Event
Shakespeare Valentines – featuring the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble and Oriana Singers
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble, with guest artists The Oriana Singers and City Voices, will present the world premiere of British-born composer Peter Meechans Love Songs (Shakespeare) at a holiday-themed concert titled Shakespeare Valentines at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 10, 2018, at First United Church of Oak Park, 848 Lake St., Oak Park, Ill.
Commissioned by the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble, Love Songs (Shakespeare) is a half-hour neo-Romantic work in four movements for brass quintet, pipe organ, mixed-voice chorus, and narrator, inspired by William Shakespeares love poems, specifically, his Sonnets Nos. 43, 71, 116, and 147.
In two of the movements, choristers will sing a Shakespeare sonnet to instrumental accompaniment. In the other two movements, the narrator will read a sonnet over a background of instrumental music, similar to whats heard in Aaron Copelands Lincoln Portrait, said Rodney Holmes, founder and music director of the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble.
Another musical premiere and nod to Old England is a brief suite from English Baroque composer Henry Purcells Come Ye Sons of Art, arranged by Holmes for choir, brass, and organ.
Brass players will perform David Marlatts arrangement of a suite from Purcells semi-opera The Fairy-Queen, which Purcell adapted from Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream; and Craig Garners Gargoyle-commissioned arrangement of Gustav Holsts Song Without Words, ‘I’ll Love My Love'” from Holsts Second Suite in F for Military Band.
Unaccompanied choral music will include a set of Elizabethan-era works: John Bennets All Creatures Are Merry-Minded, Michael Cavendishs Come Gentle Swains and Thomas Weelkess As Vesta Was from Latmost Hill Descending. A set of 20th-century English choral works will include John Irelands The Hills, Ralph Vaughan Williamss Silence and Music, and Michael Tippetts Dance, Clarion Air.
Shakespeare Valentines will be the Chicago Gargoyle ensembles first-ever concert celebrating Valentines Day and the first time the group has enlisted singers for a concert of secular music.