Commissions
New music is a key feature of Ishirini's work. We are proud to have commissioned and sung several new compositions, particularly so because the composers have come from the ranks of our twenty singers. Each of the pieces we have commissioned have a direct connection with place and tradition. Composers are invited to contact Jeremy to discuss future commissions. You may see a selection of past commissions below.
out of the mouths of children
Peter Allwood
Première: February 2011, St. Mary's, Alverstoke
Commissioned specially for Ishirini's tour to India in 2011 and receiving its premiere in Ishirini's perfomance of An Offering of Songs at St. Mary's Alverstoke, out of the mouths of children weaves together the words of Psalm 8 and Grace Before Song, a poem by Ezra Pound (one of Tagore's early supporters in the West) with the melody of Anondoloke, one of Tagore's many famous songs.
Asante 46
Ben Finn
Composed for Upendo's joint concert with Ishirini in Stapleford
Première: July, 2010
An interweaving of a Tanzanian melody with a Tudor part-song, this represents the culmination of our joint musical project with Upendo.
Verbum Bonum et Suave
Brian Inglis
Commissioned for Ishirini's concert in St. Mary's, Netherbury
Première: April 2010
The piece is based on the unique 13th century manuscript found in the bell-tower of St. Mary's. The manuscript includes one of the first known written examples of two-part composition, capturing a critical point in music history when harmonic music started to evolve from single-line chant and plainsong. In Brian's piece, text from the Netherbury Manuscript is set to an evocation of the pealing of church bells at the start of the piece, and included in the final chorale. The piece uses a prayer from the Corpus Hermeticum - a body of mystical and Gnostic texts compiled in Egypt in the early centuries of the Christian era. The theme of buried and ‘hidden’ words finds an echo in the ‘good and sweet word’ of the mediaeval title Verbum Bonum et Suave.
Moyo Wangu
Alan Charlton
Commissioned for Ishirini's tour to Tanzania in April 2009
Première: April 2009
An arrangement of a traditional Tanzanian melody. Essentially a set of variations rounded off with a climactic coda, Moyo Wangu starts simply and gradually builds in textural complexity throughout.
The work was given its premiere on a sweltering day in a Lutheran church in Dar Es Salaam. The reception from the excitable audience was quite unlike anything in Europe: a deafening cacophony of ululating, shouting, cheering and clapping that started even as the piece was reaching its conclusion.
