Words by Mick Rumens

By the time you read this, we will all be looking forward to the major events coming up in 2012 what with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and the European Football championships.

However, Harlow Chorus’s first special occasion of the New Year falls on Saturday 10th March at 8pm in Waltham Abbey Church when four major French composers will make up our programme. The principal works are Poulenc’s Gloria and Bizet’s Te Deum, for which the choir will be joined by two young soloists from the Royal Academy of Music. Renowned organist Paul Ayres will accompany, and also treat us to some solo pieces. The choir will also sing some smaller unaccompanied works by Durufle and Faure.

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was largely self-taught and became one of a somewhat notorious group of young French composers who became known as ‘Les Six’. The aims of the group were to break away from the influence of Germanic formality and French impressionism to employ a direct and simple style in their own music. Poulenc was by far the most successful. Poulenc saw himself as primarily a composer of religious music, but his Gloria, commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation of America, was composed in 1959 only four years before his death. The words from the Mass are set to music of an unmistakable freshness and vivacity. Some critics at the time suggested that it bordered on the sacrilegious; Poulenc replied, ‘While writing it I had in mind those Crozzoli frescoes with angels sticking out their tongues, and also some solemn-looking Benedictine monks that I saw playing football one day.’ It’s a very lively piece!

Georges Bizet (1838-1875), while studying in Italy, composed his Te Deum for the Rodrigues Prize, a competition for a new religious work open to Prix de Romo winners. This piece failed to impress the judges, who awarded the prize to Adrian Barthe, the only other entrant. Bizet was discouraged to the extent he vowed to write no more religious music. His Te Deum remained forgotten and unpublished until 1971 but has since become a popular item with choirs the world over, and is as tuneful as you would expect from the composer of Carmen.

Tickets: Centre nave £15; sides £12; under 16s £6 (sides) from Julia Dimon by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 01277 362440.