Monuments and Dedications: Where Music Endures

Monuments and Dedications: Where Music Endures
What endures after memory fades? Monuments of stone preserve the past, but music becomes a monument in sound-living, breathing and reborn with every performance.Josquin des Prez - Nymphes des Bois
Claudio Monteverdi - Sestina
Cecilia McDowall - O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth
Benjamin Britten - Choruses from Gloriana (for Tenor, Harp and Choir)
Benjamin Britten - Hymn to St Cecilia
Christine Donkin - In Flanders Fields
Jaakko Mantyjarvi - Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae
C. Hubert H. Parry - Crossing the BarOutside our own memories, how do we create lasting memorials to those who have gone before us? While monuments of stone mark places and people, music can become a memorial of a different kind - a sonic shrine that transcends time and place. The evening's programme explores works written in remembrance, celebration and dedication, commemorating individuals, communities and moments in history. Together, they reveal music's unique power not only to preserve memory but also to offer comfort, reflection and hope.
Josquin des Prez's Nymphes des Bois is an elegy for his teacher, the great Renaissance composer Johannes Ockeghem. Monteverdi's moving Sestina mourns the favoured court soprano of the Duke of Mantua, Caterina Martinelli. Her untimely death devastated both the duke and Monteverdi and inspired a sixth cycle of madrigals that has long outlived the marble tomb in the Carmelite church in Mantua, built in her honour.
From these intimate expressions of personal grief, the programme moves to Benjamin Britten's Choruses from Gloriana, a royal tribute to Elizabeth I and his Hymn to St Cecilia, before concluding with Parry's serene setting of Crossing the Bar-a timeless farewell that looks beyond loss towards peace. Marking the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's death, this concert itself becomes a monument in sound-living, breathing and reborn.City Chamber Choir citychamberchoir.org.uk
Guest Conductor: Lisa Graham7:30pm
Thursday 5 November 2026
St Lawrence Jewry, EC2V 5AA
27 FCC Member Concert & Walking Tour - book in advance only
30 Non-FCC Member Concert & Walking Tour - book in advance only
22 Early Bird Concert only - available until 25 October 2026
25 Concert only - on the door
18 Students
Free Under-18s