Composer’s new work for choir’s 50th anniversary

AN award-winning composer has written a musical work inspired by Henley.

Cecilia McDowall was commissioned by the Henley Choral Society as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations to write The Ice is Listening.

Last week, she visited the d:two centre in Market Place to give a talk about the work to members of the society and its gold friends group.

She was joined by Oxford poet Kate Wakeling, who provided the libretto, Tim Wilson, the society’s chairman, and Richard Harker, its musical director.

Ms McDowall said: “I have always known Henley and the river — my brother rowed for Leander — so I was thrilled when I was asked to create this new work.”

She explained that when she was learning to play the piano as a child she composed her first piece of music but her mother told her to “stop messing about” and instead do some practice.

When it came to writing her latest work, she and Ms Wakeling considered a wider theme of the River Thames and its history and geology. Ms Wakeling said: “The text for the first movement, Solid Waters, is drawn from a wonderful 17th century manuscript that I found in Magdalen College library in Oxford called An Historical Account of the Late Great Frost.

“It describes in marvellous detail the frost fairs of 1683 and 1864 when the Thames froze solid and all manner of ‘roasting, boyling, eating, drinking [and] rejoicing’ took place on its surface.

“The text for the second movement, The Ice is Listening, takes as its starting point a quote from the climate scientist Josh Willis: ‘When the ocean speaks, the Greenland Ice Sheet listens’. I spoke to Heather Lane, the librarian and keeper of collections at the Scott Polar Research Institute and was fascinated to be told there are air bubbles trapped in the glaciers that are 20,000 years old.

“As the glaciers melt, this is lost. This felt to me like an assault on nature and history, of course, as well as having implications for humankind.”

The third movement, Moulin, takes its name from the waterfalls that form within the ice. Ms McDowall said: “I was struck by the fact that, when a 700-year-old glacier in Iceland was officially declared ‘dead’ in 2014, when it was too thin to move, a commemorative plaque was put up with ‘a letter to the future’ on it.

“What a powerful idea. I feel we owe it to people who are going to come and listen to create something meaningful.”  

She told the audience that she writes using a pencil and manuscript paper and is not “precious” about ideas, adding: “The floor is covered in rejects.”

The event ended with the choir rehearsing the first movement for Ms McDowall.

Mr Harker said: “When we are singing existing works, you are dealing with something that has the weight of history on it. This piece is so fresh, the dust hasn’t settled.

“It has been wonderful to have Cecilia and Kate here to give us their insight and to guide us in the interpretation. We can’t wait for the performance itself.”   

The world premiere of the piece will take place in St Mary’s Church on Saturday, April 1 at 7.30pm in a concert that will also include
Vivaldi’s Gloria and Bach’s Mass in G Minor.

Tickets cost £20 for adults and £5 for under-18s and can be bought at www.henleychoralsociety.uk.org