, don't you? You like to push things a little bit. What are you

00:26getting them to do for this time? Well, you know me so well! I mean, yeah, I've taken

00:34the choir on quite the journey over the last couple of years and arguably we're going for

00:39something a little bit more traditional, arguably. So we've got two masses for this concert.

00:45We've got a mass by Arvo Pärt, which is the Berliner Messer, and Kodály's Miser Brevis.

00:52Can you tell me about the challenges individually of those two? Why are those good ones to do?

00:57So, well, you're right, they're challenging because they contrast so much. So if a choir

01:06just had, it's quite common for a choir to have a mass in a concert, and that means you've

01:12got the same kind of material for the entire concert, but these two are so different. The

01:17Pärt's Berliner Messer was written kind of in memory of the falling of the Berlin Wall,

01:24and it's a very, very spiritual piece. It's usually a composition style I'll talk about

01:30a bit later, but the Kodály, conversely, was written during World War Two, and it's

01:37very, I guess I could describe it as being quite cinematic. There's lots of kind of fireworks

01:43and flares and sort of deep sort of darkness in there as well, whereas the Pärt sort of

01:48sits on this ethereal plane.

01:50Sounds fantastic. Now, how long have you been the music director now?

01:56So this is the end of my second year.

01:59Wow. And is the choir going in the direction you want? It sounds like you're really enjoying

02:04it, and I'm sure they are too.

02:06Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we've been having quite the rise. Yeah, I've been challenged

02:11with lots of different things. When I started, I was sort of getting to know what their strengths

02:16were, and they've trusted me, and we've taken them on quite some crazy journeys. But as

02:23I say, this is going for a bit more solemnity in this one, so we're not sort of going out

02:28in too many crazy directions.

02:30Absolutely. So what are the ambitions with the choir as you look ahead into 2025?

02:35Well, sadly, I don't know if anybody's told you, but I'm leaving after Christmas.

02:40I didn't know that.

02:41Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

02:42What's that?

02:43That's the headline. So my partner and I are going for a slightly slower pace of life back

02:47in Sheffield. So yeah, that's the sad news, but that's exclusive for you.

02:52So when will the last concert for you be?

02:57That'll be our Christmas concert, The Carols, in December.

03:01Right. We'll have to do the proper valedictory interview when that one comes. Sorry to hear,

03:06but it's always been great fun to speak to you about what you're doing with the choir.

03:10Yeah, well, thanks. Yeah, I've got a couple more things to say about this concert, if that's OK.

03:16Oh, please do. Please do.

03:18Yeah, yeah, sure. So we've got these two masses in there, but there's also, I alluded to earlier,

03:26but the Pet uses a compositional style that I just want to sort of highlight, because he's

03:32sort of moved away from it now a little bit. It's something called tintinabuli. It's a very

03:36exciting word. It gets you many points in Scrabble. And it basically refers to a bell-like

03:44composition style. And you essentially have two melody lines. I won't go into too much detail,

03:49but it has this, it's almost quite minimalistic and it goes throughout the entire mass.

03:54And so, as you are also alluding to, we don't always have completely normal concerts.

04:00So I've sort of responded to this tintinabuli style as well in the concert. So there's a couple

04:06of other things in there where I've responded to the tintinabuli, and I've come up with a

04:12compositional method as well. So far, I'm calling it the mantra method. And it's basically a

04:17generative style of composition, and the audience are going to be able to write the music as they

04:21come into the concert. They can contribute to the sheet as they come in, and then the choir

04:28will perform. I won't explain too much, but you'll have to be there for the concert.

04:33Something fabulously different in there, would it?

04:38Well, I'll take that as a compliment.

04:39It is intended as a compliment.

04:43Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I'm sort of trying, I'm keeping it in that sort of spiritual realm for

04:48this mantra method thing, which the audience can write. And you'll see how it works, but it,

04:56yeah, sort of evokes a sort of meditative style, and it will help sort of be a modern sort of

05:01response to that tintinabuli, because that was written in 1990, I believe, the Berliner Messe.

05:08So, well, it sounds a wonderful concert. Really lovely to speak to you,

05:11and looking forward to chatting about that Christmas one. Thank you.

05:15Thank you so much. Cheers. See you a bit later.

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