Witnesses to War

19 November, 2016 - 20:00 St Margaret’s Church, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford

Witnesses to WarWitnesses to War

Music by those who fought, fell and lived through the Great War.

Choral works and solo songs by Moeran, Butterworth, Gurney, Dyson, Sumsion, Parry and Vaughan Williams.

Baritone - Gareth John Organ and piano - Benjamin Bloor

November 18th 1916 at last saw the end of the bloodiest battle of the Great War, indeed maybe of any war. More than a million men lost their lives in the infamous Battle of the Somme, one of the many battles of that terrible conflict. One hundred years almost to the day after the end of that battle, the Cherwell singers honours the memory of those who fought and those who fell in the Somme and the Great War in general, with a programme of music by composers who wore uniform and fought in the war. We also include pieces by three leading composers of the day who, though too old to fight, wrote pieces directly inspired by that conflict.

Especially poignant in our concert will be a song by George Butterworth, who fell at the Somme, and a setting of the Magnificat by the promising young composer William Denis Browne, killed during the Gallipoli campaign the previous year. Neither of their bodies were ever recovered.

Joining the Cherwell singers will be baritone Gareth John, winner of the Kathleen Ferrier prize, and he and the choir will be accompanied by organist of the London Oratory Church, Benjamin Bloor.

We hope you will join us at St Margaret’s Church for this tribute concert to the fallen of the Somme and other battles of the Great War, and help remember those who gave so much one hundred years ago.

Directed by: James Brown