Registration for the scratch choir is now closed as we have a full complement of singers. Everyone will be welcome to attend the workshops, but there isn't room on the stage for anyone else to take part in the performance! The performance pieces: Come and discover Holst’s ‘Hymn of Jesus’ With a huge variety of choral styles ranging from plainchant to Holst’s choral writing from The Planets, this should get your vocal chords going! There’s even a part for trebles - so all choristers, boys and girls, are welcome to join. The huge Festival Orchestra will accompany us. This was Holst’s response to the Great War and for it he chose the Apocryphal Gospel, the Hymn of Jesus, to encourage the listener not only to follow Jesus, but to ponder why Humanity suffers. In this, the first setting of such a text, Holst cast aside the traditional Oratorio, paving the way for the writings of later composers such as John Tavener. The Lamb is one of Tavener’s best loved works, written for unaccompanied SATB. Whilst on the one hand it is a simple piece, the choral singer might think it quite challenging. It is, however, simply constructed and a brief discovery of how it was cunningly written soon helps the singer grasp it! Do come and discover this exquisite setting of the William Blake poem. The orchestra will complete the concert with Jupiter and Mars from Holst’s ‘Planets’ and Britten’s ‘Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra’.