BACH’S ‘LOBET DEN HERRN’
21 May 2022
WILLIAM BYRD’S ‘SING JOYFULLY’
22 May 2022
DULCIE HOLLAND'S 'ALLELUIA'
Dulcie Holland (1913 – 2000)
Dulcie Holland is one of the most important figures in Australian music. While she was best known as an educator for most of her life (including a long association with the Australian Music Examinations Board or AMEB), her work as a recitalist and composer of great skill has only recently started to attract the attention it so justly deserves.
Holland was born in Sydney and learned the piano from a young age. She would go on to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and also at the Royal College of Music in London before returning to Australia at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 (incidentally, the year also coinciding with the founding of the Australian Boys Choir).
If you have studied music, you have probably worked through any number of her "Master Your Theory" textbooks. Her compositions include works for orchestra, pieces for solo piano, chamber music, songs for solo voice and some magnificent choral works. Along with her contemporary, the composer Miriam Hyde, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Macquarie University in 1993.
Dulcie Holland's music has been largely neglected. We were proud to record some of her music on our very first CDs, and these pieces have remained an important part of our repertoire. We last performed her 'Alleluia' in St. Thomas' Church Leipzig, where Bach is buried, back in 2018. That performance was extremely moving and we're thrilled to be able to include it again as part of our 'Sing Joyfully' program this year.
Listen for the key theme as it passed between the four voices. It is a very simple melody but the way in which the composer treats it makes a big impact. The piece is a very expressive one, and the harmonic language is very rich. Interestingly, the text for this piece is made up of only a single word but Holland colours that word in a myriad of interesting ways, gripping the listener from the very start through to the glorious crescendo in the middle, all the way to the softly hushed ending.
This piece features long lyrical lines, is in four parts and has no instrument accompaniment. Before coming to either our ‘Sing Joyfully’ concerts, you can listen to a recording of the piece below by the Australian Boys Choir and The Vocal Consort made in 1999 for our second-ever CD release.
Sing Joyfully Concert Details
Saturday 19th August at Sacred Heart Cathedral Bendigo | Sunday 20th August at St. Patrick's Cathedral Melbourne
Also live-streamed on the Australian Digital Concert Hall platform. World-wide digital access, including 72-hour delayed viewing.
To learn more about the exciting concerts and events planned for 2023,
please see
www.australianboyschoir.com.au/concerts
Members of the Australian Boys Choir and The Vocal Consort onstage at Melbourne Recital Centre with Artistic Director Nicholas Dinopoulos, December 2022. Photo by Jane Kupsch.
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