Manchester Streetwise Explore Group, arranged by Penny Woolcock (E)
2fl.2ob-pft-string quartet
SATB chorus
Abbreviations (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
Choral level of difficulty: 1 (5 greatest)
Streetwise Opera is an arts organisation working with the homeless sector to inspire change and empower people to realise their own creative potential. They aim to transform lives by supporting people to make meaningful connections through the arts, rebuild social networks, improve wellbeing and develop new skills.
World-class artists are engaged to collaborate with individuals affected by homelessness to create powerful works of art, and to positively impact how society views homelessness.
Together with The Sixteen they made an abridged version of Bach’s St Matthew Passion as their major project of 2016 and asked MacMillan to write a new final chorus which would be uplifting. The words were written by Streetwise’s Explore Group and arranged by Penny Woolcock.
The scoring is for 2 flutes and oboes, string quartet and piano with a single SATB chorus. As originally conceived it is for unison voices but MacMillan has added some bars of harmony which can be used to enrich moments in the progress of the movement. In the original abridged version it followed the moment of revelation by the Centurion ‘Truly this was the Son of God’ and MacMillan ends the movement with that music as the choir trails away ‘…as the rain still falls…’. It is an intensely moving movement – almost inconceivably adding something to Bach’s incomparable masterpiece.
Repertoire Note by Paul Spicer