Bob Chilcott - The Voyage

or SATB double choir and piano or small ensemble Another winning collaboration between Bob Chilcott and author Charles Bennett, this work was commissioned by Age UK Oxfordshire as part of a project to highlight and combat loneliness. The singers assume the role of narrator, guiding the listener on a journey made by boat, with nine choral songs presenting their own stories within this larger excursion. The outer movements provide a watery framework with rippling figures and gentle choral waves. An air of nostalgia pervades 'My father's boat' and 'What we did on our holiday', while the central songs use naval and meteorological imagery to speak of some of life's difficulties. Soliloquies between the choral songs highlight a variety of solo instruments, but these may be omitted if performing with piano.

Composer’s note This

Composer’s note This piece was written in conjunction with the poet Charles Bennett for Age UK Oxfordshire and was designed to be performed by three choirs in each of the first two performances in Oxford and Reading on 18 and 19 March 2016. The choirs in Oxford were Choros, The Voyage Choir, and the Oxfordshire Schools’ Singers, and in Reading they were Reading Phoenix Choir, the BBC Berkshire Community Choir, and Berkshire Youth Choir. In both performances the choirs were accompanied by players from Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra. The work, written as a part of Age UK’s Campaign to End Loneliness, was conceived as a project that aimed to bring young and old together and to highlight some of the challenges we all ultimately face in the voyage through life. Certain aspects of our lives are often framed with memories of songs and it is through the use of songs and refrains that I have attempted to bring to life Charles Bennett’s colourful and multi-layered text. These songs are interspersed with instrumental soliloquies, which can be omitted if the piece is performed with piano accompaniment alone. for online perusal only Duration: c.43 minutes (including soliloquies) or c.33 minutes (without soliloquies) In this published edition the scoring has been reduced to two SATB choirs, but details of the original threechoir scoring are available on the OUP website. An accompaniment for small ensemble (fl, alto sax, hn, timp, pno, vla, vcl, db) is available on hire/rental from the publisher or appropriate agent. If the work is performed with small ensemble, the pianist should play from the piano part available on hire/ rental and not the part in the vocal score. Age UK Oxfordshire wishes to record its warm thanks for the generous support of Arts Council England, The Austin Hope Pilkington Trust, The Bartlett Taylor Charitable Trust, The Rayne Foundation, and our ‘Cornerstone Donors’—six staff grants from the Tudor Trust—without whose vision we would never have set out on ‘The Voyage’.

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