Choirs across the diocese are gearing up for performances during Advent, including a thriving singing group in Settle who are borrowing the parish church.
Langcliffe Singers, under the baton of Musical Director Nigel Waugh and accompanied by Brian Heaton, will be performing a concert of English music on Saturday December 7, at 7 p.m. in Settle Parish Church, featuring works by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The first half of the concert will have a Shakespearian feel, including ‘In Windsor Forest’, a compilation of five choruses adapted from his opera, ‘Sir John in Love’, written between 1924 and1928.
The words of the latter piece are largely from Shakespeare’s ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, although the third section includes texts by Thomas Ravenscroft and John Lyly.
The second half of the concert will include ‘Fantasia on Christmas Carols’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
This lovely piece links three well-known carols – ‘This is the truth sent from above’, ‘Come all you worthy gentlemen’ and ‘On Christmas night all Christians sing’ – into one piece for choir and bass soloist.
All three of the carols were rediscovered by Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp just a few years before this piece was composed.
It will be complemented by a range of Christmas carols.
The concert will also include songs and readings of Shakespeare’s words by individuals and groups from within the choir.
Tickets are available from Capella (Town Hall, Settle), Bentham Post Office, Moorey's (Skipton High Street), online at www.langcliffesingers.org.uk and on the door.