Better late than never
Palmerston North’s Renaissance Singers are doing something special this month.
They’re giving life to an impressive piece of music that has lain dormant for more than 200 years and has never been performed.
When they sing the opening chorus of The Hymn Of Adam And Eve on Saturday, their voices will announce a new, significant work.
The composer was Samuel Arnold, the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day.
He was London’s Mr Music in the late 18th century – an impresario, musical director of Haymarket Theatre Royal, organist at Westminster Abbey and, for a time, composer at Covent Garden.
Renaissance Singers’ conductor Guy Donaldson said ‘‘anything written or presented of note had Arnold’s hand on it’’.
Arnold edited Handel’s scores, especially his oratorios and as well as serious music, he wrote the hit-parade numbers of his day and reintroduced popular opera back to London audiences. In all he wrote 60 stage works.
When Arnold heard Haydn’s Creation he knew it was a masterpiece. He decided to write a sequel and showcase the prodigious talent of a German soprano he’d worked with in London.
The Hymn Of Adam And Eve would be his own showpiece – his musical landmark. He gathered the best musicians around him, but died before the work could be rehearsed.
The score was a tribute to his genius, but there was no-one else who could harness the resources. ‘‘He was such a one-man band that, without his presence, the concert had nowhere to go," Donaldson said.
Adam And Eve simply got put aside then disappeared into the vaults of the Royal College of Music. Meanwhile, Arnold was honoured and laid to rest at Westminster Abbey among the greats.
Nearly 200 years went by and then associate professor Robert Hoskins, a New Zealand musicologist, became intrigued with Arnold and, in his doctoral thesis on the composer, found the score and edited it for choirs, soloists and orchestras.
Adam And Eve, scheduled for performance in 1802, has had the longest musical pause in history, but is now ready for its world premiere at the Regent On Broadway, Palmerston North. More than 100 musicians are participating in this piece of musical history.
Donaldson, who is retiring from the Renaissance Singers after 30 years, will conduct the work together with excerpts from
Creation, in a concert entitled A
New Creation.
‘‘Arnold’s music will fall easily on the ear. His passion was to entertain and for the audience to hear consummate artistry,’’ he said. ‘‘They’ll hear a transitional work that reflects both Handel and Haydn.
‘‘I’m sure Arnold would be delighted that his work will finally be performed in association with the masterpiece that inspired it.’’
A New Creation, conducted by Donaldson, will be performed by The Renaissance Singers, Schola Sacra and the Manawatu¯ Sinfonia, with soloists Pasquale Orchard and Lindsay Yeo at The Regent On Broadway on Saturday.
Tickets from Ticketdirect.