On Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 August 2023 Phoenix Choir presented a concert of English music … in English! So much of the classical canon is in Latin so it was a welcome change, for once, to sing in our own vernacular.

Musical director, Amy Moore, selected English music from across the ages, from Purcell’s bucolic early-baroque Welcome to all the pleasures to the luscious harmonies of Parry’s monumental anthem Blest Pair of Sirens. And there was also an opportunity for our Chamber Choir to sing, a capella, Parry’s sublimely beautiful Songs of Farewell.

But the choir’s biggest challenge was Benjamin Britten’s edgy cantata Rejoice in the Lamb. There were, of course, all those punchy syncopated rhythms for the choir to master. And then there was the big question … what is it all about?

Christopher Smart was a brilliant young scholar in the early 1700s, who from relatively humble origins became a fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge. He was always a colourful character, but whether it was because of his eccentric theology or alcoholism, his father-in-law (a business competitor in publishing, with whom he had fallen out) had him locked up in an asylum. This is where he wrote Jubilate Agno from which Britten 200 years later selected his lyrics. Historically, Smart’s text may have been judged simply as the product of a deranged mind written from an asylum, but many academic treatise bear out its clever structure, double meanings and intellectual philosophising. It can be seen very much in the tradition of a high-church Anglican search for truth.

Smart’s text was discovered on hand-written sheets in a library only a few years before Britten wrote Rejoice in the Lamb. Britten’s biographer, Michael Oliver, surmises that he was inspired by Smart’s “ability to see evidence of the glory of God not only in the stories of the Old Testament, in flowers and in the sounds of music, but in the lazy stretching of his beloved cat.” It is the bit about the cat Jeffrey which Amy particularly loves and as Britten said “I don’t see how it could hurt anyone – he is such a nice cat”.

Britten’s selection of verses from the work follow Smart’s journey from the plainchant invocation; through the triumphant old testament heroes; to perhaps the most gentle hallelujah ever written; with the soloists painting an English country garden for “the bit about the cat”, mouse and flowers; to Smart’s shared torment with the Saviour; before reaching Britten’s great revelation. “M is music, and therefore he is God”. God is music, and each of the instruments has its place in Heaven. God plays on the harp and we are at peace. And the gentle hallelujah returns.

Thankfully, we don’t these days talk about neurodiversity in the same way, but if indeed there is 18^th century madness in Smart’s genius it certainly inspired a brilliant composition from Benjamin Britten which deserves its prominence in the classical canon.

Phoenix Choir were supported by the Kanimbla quartet and accompanist Janette Norcott. The audience remembered soprano soloist, the wonderful Ria Andriani, from Phoenix’ Schubert concert in 2022 and she was joined by Michael Burden (Countertenor), Richard Butler (Tenor) and Timothy Nunn (Baritone).

Amy brought her experience of performing these works in various English Cathedrals in her youth. “You grow up with these works in your DNA”, she says.  That brought special insights to rehearsal which shined through in performance. For their Blue Mountains cathedrals, Phoenix Choir chose to perform at Wentworth Falls School of Arts and at Hoskins Uniting Church Lithgow.

Tim Kaye
President