At
one level it is entirely fitting that
this much belated first complete CD
devoted to Judith Bingham’s music should
focus on her works for choir. It is
often said that choral music forms the
backbone of Bingham’s output and it
is certainly true that her skilful and
idiomatic writing for voices is drawn
from personal first-hand experience.
She was a member of the BBC
Symphony Chorus for a number
of years before taking the decision
to devote herself entirely to composition.
To
take her choral music in isolation however is to risk neglecting
the versatility that Bingham’s broader catalogue of compositions
demonstrates. Ranging from orchestral music on the largest scale
in Chartres, to ensemble, brass band, chamber and solo works, Bingham is one of
the most flexible composers at work on the British music scene
today. As if to prove the point it is anticipated that a CD
devoted to her solo piano music will be released later this
year.
Her
facility in writing for brass has also been a hallmark of her
output and there are several works for brass band, brass ensemble
and solo brass instruments. One such work for brass band, Prague,
achieved a certain - and unjustified - notoriety for its “modern”
idiom in the band world when it was selected as the test piece
for the annual round of the Regional Brass Band Championship
contests in 2004.
Naxos has combined the best of both worlds with this disc showcasing several
of Bingham’s most successful choral works. It includes two with
brass accompaniment and two with organ. There’s also one for
brass ensemble alone that appropriately draws its material from
another Bingham choral work, Gleams of a Remoter World.
Dating
from 1993, The Darkness Is No Darkness is the earliest
of the works on the disc. It takes as its starting point S.
S. Wesley’s hymn, “Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace”.
In her own informative sleeve-notes the composer explains that
whilst playing through the hymn on the piano she noticed that
a number of Wesley’s chords were unusual when played in isolation.
The piece could therefore be thought of as a contemporary realisation
of the Wesley with the more unusual harmonies rewoven into Bingham’s
own distinctive harmonic sound-world, before segueing into the
Wesley itself.
First
Light was written for the Waynflete Singers in 2001. On numerous occasions
- as in The Secret Garden and Salt in the Blood -
Bingham has set her own words. In this case however she turned
to a friend, the poet Martin Shaw, to write a poem dealing with
the mysteries of the Incarnation. Of all the works here this
is the most intense; impressively powerful in its exploration
of the poem’s deeply searching subject matter. It is underpinned
thematically by a series of notes the composer drew from the
carillon of Athens Cathedral, opposite which she had stayed
around the time of the work’s composition.
If
ever evidence were needed of Bingham’s ability to cast a spell
over her audience, Salt in the Blood and The Secret
Garden are particularly potent examples. The two works also
share the common ground of having been written to commission
for the Proms and premiered at late night concerts in the Royal
Albert Hall. This reviewer was fortunate enough to be present
at both premieres. The combination of Bingham’s supreme skill
in writing for voices, allied with music that leaves a lasting
and haunting impression, succeeded in captivating the audience
in the hall in a way that few other contemporary composers can
emulate.
Salt
in the Blood is a nautical ghost
story; the tale of two Norwegian sailors who become embroiled
in a fatal quarrel over who was the better dancer, as told by
John Masefield in his Sea Superstitions. Scored for chorus
and brass, Bingham tells the story against a backdrop of traditional
sea shanties, interspersed with her own “hornpipes” and texts
drawn from sources as diverse as the Beaufort Scale and Bram
Stoker’s Dracula; all of which are bound together by
the composer’s own verse. From its eerily mist-shrouded opening,
through which the first strains of the shanty, Whisky Johnny,
are heard as if floating across the water, Bingham creates a
palpable sense of atmosphere that draws the listener in and
doesn’t let go until the final sounds slowly disappear into
the mist once again.
In
the case of The Secret Garden it is the work’s live first
performance at the Proms that is committed to disc here. The
recording coming off very well when one considers the extraneous
audience noises that can so often detract from live Prom recordings.
Subtitled Botanical Fantasy, the work stems from the
composer’s pondering on the Garden of Eden following Adam and
Eve’s departure as well as “the central image” of the synergy
between moths and orchids that Bingham became aware of through
the BBC TV series The Private World of Plants. It was
however the Swedish botanist Linnaeus and his descriptions of
the sexual behaviour of plants that drew the composer to the
eighteenth century and the decision to cast the piece in the
form of a five movement French suite.
In
comparison to Salt in the Blood, it is a very different
sound-world that the composer creates here, yet no less magical
in its atmosphere or inherent sense of musical drama. Thomas
Trotter has been associated with Bingham’s music for some time
and gave the first performance of her Ancient Sunlight
on the organ of Symphony Hall, Birmingham shortly after the
instrument’s belated completion a couple of years ago. There
is a strong sense here of the composer writing to his considerable
strengths, in a virtuosic part that Trotter dispatches with
obvious brilliance.
Although
it has been a long time in coming, this
first Judith Bingham disc does the composer
proud in first rate performances of
some of her most characteristic and
memorable music. The BBC Symphony Chorus
under Stephen Jackson are beyond reproach
and it is pleasing that the excellent
Fine Arts Brass get their deserved moment
in the limelight in The Snows Descend.
Enthusiasts of Judith Bingham’s music
will not want to be without this disc
but for those who usually shy away from
contemporary fare, this is real music
that makes a real impression and is
well worth exploring.
Christopher Thomas
see also Interview
with Judith Bingham
British Composers
on Naxos page
BBC Symphony Chorus/Stephen 
