“Compline: A contemplative journey through Lent” in St Olave’s Church

Service-cum-performance of plainchant and polyphony
St Olave’s Church, Exeter
8pm on 7 14 21 28 March 4 April 2022

The ancient close-of-the-day service of Compline, with plainchant and polyphony. Hosted by Margaret Aagesen Hughes (Soprano) and Clare Bryden (Alto). This is a very welcome return to the series we first hosted in 2019, but could not run in 2020 and 2021 owing to Covid.

Lent is the period of 40 days, excluding Sundays, which comes before Easter in the Christian calendar. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Lent is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter.

By observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians draw a parallel with both Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days at the beginning of his ministry, and the Israelites’ journey of 40 years to the Promised Land as told in the book of Exodus.

Lent is often marked by fasting, both from food and festivities. Many Christians in the Church of England may also take up something for Lent, such as praying daily or giving more to charity. The underlying purpose is to draw closer to God.

Compline is the last service in the monastic daily cycle of prayer. Its English name comes from the Latin for completion, as it completes the working day. It is also known as Night Prayer, the prayer before sleep.

The short service will remain broadly similar week by week, with additional music that changes to accompany our journey together through Lent. There will be opportunities for reflection through the simplicity of the setting, the beauty of the music, and the periods of silence.

St Olave is one of the tiny red churches that form the Parish of Central Exeter. Thank you to Rector Rev Sheila Swarbrick for opening its doors to us. Please note that we encourage the congregation to wear a mask.

Programme

7 March	Anthem: “The Desire for Hermitage” from “The Hermit Songs” by Samuel Barber Margaret Aagesen Hughes, soprano John Draisey, piano Instrumental Voluntary: “Sweetness of Stars” by Sungji Hong Ruth Molins, flute
14 March	Anthem: “Ave verum corpus” by Gabriel Fauré Margaret Aagesen Hughes, soprano Clare Bryden, alto John Draisey, organ Instrumental Voluntary: “Mit Fried’ und Freud’ ich fahr’ dahin” by Johann Sebastian Bach John Draisey, organ
21 March	Anthem: “In Passione Domini” by Andrew Wilson Margaret Aagesen Hughes, soprano Clare Bryden, alto Ruth Molins, flute Instrumental Voluntary: “Homeland” by Allison Loggins-Hull Ruth Molins, flute
28 March	Anthem: “Were you there” Clare Bryden, alto Instrumental Voluntary: “Nocturnes for solo violin” by Martin Gaughan Emma Welton, violin
4 April Passiontide	Anthem: First movement of “Stabat Mater” by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Margaret Aagesen Hughes, soprano Clare Bryden, alto John Draisey, organ Instrumental Voluntary: “Abendlied for violin and organ” by Josef Rheinberger Emma Welton, violin John Draisey, organ

About the music and composers

“Sweetness of Stars” by Sungji Hong

Sungji Hong is a Korean-American composer. Her compositions include works for solo instruments, ensembles and orchestra, chorus, ballet and electroacoustic media.

In Sweetness of stars, the flute wanders around on high registers in soft dynamics. It explores in between stillness and motion.

Sungji Hong

“In Passione Domini” by Andrew Wilson

Andrew Wilson is a composer based in Devon. His work includes orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber music. We are very grateful to him for composing “In Passione Domini” for this series. It is a setting of the hymn by the 13th century Franciscan friar St Bonaventure (below, with rough translation by Clare).

The performance on 21 March was the première of the piece. Sadly, due to Covid, Andrew couldn’t be there. We did however make an audio recording before the service, and Andrew has married it with some Passiontide footage to make this lovely video.

“Homeland” by Allison Loggins-Hull

Allison Loggins-Hull is a flutist, composer, and producer whose work has been associated with acts across the spectrum of popular and classical music.

Homeland was written shortly after Hurricane Maria stormed through Puerto Rico in 2017. Maria represented the increasing strength of natural disasters and the intense, sometimes deadly, repercussions of climate change. While this was going on, there was also a rise of political and social turmoil in the United States, and global unrest throughout the world, including the Civil War crisis in Syria. For weeks, the news was flooded with these stories. With so many people throughout the world dealing with tragic domestic issues, I began to think about the meaning of home during a crisis. What does home mean when the land has been destroyed? What does it mean when there’s been a political disaster, or a human disaster? How does a person feel patriotic when they feel unwelcomed at the same time? Homeland is a musical interpretation and exploration of those questions. The flute opens with timbral trills representing troubled waters, then transitions into passages that are anxious and distorted. There is a moment of hope and optimism, a remembrance of past struggles that have been overcome, followed by an off-putting play on the Star Spangled Banner, representing an unravelling of patriotism. In the end we come full circle, still with unanswered and unresolved questions.

Allison Loggins-Hull

“Nocturnes for solo violin” by Martin Gaughan

Martin Gaughan is based in Devon and writes contemporary classical music for voice, instruments, ensembles and orchestra.

These violin pieces were one of the first things I composed after a long period of silence.

I have always liked the atmosphere an unaccompanied violin creates, and I imagined these pieces being performed at twilight somewhere quiet. While short, these pieces have a deep expressive and contemplative feel.

Martin Gaughan

“Were you there”

“Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)” is an American spiritual, likely composed by enslaved African-Americans in the 19th century and first printed in 1899. There are variations on the verses sung.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
O sometimes it causes me to tremble! tremble! tremble!
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

Clare sung these verses from the gallery as an accompanied solo, and we made an audio recording during rehearsal (with incidental traffic). In this video, Clare has overlaid the audio with photos of the Stations of the Cross by Jill Christie that hang on the walls of St Olave’s. The Stations used exclude those depicting people who cared for Jesus, deliberately asking – where are you? were you there? would you be there to care for any of Jesus’ suffering ones?

“Stabat Mater” by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ’s mother during his crucifixion. The title comes from its first line, “Stabat Mater dolorosa”.

Pergolesi composed his musical setting of the sequence in 1736 in the final weeks of his life. We performed the first movement, his setting of the first verse.

Stabat Mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa
Dum pendebat Filius.

We made a recording of a rehearsal sing-through before the service. In this video, the audio is overlaid with photos of the altar triptych in St Olave’s and a number of the Stations of the Cross by Jill Christie around the walls of the church.

About the musicians

Margaret Aagesen Hughes

Margaret Aagesen Hughes is a professional soprano, singing teacher and voice coach, and choir director. She has a keen interest in all music, from classical to folk and jazz. She is based in the South West of England.

Clare Bryden

Clare Bryden is a freelance writer and consultant and semi-professional musician. Her interests are wide-ranging, but primarily in how human beings affect and are affected by the natural world of which we are part, and the related theology and psychology of connectedness.

John Draisey

John Draisey is a pianist and organist who regularly plays for services at the Mint Methodist and Southernhay URC churches.

Ruth Molins

Ruth Molins is a freelance flautist and experienced orchestral player. She is composing music for flutes inspired by buildings and interiors and writes words and poems. Over the next few years, Ruth hopes to amalgamate more of her own experiments with composing and writing into her performance work. She also teaches flute and piano privately and is the founder and Musical Director of Exeter Flutes. Every day, through her teaching, practice and performance, Ruth searches for the best ways to develop and share her love of music and of the flute.

Emma Welton

Emma Welton is a musician. She plays the violin and viola and composes music which often involves listening and recording in her habitat. Emma likes to make new music with adventurous musicians of all ages and experience and with artists who work in different artforms. With Tony Whitehead she runs A Quiet Night In, creating performances exploring the creative possibilities in quiet/silence. Emma is a Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra musician, touring the south west with BSO chamber groups, and co-leading BSO’s Exeter Family Orchestra with Hugh Nankivell. Emma is decarbonising her music practice in practical ways and offers her music as a creative response to the climate emergency.

The Glory Window

The stained glass featured in the publicity is the Glory Window by Gabriel Loire (1975) in the Chapel of Thanks-giving, Thanks-giving Square, Dallas, Texas. There is more information on the Thanks-giving Square website.