After a break for Christmas, Choral Evensong returns to All Saints Fulham Church on Sunday 20 January at 6pm.
The Choir will sing an anthem by British composer Edgar Bainton (1880-1956), And I Saw a New Heaven.
London-born Bainton studied at the Royal College of Music under Sir Henry Walford-Davies and Sir Charles Stanford. In 1901, He became professor at the Conservatory of Music in Newcastle (which closed in 1938).
On his way to Bayreuth Festival in 1914, together with many other British musicians, he was arrested as war broken out between Britain and Germany. He was kept with other civilians at Ruhleden, a detention camp near Berlin, through most of World War I. He was in charge of music at the camp and put on concerts for the other prisoners with a madrigal group and conducted the ad-hoc orchestra.
In 1934, Bainton emigrated with his family to Australia to be Director of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
And I Saw a New Heaven was completed in 1928 and to this day, it is his most popular work. The words are taken from the final book in the Bible – Revelation, Chapter 21 v1-4. This piece was sung at the Hillsborough Memorial Service at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral in 1989.
The video is the choir of Christ Church Southgate in North London give a live concert from St Clotilde in 2009. Conductor David Stevens, Organist David Hinitt.
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