St Mary's Choir to sing first performance of a work for 100+ years
This Sunday, the choir of St Mary’s Church will be singing a work which has lain undiscovered for over a century.
The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C by Lizzie Wheeler is believed to be the first setting of the evening canticles by a woman composer, written in 1872. It was reviewed very favourably in the Musical Times and Daily Express of the time, and sung in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. But it was never republished after the first edition, and there is no record of it being sung in the 20th (or 21st!) centuries. Now, rediscovered from an archive copy in the British Library, it will be sung in Charlbury, for the first time in many years.
The canticles will be sung as part of Choral Evensong at 4pm at St Mary’s. Other music in the service, which lasts around one hour, includes Richard Ayleward’s Preces and Responses, and ‘Maranatha’ by David Ogden. All are welcome.
Richard Fairhurst · Fri 26 Nov 2021, 09:32 · Link