Manchester Magnificat for tenor and treble soloists, choir, piano and organ (mp3)
by David Warin Solomons
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Choir,Organ,Piano,Soprano voice,Tenor Voice - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1059353

Composed by David Warin Solomons. 20th Century,Contemporary,Praise & Worship,Spiritual. Full Performance. Duration 1074. David Warin Solomons #2836981. Published by David Warin Solomons (A0.1059353).

Score:
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20030593?aff_id=175705

One of two performances of the Manchester Magnificat: This is the later version with choir, soloists, organ and piano.
The work, based on poems by Audrey Vaughan, follows the spiritual, industrial and political history of Manchester.
Poems by Audrey Vaughan
Music by David Warin Solomons
Performed by the Budapest Scoring Choir and Treble Choir with Organist Zsolt Mészáros and Pianist Dániel Dinyés, under Zoltán Pad
Tenor soloist: József Gál
Treble soloist: Csongor Gyulai


The title of this Cantata is chosen to represent the "soul" of Manchester, which is its Cathedral, so the central point is the Cathedral,dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, St George of England and St Denys of France.
Ever since it was built, a life of prayer, intercession, worship and thanksgiving has continued within its walls. It has become the focus of the religious life, and needs, of the city of Manchester.

The opening gentle oboe solo leads us back to the earliest days of the church when - as the words of the chorus remind us - there was only a small township sharing the site above the protective loop of the river Irwell.
The days were punctuated by the regular call of the bells summoning the members of the college of priests for whom the church was built:
their vow was to praise God "from the rising of the sun to its setting" [a solis ortu usque ad occasum].
Seven times a day they assembled in the choir stalls.

In the next section, the chorus recalls the days when the view from the church was rural and the seasons ordered the agriculture.

The peace of this picture is interrupted by accented brass introducing the tenor soloist, who reminds us of the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, which radically changed the environs of the Cathedral.
The chorus joins in with visions of blast furnaces, the relentless beat of machinery in the cotton mills and the danger and suffocating dust of the coal mines which even seeped into the miners' ears and caused deafness.
The world had become obsessed by commerce and the gentle sounds of nature were replaced by the hard noise of clogs on sett-paved streets.

By 1819, Manchester had begun to grow up the hill from the Cathedral, but even so, there were still fields not very far away. One August day there was a gathering on one such field by St Peter's.
The following section evokes the massacre there, dubbed "Peterloo".  Under the sabres a child dies (treble solo: "Mother! Aaah!").

The phrase with which the tenor introduces that tragedy is reiterated for another: the Second World War;
but here the trebles represent the many prayers offered in the Cathedral, both publicly and privately, during that evil time when even the Cathedral itself suffered attack.

An organ interlude follows as we wait in hope for victory over evil. The Cathedral again takes the central place, as it was filled with praise and thanksgiving in 1945, with a crescendo of "Magnificat! To the greater glory of God".
It was for this that it was built, and for the comfort and consolation of all who still come to pray for peace and hope in the strong calm of its walls.

The biblical quotes and poems are as follows:

"Magnificat anima mea Dominum quia fecit mihi magna" ["My soul magnifies the Lord, because he has done great things for me"]


A moon-mist whispers, silver-lifting,
drifting, twining through the night-grey grasses,
seeping over Irw.

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