REQUIEM FOR UNSUNG HEROES
 

Welcome 

Welcome to our joint autumn concert featuring new music for choir and wind orchestra in an exciting collaboration between The Sheffield Chorale and Yorkshire Wind Orchestra. The programme includes Requiem for Unsung Heroes by Sheffield-based composer Sue Hughes and three pieces by Keiron Anderson, Yorkshire Wind Orchestra’s musical director. As well as combined works, both the choir and the orchestra will perform some individual pieces showcasing their different sound worlds. The music is both reflective and relevant, dealing with important existential themes of loss and grief. Some of the best music has its roots in sadness and this evening promises to be a memorable one with many beautiful melodies, textures and soundscapes. 

 

Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens: Maurice Duruflé

1.           Ubi Caritas
2.           Tota Pulchra es
3.           Tu es Petrus
4.           Tantum Ergo

 
Ave Maris Stella: Diane Loomer

The Call: Gail Randall

Crossing the Bar: Craig McLeish

October: Eric Whitacre

Lux Perpetua: Frank Ticheli

Prayer Before Birth: Keiron Anderson

INTERVAL

Children of the World: Keiron Anderson

Path to Remembrance: Keiron Anderson

Requiem for Unsung Heroes: Sue Hughes

1.           Requiem Aeternam
2.           Ode to the Unsung Heroes Moira Cameron
3.           Kyrie Eleison/Christe Eleison
4.           Dies Irae
5.           Lacrimosa
6.           They were Brave Masha Bennett
7.           Sanctus and Benedictus
8.           Pie Jesu
9.           Agnus Dei
10.        In Paradisum/Do not Stand at my Grave and Weep Mary Elizabeth Frye

 

Programme Notes

Maurice Duruflé: Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens

1.           Ubi Caritas
2.           Tota Pulchra es
3.           Tu es Petrus
4.           Tantum Ergo

Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens (Four motets on Gregorian themes), Op. 10 are four sacred motets composed by Maurice Duruflé in 1960. Duruflé composed the motets based on Gregorian themes, as he had done before in his Requiem of 1948. He set Latin texts, scored for unaccompanied voices: a mixed choir in Nos. 1, 3 and 4, and a women's choir in No. 2.

The text for the first motet is Ubi caritas et amor ("Where charity and love are"), an antiphon for Maundy Thursday. Tota pulchra es ("Thou art all fair") is a text from Vespers for the Marian Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The text for the third motet, Tu es Petrus ("Thou art Peter"), addressing Simon as Peter the Apostle, is taken from Matthew 16:18. The last motet is based on Tantum ergo, the conclusion of the Pange lingua by St. Thomas Aquinas.

A reviewer notes:- "Here Duruflé shows his particular genius for invoking the spiritual element of plainsong in a polyphonic context, achieving a suppleness of rhythm alongside strong characterisation of each text."


Diane Loomer: Ave Maris Stella

Soloist: James Goto

The Canadian composer, Diane Loomer, (1940-2012) became internationally recognised as one of Canada’s leading musicians, frequently appearing on CBC national radio as a spokesperson for the classical arts. She was the first woman to conduct the National Youth Choir of Canada.  Ave Maris Stella is a favourite Nova Scotia Latin canticle with a simple harmonic arrangement.

Gail Randall: The Call

Soloist: Katie O’Flaherty

Born in Coventry in 1955, Gail Randall studied flute, piano and singing at Trinity College of Music, London and is a Graduate and Fellow of the College. After a career in education and performing as a flautist, retirement provided more time to further interests of church work and composition.  A self-taught composer, her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and sung by choirs in the UK, USA and Canada.

The call, the call.  Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life.  Such a Way, as gives us breath: Such a Truth, as ends all strife; Such a life, that killeth death.  Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength.  Such a Light, as shows a feast: Such a Feast, as mends in length; Such a Strength, as makes his guest.  Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart: Such a Joy, as none can move: Such a Love, as none can part; Such a Heart, as joys in Love.  George Herbert.

Craig McLeish: Crossing the Bar

Crossing the Bar is Craig McLeish’s specially commissioned piece to support the RNLI’s bicentenary celebrations in 2024.

Tennyson wrote this poem in 1889, while crossing the Solent from Aldworth to Farringford on the Isle of Wight, apparently while recovering from a serious illness. The extended metaphor he uses really spoke to the composer about how close we are to death whenever we are on the sea, and how extraordinarily brave anyone is who risks their own lives while trying to save others. Tennyson asked his son Hallam to put “Crossing the Bar” At the end of every collection of his poems.

It is even more poignant for Craig, as it is dedicated to his brother, who died recently from pancreatic cancer.

It is a calm 4-part piece in homophonic style with a few harmonic twists.

Eric Whitacre: October

Commissioned by the Nebraska Wind Consortium, October was composed in 2000. October is the composer's favourite month of the year, and he set out to create a musical representation of the month and the feelings it evokes. Eric Whitacre explains: "Something about the crisp autumn air and the subtle changes in light always make me a little sentimental, and as I started to sketch I felt the same quiet beauty in the writing. The simple, pastoral melodies and the subsequent harmonies are inspired by the great English Romantics (Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar), as I felt this style was also perfectly suited to capture the natural and pastoral soul of the season."
 

Frank Ticheli: Lux Perpetua

Frank Ticheli is particularly well known for his distinctive concert band compositions, several of which have become established pieces in the repertoire. He has won many awards and prizes for his compositions, and Lux Perpetua was no exception. Composed in 2020, the piece won the National Band Association / William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest the following year.

Lux Perpetua was written in memory of two student clarinettists, Laura Onwudinanti and Jack Stewart, both members of the Baylor University Wind Ensemble, who tragically lost their lives together in a road accident. The piece reflects their different personalities, Jack introspective and thoughtful, and Laura more outgoing and spontaneous.

The Latin title Lux Perpetua is taken from the Lux Aeterna movement of the Requiem Mass and means ‘perpetual light’ in the phrase ‘et lux perpetua luceat eis’ or ‘let perpetual light shine upon them’. Ticheli explains that he sees this light as both protecting and illuminating, and that two kinds of light illuminate the piece, one soft and meditative and the other sparkling and effervescent.

The music begins gently and reflectively with a calm three note motif in the clarinets, before building in overlapping waves. A longer melody emerges, full of longing and emotion, underpinned by shifting harmonies before growing stronger and more emphatic. A second theme appears, this one more urgent and exuberant, developing into an epic melody and then a moving climax. The music calms gradually and the piece fades away to a sung chord, suggesting timelessness and eternity.

Keiron Anderson: Prayer Before Birth

Prayer Before Birth was composed for Wind Orchestra and 4-part choir with the greatest respect for the underlying meaning of this passionate poetry. This is a musical setting of the Louis MacNiece poem of the same name. The poem was written during the Second World War at a time of great turmoil and is still relevant today, reflecting the emotional ups and downs of the text. The dramatic monologue takes the reader into the womb of an anonymous mother and is written for her child who is not yet born, expressing her fears for the future, and is an open attack on modern civilisation.

Prayer Before Birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.
 
I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.
 
I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.
 
I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak to me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.
 
I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.
 
I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.
 
I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.
 
Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.

Louis MacNeice


- INTERVAL -
 

Keiron Anderson: Children of the World

Dedicated to the Children of the World, this is an environmental shout out for children and adults everywhere about the future. The music and original lyrics by Keiron Anderson predate the schoolchildren strikes of 2019. A gently undulating theme suggesting childhood innocence alternates with an increasingly unsettling motif and strident warning.
 

Keiron Anderson: Path to Remembrance

This piece of Wind Orchestra music was written in 2023 as a dedication to the composer's sister Caroline, who passed away in late 2022 from cancer. He wanted the piece to be a free download with parts and score on PDF, asking only that groups playing it could make a contribution, no matter how small, to any local cancer charity.

 

Sue Hughes: Requiem for Unsung Heroes
for choir and wind orchestra

1.           Requiem Aeternam
2.           Ode to the Unsung Heroes Moira Cameron
3.           Kyrie Eleison/Christe Eleison
4.           Dies Irae
5.           Lacrimosa
6.           They were Brave Masha Bennett
7.           Sanctus and Benedictus
8.           Pie Jesu
9.           Agnus Dei
10.        In Paradisum/Do not Stand at my Grave and Weep Mary Elizabeth Frye

Words from the Latin Requiem Mass, with poems by
Moira Cameron, Masha Bennett and Mary Elizabeth Frye

Soloists: Chris Ward, Jess Walker, Rebecca Lambert, Veronica Trickey, Amy Bentley, Anna Brett, Peter Ryder, David Ryder.

The idea to write this Requiem came about in the aftermath of the Covid19 pandemic.  There are myriad accounts of those who selflessly gave of themselves during this time, some giving the ultimate gift of their very lives in the service of others. The Requiem for Unsung Heroes is written in honour of these people.  Subsequently I have become aware of others who, quietly and unassumingly, have given of themselves in service without regard for their own welfare and safety.  The Requiem is for these people also.

Moira Cameron has been singing and performing for over 30 years. Moira grew up immersed in ancient Celtic, English and French ballads and stories. Now living in Canada's north, Moira is known as one of that country's finest ballad singers.  Her poem set in this Requiem is Ode to the Unsung Heroes.

Masha Bennett, who currently lives in Glossop, has been working with people in a helping capacity since 2000 and specialises in working with trauma and PTSD.  As well as being an extraordinary therapist, Masha is an artist, musician and poet.  The poem They were Brave can be found in her anthology, The Appearing Act.

The popular funeral poem, Do not Stand at my Grave and Weep, has regularly been attributed to Mary Elizabeth Frye. There is evidence that the original author was Clare Harner, but the version set here is that of Frye (1905-2004), often used today in funeral services.


Ode to the Unsung Heroes

Their heads are raised above the crowd
To gain a better view,
And what they see, they speak aloud
So we can know it too.
The keen perspectives that they share
Enable us to be aware.
We can with knowledge thus endowed
Discern what’s true.

We need these ones with voices raised
To shed exposing light,
Lest we in ignorance be glazed
By apathetic blight.
And yet attacked they are by some,
With poisoned vitriolic tongue,
Cowed by the threat of ideas blazed
Towards what’s right.

So here’s to those unfailing few
Who make their voices heard;
Who show us what we need to do
With firmly spoken word;
Who demonstrate with actions sound
Where stalwart courage can be found;
Who stay the course for me and you
Yet undeterred!
 
Moira Cameron


They Were Brave

They were brave.
They just didn’t know it
They cried and ached and feared
Like everyone does.
Or may be more
 
As their fluttering hearts
Were just that little more tender
Just that little more full
Of the loving potential
That was left unrequited
Or cruelly shattered
 
They thought, ‘I am scared…
I am alone…  I am small…’
They did not think ‘I am brave’
But they were
 
They were courageous
They were full of spirit
That they carried, reluctantly, rebelliously
Through the months and the years
The decades, the centuries
Without knowing their true power
 
What I really want to say is:
They always were and they are brave
I would like them to know it
I want them to remember it
To feel the courage of their fluttering hearts
And the strength powering
The fibres of their muscles
 
The treasure chest of the brave
Contains all kinds of riches
The fear as well as the courage
The pain as well as the true spirit
The anguish as well as the joy
It is all there, sparkling with rainbow light
 
And I would like them to open the lid
To look at these treasures
To own them and to share them
With us all
So that we could all learn a lesson
About bravery

Masha Bennett


Do not stand at my grave and weep
 
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
 
Elizabeth Mary Frye


Sue Hughes, who now lives in Sheffield, has been involved with music her entire life.  She is a pianist and flautist, but her first performing and composing loves are choral music.  She studied at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music and subsequently at the University of Reading, where she studied piano with John Barstow.  She started composing regularly whilst living in The Gambia during the 1980s and has continued since then whilst teaching in schools around Brentwood in Essex.

Sue has collaborated with the choirs she sings with, amongst others, providing new works and arrangements.  Currently she sings and shares her music with The Sheffield Chorale and the small a cappella group Steel Away, and has written for children’s choirs, including Lodge Moor Children and Youth Choir.  She was an ‘almost-founder’ member of Brentwood-based ladies’ choir, Bra-vissima and still writes frequently for them. 

Tonight is the first performance of the Requiem for Unsung Heroes in this format, for SATB choir and wind orchestra.  The original arrangement was for ladies’ voices and chamber orchestra and was performed in May 2025 by Bra-vissima and Brentwood Philharmonic Orchestra.  My thanks go to The Sheffield Chorale and Yorkshire Wind Orchestra for embracing this work and doing me the honour of performing it tonight.
 

The Sheffield Chorale

The Sheffield Chorale is a popular and friendly mixed voice choir of around 50 – 60 singers, with a high reputation in the city and beyond.

We enjoy singing all kinds of music, accompanied and a cappella, from early music to modern part songs, as well as major choral works.

Please find more about us here:-
https://www.sheffieldchorale.org/who-we-are

The Sheffield Chorale acknowledge with gratitude the ongoing support given by our Patrons.
 

Future events

We are singing in the Winter Garden on Saturday 6th December from 11:30

Wednesday 17th December at 7 pm.  St. Marie’s Cathedral
Carols by Candlelight

Saturday 21st March 2026 Holy Trinity Millhouses
“Night and Day”

Keep an eye on our Facebook page and on Classical Sheffield for details of these and future events.

Musical Director: KATE SHIPWAY

Kate Shipway, Musical Director of The Sheffield Chorale, was appointed in 2022 and brought with her a passion to further develop the choir in terms of repertoire and performance.

Since joining her local church choir at the age of five, Kate’s love of singing has seen her perform in many venues, throughout Britain and Europe. 

Alongside her appointment as the choir’s MD, Kate also directs Romulus Singers in Hale Barns (Greater Manchester) and is a Vocal Music Leader for Sheffield Music Hub.
 
Kate is Creative Director of Singing In..., an organisation based in Sheffield that brings communities together to sing and make music. In the role she leads several community choirs and ukulele groups, composes and arranges songs and directs their memorable singing holidays. Kate works as a freelance coach to choirs and their leaders. She is passionate about enabling directors to get the most out of their choirs and giving groups the tools and freedom to create exciting, moving and powerful performances.
 
Kate has worked with Classical Sheffield to create a new work for their weekend festival for community choirs in 2023. ‘Being Human’ is an arrangement of songs by Kate Rusby, a widely-celebrated local folk singer/songwriter from Barnsley.

She is one of the vocalists with the Northern Collective Big Band.


The Yorkshire Wind Orchestra

The Yorkshire Wind Orchestra is an amateur group of around 40 musicians from across Yorkshire who enjoy playing a wide range of music written or arranged for woodwind, brass and percussion. Members of the orchestra take pride in performing to a high standard and in coming together to communicate our music to an audience.

Yorkshire Wind Orchestra is a registered charity and, as well as promoting the work of contemporary composers with a particular focus on those from the UK, is committed to developing young wind and percussion players in the Yorkshire region.

Please see our website at https://www.yorkshirewinds.co.uk/ for details of upcoming concerts and playdays. 

Musical Director: KEIRON ANDERSON