Last updated:
1 Jan 1999
FIRST PERFORMANCE OF
JOHN SANDERS' Requiem Mass
I was honoured to be allowed to announce the first use during a service in Gloucester Cathedral of this new work. I am indebted to Bill Armiger, Senior Lay Clerk, who has provided the text of the article, with the composer's blessing. Anyone who knows Dr Sanders' "Reproaches" will be keen to hear this Requiem as soon as it is recorded.
Celebrating the feast of All-Souls at Gloucester Cathedral is something of a tradition. We have tended to make it quite a special event, singing the usual Requiem Masses within a liturgical setting: Faure and Durufle have been the obvious recent appearances. On Friday 6th November 1998, we at Gloucester Cathedral were thrilled to give the first performance of a new Requiem by John Sanders, our former Organist and Master of the Choristers. John's gentle style of composition and fine sense of harmonic opportunity and poignant dissonance are once again here in abundance.
John Sanders always demonstrates a fertility of invention which makes his music refreshing, approachable, and a pleasure to sing: he has a sympathy with the demands of cathedral singers and always writes well for such acoustic settings - with a special ear for the resonance of Gloucester. Many colleagues will already know his beautiful setting of the Reproaches (RSCM S362) and the quiet yet intense drama of his St. Mark Passion (RSCM S363) - both heard at their best within the liturgy leading up to Easter. Possibly fewer will have experienced the elation of his setting of 'My Beloved Spake' - not published but obtainable from John himself.
The new Requiem lasts for approximately 25 minutes
and, while eminently suitable for liturgical use, is also a work which will prove a
valuable addition to recital and concert programmes. It was commissioned in thanksgiving
for the life and work of the Rev. Kenneth Williams, and is dedicated to his memory and
also the memory of all former members of the Choral Foundation at Gloucester Cathedral.
(Click the image for a larger version - may be slow to load, 89Kb)
It is an a capella work for SSAATTBB choir made up of 8 movements:
- Introit (Requiem Aeternam)
- Kyrie
- Pie Jesu (a beautifully simple piece in triple time, and an intensely personal one for John, who dedicated it to the memory of his little grand-daughter who died in infancy just a few months ago.)
- Offertory (Give rest O Christ - a setting of the Russian Contakion)
- Sanctus (a joyful, chiming movement)
- Agnus Dei and Lux Aeterna
- Communion (a setting of the famous poem by John Donne Bring us
O Lord God, at our last awakening) - In Paradisum
Although copyright, the work is not yet published except in DTP form, but copies are
available directly from John Sanders: £3.00 plus 75p postage and packing (sorry, UK
currency only).
Obtainable from :
Dr J D Sanders
Ridge Cottage
Upton Bishop
Ross on Wye
HR9 7UD
Herefordshire
England
Telephone: 01989 780482
John Sanders was educated at Felsted School, the Royal College of Music and Gonville and
Caius College, Cambridge. In 1958 he was appointed Director of Music at King's School,
Gloucester and Assistant Organist at the Cathedral. In 1963 he became Organist and Master
of the Choristers at Chester Cathedral, where he was also responsible for reviving the
Chester Festival.From 1967 to 1994 he was appointed Organist of Gloucester Cathedral and also Conductor of Gloucester Choral Society and the Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra. During this period he conducted regularly at the Three Choirs Festival and in 1997 had the honour of directing the 250th Festival. In addition he was Director of Music at Cheltenham Ladies College from 1968 to 1997.
He was honoured by the Archbishop of Canterbury with a Lambeth Doctorate of Music in 1990, was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music in 1991 and appointed O.B.E. in 1994.
Apart from the church music mentioned elsewhere on this page, John Sanders has composed a considerable quantity of secular music, including two song-cycles, The Beacon for Baritone and Piano, and In Praise of Gloucestershire for soprano, clarinet and Piano. He has also published three major works for chorus, soloists and orchestra, Gloucestershire Visions, The Cotswolds and Via Lucis.
Other notable works by Dr Sanders include:
- The Hereford Service: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis
Tenor solo, SATB, organ. (Available from John Sanders.) - Mass of the Creator (Traditional BCP words)
SATB and Organ. (Available from Curtis Publications PO Box 158 Sarisbury Green SO31 6YQ) - The Gloucester Service: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis
S and B soli, SATB and organ. (Available from Encore Publications, 22 Tonbridge Road, Hildenborough, Kent TN11 9BS: Tel 01732 832783, Fax 01732 832706) - King of Glory
SSAA and organ (also available from Encore Publications)
(Photograph and biography taken [without permission] from the CD sleeve notes of Priory Records' 
English Choral Music (PRCD218) featuring the choir
of Gloucester Cathedral in 1987, and including The Reproaches.)
