Central Composers Alliance Works by Colin Touchin

CHOOSE THE LIGHT - Colin Touchin

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A thirty-five minute ´oratorio´ commissioned by the Coventry Mysteries Festival 2012. First performed at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, followed by a procession and an open-air repeat performance in a shopping centre. See Colin Touchin´s Composer of the Month feature which is based on this work by clicking here to read more about the work and its genesis.

First performed by Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus with children´s choirs from three Coventry primary schools.

The background to “CHOOSE THE LIGHT”

This is where it all started – the famous ´Doom´ painting in Holy Trinity Church in the centre of Coventry. The church is 800 years old, and the painting by Coventry´s medieval artists dates from about 1435. A hundred or so years later, after Henry VIII´s reign, the mural was whitewashed over because it was felt to be frivolous. For most of its existence, it´s not been visible. It was the new Millennium before the painting was finally restored and preserved. One of the best preserved ´Doom´ paintings in Europe, it´s visited by people from all over the world, and is visible again for all to see. Colin Touchin, composer, conductor and director of Spires Music, saw the Doom painting as a possible centre of an ambitious piece of work. He proposed a piece of orchestral and choral music to the Mysteries Company, based on Coventry school children visiting Holy Trinity Church and writing about the painting. Our project set out to produce music that would be meaningful to the very mixed public audience we anticipated – from young children to ordinary passers-by in the city´s Lower Precinct. We met the Mysteries Companies´ requirements in the course of the project.

THE MUSIC FOR CHOOSE THE LIGHT Colin Touchin (Composer/Conductor)

What´s great about creating new things is you never quite know what´s going to come out! We were all excited by the prospect of what the children would write to inspire the composition of the music. As the writing arrived I was often struck by remarkably telling language and resonant imagination.

Planning the work, I knew we had to allow for different rehearsal times for the various ensembles so the order was school songs first, vocal score for chorus second, finally the orchestral parts. The piece was continuous, approximately 35 minutes long. The school songs needed to come in a sequence that allowed them to make good sense in the finished composition. The beginning and ending would be for everyone – the professional and amateur Spires Philharmonic Orchestra, the Spires Chorus and all the school children together – and there might be a similar full ensemble in the middle; in addition the orchestra´s linking music could establish atmosphere and drama, with impressions of the earthquake and consequent terror.

Each school had to be able to rehearse its song without the orchestra and perform it in their own school if they wished, and I also wanted the different requests from the schools about the sort of music their children liked most to be reflected in the various styles adopted. (A version of the score is available for a complete performance with piano, drums, and bass guitar backing, plus whatever melodic and rhythmic instruments the school can provide to support their choirs.)

For immediate appeal I wanted rhythmically lively sections balancing slower, more thoughtful music, which should also explore themes both of the Coventry Mysteries Week Festival (peace and reconciliation) and the Doom painting of Holy Trinity Church, Coventry. I also hoped that the piece in some way would be true to and belong to Coventry and its people.

There were so many words! Fortunately each school´s offerings provided sufficient pattern and structure for me to choose a song-style and verse/chorus pattern that worked. Inevitably some significant written contributions couldn´t be used, but they are all published in this booklet. For the chorus opening I chose several verses from the Latin Dies Iræ (Day of Wrath/Judgment); for the ending, lines from the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation were particularly apposite; for the central section, one school which didn´t provide a choir had nevertheless provided some of the most telling lines of all. At last the libretto was complete. I must thank Mike Torbe for pointing to the telling phrase which became the work´s title. The working title had been “The Doom”, and the planning team were all mightily relieved with its new name!

I wanted a dark, brooding, threatening opening rising upwards towards the light at the end. The initial children´s appeal ´Choose the Light´, struggling to be heard in the early bars of the whole piece, at last combines with the full chorus to ring out at the end in a calm major key. In the central section, “Transform it” is heard three times in three different keys, acting out the transformation. Motifs recur connecting different musical sections, but also linking the ideas in the different songs. The orchestration includes rewarding parts for the musicians, with piano, bass and drums added for the schools´ songs; the chorus´s contribution moves from dark discords to more pleasing and simpler harmonies, whilst emphasising key words and lines of the text.

Writing Choose the Light has been a challenge and a joy, a privileged opportunity to work with young children´s perceptions of a magnificent old painting and of their present and future world: all who have been involved in this project have been moved and changed by the experience. It was comforting to hear one of our regular singing members opine “Once you get to know it, it´s not as bad as it sounds” and one of the orchestral players teased: “I´d just got the tunes out of my head from the performances when we did the recording and now I´ve got all those melodies dancing around my head again!”

WORDS OF "CHOOSE THE LIGHT"

Choose The Light´ is a phrase culled from the young people´s writing. It perfectly expresses the complex moral choices that face all of us, and the importance of seeking peace and reconciliation. Choose the Light begins with words of the medieval hymn, Dies Iræ, the Day of Wrath, and ends with a setting of lines based on the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation written after the Cathedral was bombed in 1940, which we use with the permission of the Cathedral. The shift from the aggressive and forceful music of the Dies Iræ to the tender and merciful Litany maps the move from anger to reconciliation and peace. Between them come the songs of the individual schools. The piece begins with the appeal to ´Choose the Light´ almost overwhelmed by the Dies Iræ, the thirteenth-century Latin hymn describing the Day of Judgement, when the last trumpet will summon souls before the throne of God, the saved will be delivered and the doomed cast into eternal flames.

“Choose the Light” in performance

It´s early on Saturday morning June 16th, in Holy Trinity Church in the centre of Coventry. The church is full of sound. An orchestra of almost 50 musicians, an adult choir of 40 and 70 children and their teachers are preparing for a concert. They rehearse carefully from 9am until 10:30, as people arrive in the church, ready to witness a world premiere.

At 10:50, orchestra and choirs are ready, crammed into the space between the front pews and the choir stalls. The audience grows, until 200 people are waiting. At 11, Colin Touchin, the composer and conductor, appears. He waits, smiles at the musicians and singers in front of him. Silence descends. The baton is raised, comes down, and the opening notes of Choose the Light crash out – four bars of orchestra then a stunning discord as three choirs of children try to make their words ´Choose the Light´ sound as loud as the adult choir´s fierce singing of the Dies Iræ. The piece unfolds, the anger of the opening followed by the reflective sounds of Earlsdon Primary School singing about visiting the painting that´s above the orchestra and choirs, as it has been for 600 years.

Groups of children from five Coventry schools have visited the church during the previous three months, studying the painting, listening to members of the church telling them its story. Then back in their schools they wrote extraordinary words, inspired by the Doom painting and its story. Their words were taken in by Colin Touch and woven into the text of this unusual piece of music that we are hearing.

The other songs, all written by Coventry school children, tell different parts of the story. Sidney Stringer Academy´s pupils imagine themselves into the heads of the people 600 years ago, frightened by the recent earthquake and terrified at the notion of Hell as punishment for their sins and crimes. Bishop Ullathorne Catholic School´s older pupils muse in their writing on the implications of the story for today, and ask searching questions: In terror do we turn to help, they ask, Or run to save the self?

Frederick Bird´s pupils point out another important theme of the work, and of the picture itself – I am warning you what to do: It´s your choice – and Wyken Croft grimly ask which choice we will all make: I have a choice – be good, be bad. The whole piece concludes with a setting of words from the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation, and achieves its own peace as choirs and orchestra together triumphantly Choose the Light!

But that isn´t the end, for now the orchestra and choirs form up outside, and led by the hypnotic drumming of Coventry University´s medieval street fair performers, we march in procession down to the Lower Precinct, the children dancing sometimes and clapping their hands as they go. And there we perform the whole work again, in the light and air of the precinct, with the rain cascading down the glass roof above us, and people lining the balconies above the performers, wondering at the sounds and the enthusiasm of the performers. Around us the bustle and business of Saturday afternoon go on, but in this one area, something special is happening that touches even casual passers-by. ´This is the first time I´ve been down in the precinct for years´, an amazed spectator says to his neighbour. ´Is this what usually happens?´

The piece ends. The listening crowd roars its approval, then disperses, chattering about what it´s seen and heard, and then about what it´s going to do now. Musicians and singers pack up, children go to their proud parents and teachers, and everyone drifts away. Nothing left behind but memories. On their way out, a few of the singers are stopped by two young men. ´That was you, wasn´t it?´ they say. Yes, say the singers. ´That was great!´ they say. ´Great!´ and shake the singers´ hands.

Choose the Light 1: DIES IRAE/CHOOSE THE LIGHT - Colin Touchin

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

DIES IRÆ

Dies iræ! Dies illa [The day of wrath, that day]

Solvet sæclum in favilla: [Will dissolve the world in burning coals]

Teste David cum Sibylla! [As foretold by David and the sibyl!]

Quantus tremor est futurus, [How great a tremor there will be,]

Quando iudex est venturus, [when the judge comes,]

Cuncta stricte discussurus! [to investigate everything strictly!]

Tuba mirum spargens sonum [The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound]

Per sepulchra regionum, [through the tombs of the regions,]

Coget omnes ante thronum. [will summon all before the throne.]

Mors stupebit, et natura, [Death and nature will be stunned,]

Cum resurget creatura, [when the human creation arises,]

Iudicanti responsura. [to respond to the judge.]

Liber scriptus proferetur, [The written book will be brought forth,]

In quo totum continetur, [in which all is contained,]

Unde mundus iudicetur. [from which the world shall be judged.]

Iudex ergo cum sedebit, [When therefore the judge will sit,]

Quid quid latet, apparebit: [whatever was hidden will appear:]

Nil inultum remanebit. [nothing will remain unpunished.]

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? [What am I, miserable, then to say?]

Quem patronum rogaturus, [Which patron to ask,]

Cum vix iustus sit securus? [when [even] the just may hardly be sure?]

Confutatis maledictis, [Once the cursed have been silenced,]

Flammis acribus addictis: [sentenced to acrid flames:]

Voca me cum benedictis. [Call thou me with the blessed.]

Rex tremendæ maiestatis, [King of tremendous majesty,]

Qui salvandos salvas gratis, [who freely saves those to be saved,]

Salva me, fons pietatis. [save me, source of mercy.]

Lacrimosa dies illa, [Tearful will be that day,]

qua resurget ex favilla [on which from the ash arise]

Iudicandus homo reus. [the accused people who are to be judged.]

Huic ergo parce, Deus. [Spare them therefore, God.]

Choose the Light 2: THE PAINTING - Colin Touchin

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

THE SCHOOL SONGS: Earlsdon Primary School - The Painting

1. As we walk into the church

And look up we see that saver of lives,

The painting that changed us all:

It´s famous and in all archives;

2. As we slowly pace our way,

Calmly savouring the beauty,

A painting so bold yet ancient,

Still here like an old movie.

3. The choir´s words echo around

As we walk to our seats,

And look up at the scene before us,

The last thing that Jesus eats.

4. “Praise the Lord, forgive us of sin,

Erase all the sorrow.

Hope that all the wrong we did

Will be forgotten tomorrow.”

5. As Jesus the Lord shines light on us,

Looking down for us all,

As the choir´s voices fill us with joy,

The sound bouncing off the walls;

6. As we come out of the church,

Neat and smart and dressed in Sunday best,

We remember that our Lord Jesus

Is with us deep in our chest.

7. In our heart he lives with us,

Ev´ry minute lighting up all our lives;

But if not for that colourful painting

His love can still remind.

8. “Praise the Lord, forgive us of sin,

Erase all the sorrow.

Hope that all the wrong we did

Will be forgotten tomorrow.”

Choose the Light 3: ONLY AN EARTHQUAKE - Colin Touchin

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

THE SCHOOL SONGS: Sidney Stringer Academy - Only an Earthquake

There were so many pictures.

Why was this one special?

I am only one painting, only an earthquake.

The darkness goes on forever;

It has great meaning like no other.

Why does this picture catch our eye?

The ground shakes; please help us, God.

We beg on our knees.

We cry: “the world will end”.

We wish the world would live: why end now?

Have we done wrong, hurt You?

Children beg to know what´s happening,

Adults beg for forgiveness.

There were so many pictures.

Why was this one special?

I am only one painting, only an earthquake.

Suddenly the trumpet pierces my burnt ears;

My tormented soul falls on the adamantine ground.

I feel death pulling me in.

I force my eyes shut, step forward;

Tears rolling down my pale cheeks; I cry for help.

I stagger up the stone stairs, I feel the chill of the wind

Burning my skin. The Devil´s eyes make my spine shiver.

I struggle to look away. I am resurrected

Before the Almighty God. I quiver with fear.

There were so many pictures.

Why was this one special?

I am only one painting, only an earthquake.

I hear His deep, supreme voice: it interrogates me.

He grabs me by my fragile, weak, corrupt bones.

The pain is worse than dying a thousand times.

The angels are as bright as the blazing, sacrificing sun.

The painting consumes me day and night!

The whole of the universe held in one painting, all trapped,

But some so free. People from all corners of the earth come to see.

They look with confusion and antipathy: they sense death is near.

There were so many pictures.

Why was this one special?

I am only one painting, only an earthquake.

I am only one painting.

Choose the Light 4: RENEW THE LIFE - Colin Touchin

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

THE SCHOOL SONGS: Bishop Ullathorne Catholic School - Renew the life you are living

Renew the life you are living,

Leave your past behind.

Look into the mirror of your future on earth.

Grasp it. Transform it.

In terror do we turn to help

Or run to save the self?

When the plague strikes do we hide

Or do we wipe the brow of the dying?

When starvation roars in the stomach of children

Do we feed our own or give them bread?

When our brother falls do we help him up?

When our sister chooses darkness do we show her the light?

When London burns do we blame the youth?

Or do we look at where they got the matches from?

Renew the life you are living,

Leave your past behind.

Look into the mirror of your future on earth.

Grasp it. Transform it.

Did you give the beggar your hand?

Did you ease the pain of division with friendship?

Did you help your neighbour?

Did you do the right thing?

You can choose, You can change.

Beyond chiselled peaks of stone and grand arches,

Beneath the heavens constructed to house the holy,

Behold the Doomsday painting, the ancient mystery,

Beware its warning, an apocalyptic prophecy.

Take heed,

Rest your eyes upon the ancient depiction.

You can choose, You can change.

Think of all the times the cry of a child has been unheard,

dismissed, forgotten, ignored.

Renew the life you are living,

Leave your past behind.

Look into the mirror of your future on earth.

Grasp it.

Transform it.

Choose the Light 5: REVELATION - Colin Touchin

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

THE SCHOOL SONGS: Frederick Bird Primary School – Revelation!

Your destination

Is beyond imagination:

You are my creation.

This is Revelation!

I travelled a long way to see for myself

This mysterious painting at Holy Trinity Church.

My glowing blue eyes were glued to the weird and wonderful piece of art.

In the centre of the painting, Lord Jesus

Sitting on the wooden carved throne.

Underneath this marvellous Lord,

Jesus laid His swollen, holed feet on the symbol that is earth

Your destination

Is beyond imagination:

You are my creation.

This is Revelation!

I am a painting,

Restored, revived.

I am the Last Judgement, come back alive.

I show what lies beyond death:

The choice between Heaven and Hell is your decision.

I may be old, I may not yell

The History of Coventry;

Still, I can gently tell.

I am warning you what to do:

It´s your choice.

I may not have a voice,

But still can tell

What happened back then,

When the earthquake struck the city.

People thought that they were being punished

For their crime;

Confused and filled with horror,

They pleaded for forgiveness in terror.

Your destination

Is beyond imagination:

You are my creation.

This is Revelation!

Choose the Light 6: JUDGEMENT DAY - Colin Touchin

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT

The School Songs: Wyken Croft Primary School – Judgement Day

Ask yourself: are you going to Heaven,

Or are you going to Hell?

The ancient painting of the world, when it ends,

Glares from above, high and proud,

Looks down like a judge in a courtroom

Straight through me and into my soul.

Ancient and aged, painted years ago,

Staring, intimidating, convincing people to be good.

The earth tremor was a warning from God.

Ask yourself: are you going to Heaven,

Or are you going to Hell?

The legendary painting looks into my heart

Judging me already before I know,

Staring eagerly down at us, like a vicar from the pulpit.

I stand, look up; sorry, small, frightened, helpless,

Thinking – should I behave better?

Take this as a warning:

I have a choice – be good, be bad.

Will I go up the stairs to Heaven or down to the mouth of Hell?

This living painting has a purpose;

This very painting will burn through my soul.

Ask yourself: are you going to Heaven,

Or are you going to Hell?

Waking from their graves,

People rise from their old coffins, bodies from their shrouds:

Mary and John pleading,

Jesus, sitting majestically in peace, scars on hands and feet,

Would decide their final fate.

Jesus gave His life for us,

Now we do the same.

Life flows into death, and death is part of life.

Ask yourself: are you going to Heaven,

Or are you going to Hell?

This magnificent art painted six centuries ago,

Lost then found again, preserved, invincible,

Brought back from the dead

Like Jesus, life after death.

Since then it stands, restored in glory,

Warning Judgement is near, here on Earth,

A lesson for us all.

Will I rest in peace?

Ask yourself: are you going to Heaven,

Or are you going to Hell?

Choose the Light 7: FATHER, FORGIVE - Colin Touchin

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Father Forgive – based on the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation

Father, forgive.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The hatred which divides nation from nation,

race from race, class from class,

Father, forgive

the greed which exploits the work of human

hands and lays waste the earth,

Father, forgive

our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,

Father, forgive

our indifference to the plight of the

imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee,

Father, forgive

the pride which leads us to trust in ourselves

and not in God,

Father, forgive.

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted,

forgiving one another, as the One above the

Heaven shows mercy on you.

Piano Concerto - Colin Touchin

Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:00:00 GMT

November 2003, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick

University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra

New work for massed recorders - Colin Touchin

Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:00:00 GMT

Commissioned by the Manchester Branch of the Society of Recorder Players

Dances of the Day - Colin Touchin

Sun, 15 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT

commissioned by Hampshire Music Service Sunday 15th December 2002

East Basingstoke Youth Wind Band

Divertimento No. 4 - Colin Touchin

Sat, 16 Nov 2002 00:00:00 GMT

Heart of England Recorder Orchestra, conducted by Colin, plus local children

Processional for the new Chancellor - Colin Touchin

Sat, 19 Oct 2002 00:00:00 GMT

Members of University of Warwick Brass Society

Symphony "Our Hopes, Like Towering Falcons" - Colin Touchin

Sat, 28 Sep 2002 00:00:00 GMT

Bolton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Colin

Sinfonia Aquilonia - Colin Touchin

Wed, 05 Jun 2002 00:00:00 GMT

National Youth Recorder Orchestra, conducted by Colin, recorded for CD

Work for Samaritans� 50th Anniversary: Calling, for chorus and orchestra - Colin Touchin

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT

Symphony Hall, March 2004

Three Sketches - Colin Touchin

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT

Adlestrop - Colin Touchin

Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT