Minerva Scientifica Birthday Celebration: Imogen Holst PODCAST
12th April 2021
Imogen Holst
Composer and Conductor
BORN 12 April 1907 ,Richmond, Surrey
click on the blue button to listen to the PODCAST Episode 9: Another Holst in Thaxted
“Women of Science & Music: 30 celebrations”
Imogen Holst (1907 – 1984) was influential in the development of music education and community music-making in England in the twentieth century. She was a pioneer, composing throughout her career for instruments such as brass band, pipes, recorders and hand bells, bringing these instruments into the art music or cultivated music worlds. She was one of the first women to establish herself as a conductor.
The podcast explores her life and work and connections to both Aldeburgh and the Thaxted Festival in Essex. We are grateful to Thaxted researcher Michael Goatcher whose work has greatly informed this podcast.
SPEAKERS:
Judith Ratcliffe, Archivist at Britten Pears Arts in Aldeburgh
Peter Donovan, Chairman of Thaxted Festival
MUSIC: by Imogen Holst for unaccompanied voices
- “A Sweet Country Life” (1937) an arrangement of a Gloucestershire folk song collected by Cecil Sharp
- “Round” (1926) on a poem by Cheng Hao (translated from the Chinese) for equal voices
- “Set me as a seal upon thine heart” (1946) text from Song of Songs 8:6&7 one of the“Four Canons for Winsome”
Performed by: – Frances M Lynch, Alice Privett (Sopranos); Simone Ibbett-Brown, Margaret Cameron (Mezzos); David Sheppard (Countertenor); Julian Stocker (Tenor); Gwion Thomas (Baritone)
These are the first recordings ever made of these works, created from recordings by the individual singers during lockdown 2020, and compiled by Clarke & Lynch at Birnam Studios, London.
We are grateful to the Holst Foundation for their permission to record these works and to Britten Pears Arts for providing the unpublished scores. 
The series presenter is Frances M Lynch, Artistic Director of electric voice theatre. Part of electric voice theatre’s Essex 2020 Minerva Scientifica project “Echoes from Essex” in collaboration with Chelmsford Civic Theatre.
Minerva Scientifica – Connections 2020
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