Music set for public outing after 200 years

History is being made in Manawatu¯ as about 100 musicians hit the stage for a world first.

The Renaissance Singers group is set to perform a Samuel Arnold song more than 200 years after the British composer put the piece together.

Guy Donaldson has been the Renaissance Singers’ conductor for 30 years and the performance, at the Regent on Broadway in November, will be his last concert before he retires.

It’s the first time Arnold’s piece of music will see the light of day.

He died not long after he wrote it and the song was lost, Donaldson said.

The work, Adam and Eve, was set to be performed when Arnold died, but then it was mislaid and finally hidden somewhere in the Royal College of Music.

Donaldson said Professor Robert Hoskins, from the New Zealand School of Music, was studying Arnold’s life and decided to look for the music. He found it and offered it to the Renaissance Singers for its first performance.

Donaldson said Hoskins approached him with the music two years ago.

‘‘I thought it was something a bit out of the blue. When I had a look, I got quite excited.’’ To perform the work, the Renaissance Singers needed to recruit a brilliant soprano, because Arnold had written it with a particular soprano solo in mind. Donaldson said the group found a young Wellington singer, Pasquale Orchard, who fitted the bill and from there things fell into place.

The group’s members first opened their mouths to sing notes that hadn’t been heard publicly for nearly 220 years last Tuesday. Donaldson said the music was beautiful. The song will be performed at the Regent On Broadway, Palmerston North, on November 10 alongside the Manawatu¯ Sinfonia and a Whanganui choir.