Call of the Birds

ST JOHN'S SOUTHGATE

Our final concert for the 2014 was Call of the Birds,  held on Sunday the 23rd of November at 3pm at St John’s Lutheran Church in Southbank, and featuring guest conductor Dan Walker. This concert incorporated a collection of works celebrating the colours and sounds of the sky.

Featuring works by some of Australia’s finest choral composers, the first half of the program had a strong avian theme: Aria Award winning performer and composer Sally Whitwell’s A Hundred Thousand Birds, a nod to the pastoral English choral tradition of Vaughan Williams and Stamford; Sydney composer David Basden’s richly voiced a cappella work, The Birds; the Australian premiere of Dan Walker’s Call of the Birds; Iain Grandage’s setting of Bush Songs, as well as a clever arrangement of Lennon and McCartney’s timeless classic Blackbird.

Two carols by Australian composer William James signaled the halfway point of the program, and as dusk descended, stars took over as the source of beauty and wonderment in the sky. This bracket featured Ben Van Tienen’s Christmas-themed Just One Star, in an adaptation arranged specifically for Choristry, as well as arrangements of The Beach Boys' God Only Knows and Irish vocal trio The Wailin’ Jennys' The Parting Glass.