EXETER Philharmonic Choir opens its new season with Chris Williams’ Tsunami Requiem ten years after the tsunami wreaked its destruction.
The concert also features John Rutter’s Gloria and the Devon County Junior Choir with Andrew Millington’s A Sequence for Devon.
When Chris Williams had only just witnessed the effects of the 2004 tsunami in south India, he was commissioned to write a composition for Christmas.
He decided to tell the story of that tragic day. He created a work that is vibrant and contemporary, yet at the same time approachable and moving.
Chris Williams used John Rutter’s Gloria as a model for the orchestration and added a horn and a children’s choir.
The requiem opens with the story of a typical day’s fishing and the children sing Kyrie eleison as the boats set out to sea. The second movement is a lullaby sung to calm the children who have a premonition of the tsunami.
The third movement represents the calm before the storm, which explodes into the Dies irae, depicting the tsunami itself in a powerfully dramatic explosion.
The final movement is a lament set to the words of the Agnus Dei for unaccompanied choir.
The Devon County Junior will also perform one of Andrew Millington’s compositions, A Sequence for Devon, a group of settings of Devon texts for children’s voices and instrumental ensemble.
It was first performed in Exeter Cathedral in October 2008 and was received with enthusiasm.
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