Ronald Geoffrey Corp, OBE, SSC (born 4 January 1951) is a composer, conductor and Anglican priest. He is founder and artistic director of the New London Orchestra (NLO) and the New London Children's Choir. Corp is musical director of the London Chorus, a position he took up in 1994, and is also musical director of the Highgate Choral Society.
Through his role as conductor and artistic director, Corp programmes and aims to bring to life repertoire written in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries which is rarely heard in concert. His introductions from the stage are a key part of his mission to make music more accessible. Together with the New London Orchestra, his championing of neglected music has resulted in some 20 recordings with Hyperion Records which feature composers such as Milhaud, Satie, Elinor Remick Warren, Virgil Thomson, John Foulds and the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz;[4] and a series of Light Music Classics, four of them of British, and one each of American Light Music Classics and European Light Music Classics.
The issue in late 2010 by Corp and the NLO of the first digital recording of Rutland Boughton's opera The Queen of Cornwall was designated 'Disc of The Month' in Opera magazine, March 2011[5][6] and 'Editor's Choice' in Gramophone, September 2011.[7]
The New London Children's Choir was launched by Ronald Corp in 1991 with the aim of introducing children to the challenges and fun of singing and performing all types of music. The Choir is one of the busiest and most successful children's ensembles in the country and has commissioned more than 40 new pieces and premiered numerous other works by composers including its patrons Louis Andriessen and Michael Nyman. It has performed frequently at the Proms, made a number of film soundtrack and TV recordings, including the soundtrack to Star Wars Episode 1, 'The Phantom Menace' and been engaged for concerts and recordings with all the major London orchestras and opera companies. The choir and its members have appeared regularly in major London concert halls working with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and sing onstage at the English National Opera.
Composer
Corp began writing music at a very early age. Learning the piano gave him a means of hearing and notating the pieces. He wrote throughout his teens and his undergraduate days at Oxford.
The list of his compositions is extensive and dominated by works for voice, whether solo, for small vocal groupings, church choirs or massive choral societies – Highgate Choral Society and the London Chorus have been regular performers over the years. His first major choral work And All the Trumpets Sounded was premiered in 1989 by Highgate Choral Society, the composer stating, "My piece focuses on war, the dead and the trumpets of the last judgement".[8] Five years later, and combining text from the Te Deum with Wordsworth and Hopkins, the cantata Laudamus was premiered to great critical acclaim[9] at St John's, Smith Square by the London Choral Society (now the London Chorus). In 2003 BBC Radio 3 commissioned a major work for the BBC Singers – an a cappella setting of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach.
Following his work with youth choruses and the formation of the New London Children's Choir, Corp also established himself as a composer for young voices. On the strength of this reputation, he was commissioned to write for the Farnham Youth Choir who were winners of their section in the 'Sainsbury Choir of the Year' (1998), resulting in Four Elizabethan Lyrics to texts by Shakespeare, Dekker, Jonson and Chidiock Tichborne. Other substantial works for children's choir include Cornucopia, a cycle of songs with orchestra (1997), and its successor Kaleidoscope (2002) which includes a setting of 'The Owl and the Pussycat'. His Christmas operaWenceslas was premiered by the New London Children's Choir in 1982 and revived in 2008, while a more recent children's opera, The Ice Mountain, had three performances in 2010–11 by the same choir, and has been recorded.
His interest in literature is evident in the many song-sets devoted to settings of a single poet, e.g.The Music of Francis Thompson which received its première at Benslow Music Trust in January 2010.[10] An earlier set, The Music of Whitman, had its première at the 2011 Tardebigge English Song Festival in Worcestershire, performed by Mark Stone (baritone) and Stephen Barlow (piano);[11] while The Music of Browning was first performed in October of the same year as part of the Little Venice Music Festival with Robert Presley (baritone) and Andrew Robinson (piano).[12] In March 2013, the baritone Lee Tsang premiered The Music of Larkin at Middleton Hall in Hull, Yorkshire. There are also discrete songs such as the humorous The Bath, and song-cycles such as Flower of Cities which takes London as its unifying theme.
Among his orchestral works are Symphony No. 1 (2009) which evokes "a journey from darkness to light"[13] and the programmatic triptych Guernsey Postcards (2004) with its depictions of a local fair, Pembroke Bay and St. Peter Port, commissioned by the Guernsey Camerata.
Another large-scale work is the Piano Concerto No.1 (1997) which has received three performances by pianists Julian Evans and Leon McCawley and was described by one critic as,
... possibly the most winningly successful British Piano Concerto of the last forty years or so. It is, wholly exceptionally, very well written in true virtuoso pianistic style.[14]
On Saturday 9 July 2011, Corp celebrated his 60th birthday year at the Royal Festival Hall in London with a performance of And All the Trumpets Sounded and the world première of The Wayfarer (In Homage to Mahler) for 16 solo singers and orchestra – a setting of two of Mahler's own poems from his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and of his early poem 'Im Lenz'. Ronald Corp conducted the NLO, and the combined forces of Highgate Choral Society, The London Chorus and the New London Children's Choir were deployed in the rest of the concert. A pre-concert talk took place with Corp in conversation with Richard Morrison.[16]
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was celebrated by a special concert given at the Barbican by Highgate Choral Society and the NLO on Saturday 9 June 2012, to include the première of This Sceptr'd Isle by Corp, a stirring seven-minute setting of text from Shakespeare's Richard II, the orchestra replete with surging sea-imagery and fanfares for four trumpets.[18]
Corp's orchestrations of Erik Satie's Gnossiennes are featured in the film Chocolat of 2000.
More detailed information on Corp's life as a composer can be found on the Ronald Corp website.
Recent works
An interest in Buddhist literature is reflected in his setting of parts of the Dhammapada (2010) for eight solo singers (or SATB choir) interspersed with recordings of bells at temples sacred to the Buddha; and the cycle Songs of the Elder Sisters (from the Therigatha) for mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute, clarinet and viola. The latter was recorded in February 2012 with Sarah Castle (mezzo-soprano) and Sam Evans (baritone) while Dhammapada had been recorded and released by Stone Records in 2011.
Andrew Stewart writes: "How does the composer respond to those who question why a Christian minister was drawn to set a fundamental Buddhist text? Dhammapada, he says, was created to open dialogue among faiths: 'It’s about inviting people to open their ears and minds to spirituality. These words, thought to be by the Buddha himself, tell us essential truths, which stand against cynical and untrusting ways of seeing the world and our place in it.' Dhammapada contemplates the corrupting force of material things and the transience of wealth, beauty and power."[19]
The music critic Michael Church reviewed the recording thus: "...Set for small choir, it becomes a beguiling work, full of scrunchy dissonances but graceful to the ear", designating it 'Album of the Week' in The Independent, 29 January 2011.[20]
Also recorded in May 2012 were the String Quartet No. 3, the Clarinet Quintet 'Crawhall' and The Yellow Wallpaper for mezzo-soprano and string quintet, all composed in 2011. In these, the Maggini String Quartet are joined by Andrew Marriner (clarinet), Rebecca de Pont Davies (mezzo-soprano) and John Tattersdill (double bass). Regarding the subtitle of 'Crawhall' for the Quintet, Ronald Corp states:
Joseph Crawhall (1821–1896) was an engraver, writer, businessman, patron of arts, book designer, collector of antiquities, campaigner for the perseveration of architecture and a significant character in the life of Newcastle. His colourful life and wonderful woodblock illustrations have inspired this clarinet quintet which I hope gives some flavour of this most remarkable and likeable man.
The Yellow Wallpaper is a dramatic scena with text by Francis Booth adapted from the short story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This work continues the current trend for chamber compositions and unconventional instrumental/vocal groupings: Lullaby for a Lost Soul features a setting for counter-tenor, vibraphone, flute and cello with re-imaginings of the melancholy music of John Dowland. The text follows themes of loss, death and helplessness. It was recorded in September 2012.
In January 2013, three of these works, The Yellow Wallpaper, Songs of the Elder Sisters and Lullaby for a Lost Soul were performed at the event 'Corp de Ballet'[21] in collaboration with The Chantry Dance Company for a CD launch at the Village Underground, Shoreditch, London.
Recordings of Corp's music
Beside the recordings shown in the discography below, other recordings of compositions by Corp include:
And All the Trumpets Sounded performed by The London Chorus, Mark Stone (baritone) and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Corp on Dutton Epoch (2011).[22]
A Christmas Mass sung by Chantage on the disc Hark! Chantage at Christmas on EMI (2008).[23]
Five Flower Songs, Spring (When Daisies pied), Give to my Eyes, Lord and 'At Day-close in November' plus children's choir works by other composers on Pigs Could Fly, performed by the New London Children's Choir on Naxos (2008).[24]
Susanni sung by Worcester Cathedral Choir under Donald Hunt on the disc Joy to the World – A selection from The Novello Book of Carols on Hyperion/Helios (2003).[25]
A Cradle Song with the Armagh Girl Singers under Aubrey McClintock on Lammas Records (1999).[26]
Discography
Disc Title
Contents
Performers
Label and Catalogue Number
Recording and
Release Dates
Hail! Bright Cecelia 1947 – 2001
A Selection Of Anthems Commissioned By The Musician's Benevolent Fund
God Is Gone Up (Gerald Finzi) Come Down, O Love Divine (John Rutter) Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge (John Joubert) Christus Vincit (James MacMillan) God Is Our Hope And Strength (Simon Preston) Thou Mastering Me God (Jonathan Harvey) King Of Glory (Herbert Howells) Annunciation (John Tavener) Sing, Mortals! (Arthur Bliss) Live For Ever, Glorious Lord (George Dyson) The Voice Out Of The Whirlwind (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
'betwixt Heaven And Charing Cross (Anthony Payne)
Verbum Patris Give to my Eyes, Lord (Colin Coppen)
'May the Lord Bless You and Keep You'
(from Adonai Echad) Dover Beach (Arnold)
'Weep You no more, Sad Fountains' (from Cornucopia)
Two Partsongs ('Heraclitus' and
'I Strove with None')
Missa San Marco
Four Elizabethan Lyrics Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun (Shakespeare)
Lute-Book Lullaby (Sweet was the Song)
Requiem (R. L. Stevenson)
The Music of Whitman Flower of Cities Give to my Eyes, Lord (Colin Coppen) Break, break, break (Tennyson) The Owl and the Pussycat (Lear) Sleep (John Fletcher) Toward the Unknown Region (Whitman) The Bath (Harry Graham)
and song arrangements from Cornucopia
The Revival (Henry Vaughan) Never weather-beaten Sail (Thomas Campion)
Three Medieval Carols Ave Maria Ave verum The Pilgrim (John Bunyan)
Psalm 150 The Bells of Paradise We Will Remember Them (Laurence Binyon)
The music of Ronald Corp is published by Boosey and Hawkes (BH), Chester Music (C), Colla Voce (CV), Faber Music (F), Novello (N), Oxford University Press (OUP), Royal Society of Church Music (RSCM), Stainer and Bell (SB), Trinity Guildhall (TG) and the Ronald Corp website (RC). Where no publisher is given, please refer to the Ronald Corp website.
Programme notes, music excerpts and links to publishers and score purchasing facilities can be found on the Ronald Corp website.
Orchestral
Guernsey Postcards (1. The Viaer Marchi 2. Pembroke Bay 3. St. Peter Port) (2004)
Two Partsongs (1. Heraclitus 2. I strove with none) (RC)
Verbum Patri (Verbum Patris umanatur) (OUP)
Selected works for children's voices with instrumental ensemble (or orchestra) or piano
All ye Works of the Lord
Cornucopia (Seasonal Songs: 1. Whether the weather 2. Cows 3. The Irish Pig 4. Winter Morning. Sadder Songs: 5. The Paint Box 6. Weep You no more, Sad Fountains 7. Lone Dog 8. Sensitive, Seldom and Sad. Sillier Songs: 9. The Ship of Rio 10. The modern Hiawatha 'When he killed the Mudjokivis' 11. I've had this Shirt 12. Granny) (1997) (OUP)
For A Child/For Billy
The Ice Mountain (An Opera for Children)
Kaleidoscope (1. Weatherlore 2. The Shark 3. Grim and Gloomy 4. Plenty more Fish in the Sea 5. The Pobble who has no Toes 6. To Daffodils 7. There was a wee bit Mousikie 8. Proud Songsters 9. When Icicles Hang by the Wall (Winter) 10. Reeds of Innocence 11. Windy Nights 12. The Owl and the Pussycat 13. The Duchess's Lullaby 14. Weatherlore) (2002)
Playing with the Sun (2002)
Wenceslas (A Christmas Opera for Children)
Selected works for treble or women's voices with or without piano
^Programme note by Ronald Corp for the recording on Dutton Epoch CDLX 7233. Full text at "Symphony No. 1 – Programme Notes". ronaldcorp.com. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
Audio clip on YouTube of the Clarinet Quintet 'Crawhall', third movement – Allegretto grazioso played by Andrew Marriner and the Maggini String Quartet
Video on YouTube of excerpt from Dhammapada performed by Apsara Chamber Choir directed by the composer
