#playlikeagirl: The Anna Lapwood Thread

It's sobering to see Anna continuing to conduct her Pembroke College Choirs in places like Truro, considering her megastar status as a world-class organist and media personality.

I used to know a couple of people from that Cornish city -- maybe they were among the congregation on 7 January.

This livestream Choral Evensong from Truro Cathedral includes some good shots of Anna in action:



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro

I'm more than a little late with this (sorry, Santa) but it's too heart-warming to skip!



ukchoirfestival.com/workshop-leaders-inf/karen-gibson

This sequence hosted by the Royal College of Organists is pretty neat. Each video is described as "one of 26 in a series entitled An A-Z of the Organ, filmed by the RCO team and colleagues around the UK at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.

"Starting with A for Anthology and concluding with Z for … (wait and see!), the series aims to explore various perspectives on the organ -- its tonal characteristics, some of the repertoires associated with it, a range of organ-related tips and resources, and more besides. Our thanks go to the many organists who have helped us to create this series, all working from home during the lockdown."

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGwC96XjFK61Jgzhuwj41GfLuu5Eog9Zc

I've watched B for Bach with Anna L. (which is how I arrived here) and two more, L for Live Looping and M for Messiaen. Highly recommended.

And here it is:

"A score video for Lucy Walker's 'My Heart, O God'. We always love singing pieces written by [Pembroke College Chapel] choir members and this piece is no exception! Lucy first came to hear the choir when we were singing her Iustorum Animae -- this was just after services had begun again between the first and second lockdowns. We were allowed socially-distanced pizza after Evensong -- Lucy stuck around and ended up enjoying it so much she asked to join the choir. My heart, O God sets text from Psalm 57, and was originally written for Peter Asprey and the Choir of Holy Sepulchre. Whilst not explicitly festive, I like to think it does a beautiful job of articulating the thoughts of Mary when she learns she is going to give birth to the Son of God."

"I first came across [Olivier Messiaen's Vocalise-Étude for High Voice and Piano] when accompanying one of the Pembroke College Organ Scholars who played it on the clarinet. It is a piece that was written for a wordless soprano, so lends itself extremely well to performances on the clarinet, trumpet, and even the theremin. Hearing recordings on all these different instruments made me realise how crucial words are for helping identify something as a human voice; without the words, there is not that much to separate the sound of a voice with that of, say, a theremin. As soon as I delved further into the piece some more I knew I wanted to try it on the organ, so set about creating an arrangement that put the sung melody into the feet on a 2’ flute, making some additions to the piano accompaniment to provide some more harmonic support at key moments.

"The piece itself is one of Messiaen's earlier works, written in 1935 when the composer was 27. In its version for organ, this is another piece that relies on the support of the building for its success. If it were performed in a space with a dry acoustic, the writing in the manuals would sound bare and perfunctory. The glorious bloom of Ely Cathedral, on the other hand, serves as a majestic sustain pedal." [Source]

I shall hijack this thread from time to time to post performances by other women organists. Jesu, Dulcis Memoria (2022) is the one organ composition thus far by the American musician Jessica French. (It seems something caused her to abandon the organ professionally after obtaining both Bachelor and Master's degrees in Organ Performance.) Part of it can be heard in the link below, played by the composer, together with the complete sheet music and a description of the piece's history. The two excerpts she plays consist of bars 17–27 and bar 73 to the end.

www.jessicafrench.net/jesu-dulcis-memoria

"Jessica has a rare ability called synesthesia, in which various senses are linked to one another, mainly in the form of colors associated with notes, timbres, and words. This ability lends a unique voice to her compositional style, which has been described as having 'lyrical, sweeping lines…deeply impassioned…atmospheric…shimmering harmonies.'" [Source]

I've never been a fan of the music of John Rutter. I find it too saccharine. I've never been a fan of the music of Ludovico Einaudi either, but I do appreciate what Anna did with his piece Experience. So the chances are good that my view of Rutter's music will be similarly tempered through the lens of Anna's friendship with and appreciation of Mr Rutter and his music.

Here, for starters, is a 16- or 17-year-old Anna "performing the UK School's Premiere of the Suite Lyrique by John Rutter. This was performed in the Sheldonian theatre, Oxford, accompanied by the Oxford High School String Orchestra, and conducted by Roger Spikes. The piece is an arrangement for harp of Rutter's earlier Suite Antique, written for flute":



Next up, from three Christmases ago, are these heart-warming "'Confessions of a Carol Composer': John Rutter in conversation with Anna Lapwood":



And lastly there's this, from two Christmases ago:

“It really wouldn't be Christmas without a little bit of Rutter, in this case [The Best Time of Year] in a particularly glorious arrangement by Owain Park. The carol was originally written for choir and orchestra and perfectly demonstrates Rutter's incredible talent for writing a glorious, instantly memorable melody. This a cappella arrangement was an instant hit with the choir, and we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to think about how to sing it as orchestrally as possible."



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutter

Pondering Anna's impromptu collaboration with Bonobo and the pipe organ's ability to blow one away, I was reminded of two tremendous tracks on Arcade Fire's indispensable album Neon Bible.

Track #4, "Intervention", ushers in the powerhouse sound of a bona fide church organ, not for the first time in pop (think Close to the Edge) but a stunning effect all the same:



The album’s closer, "My Body Is A Cage", goes a step further. After the organ ups the ante at 1:15, you think the band has shot its bolt -- until 2:11, that is:



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Bible

It seems the Dutch are beginning to cotton on to Anna. This is the second classical radio broadcast of a performance by her that I've heard in the past five days:

"Grandmother moon is a setting of a mystical text by a Mi'kmaq poet, Mary Louise Martin, who lives on a small island in British Columbia. The text describes the beauty and tranquillity of a full moon on a clear night; [composer Eleanor] Daley stated how the words were so evocative that 'when I first heard them, I was utterly smitten, and knew that I needed to set them to music at some point!'" (From notes by Anna Lapwood © 2020)



She looks into and beyond my soul,
The lacy cedar boughs creating her shadows,
Cedar ones weave design of midnight canvas.
She looks into and beyond my soul,
She a powerful sacred hoop of full light,
Simplicity against the ebony blues and blacks
of night sky land and crystal star people.
She looks into and beyond my soul,
Her round face of translucent beauty and light,
Quiet powers speak out in her name...
We'lalin.

(We'lalin means "thank you" in Mi'kmaq.)

Here's a truly heart-warming interview with Anna by David Holloway of The Keyboard Chronicles Podcast:  

"We go in-depth in relation to some of the amazing instruments Anna has performed on, as well as a wide-ranging discussion on Anna's career and the challenges of classical music in the modern era more broadly."

Go to YouTube for a run-down of the discussion topics covered during the show.



I'll link some of the music and musicians she mentions in due course...