1517
This term the Cherwell Singers marks the 500th anniversary of the publication in 1517 of the 95 theses by Martin Luther that is popularly considered to have marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. 
For church music the Protestant imperative to attend more to text in general, and scripture in particular, as well as greater focus on the human spirit and body, resulted in great change. Some argue Protestantism inaugurated a culture of greater listening, as well as participation through the congregational psalm and hymn singing in the vernacular.
In the first half of our concert we explore the response of some of the German composers to these changes, including two works by Schutz who was the leading Lutheran composer of the seventeenth century, as well as JS Bach with whom the Lutheran tradition reached its peak.
In the second half the response of the English composers is shown, with works by William Byrd, who was perhaps most famously caught up in the religious turmoil
of the day, as well as Thomas Tallis, John Sheppard and William Mundy.  
The organist will be Benjamin Bloor who will play organ music from the Reformation by Buxtehude and Byrd on the Metzler organ of the University Church.
The University Church played an important role in the history of the Reformation as the setting of the trial of the Oxford martyrs, so provides an apt historical setting. Do join us for this evening to mark this important moment in musical and religious history.

Discernment

I have never been to Norway:
never stood on the needle of jetty
and split the lake’s quick skin
with an incisive flint. Forests,
sheltering in gloom, are alien to me;
I cannot say that I have hiked
through thick-sapped trees and broken
at the top to sun and air. Low mists
have never touched me.

I have been to Sweden, though,
which, I imagine, is much the same.


I thought I’d mark my final Poetry Corner with a poem of my own.

In this poem, I wanted to wrong-foot the reader with a lyrical, slightly over-the-top build-up to, essentially, a punchline. People can be very reluctant to laugh at poetry readings – poetry audiences are sometimes a little bit maddeningly respectful – so it can be tempting to throw in a poem that starts serious and ends silly. It’s like blowing up a fat balloon, and introducing it to a pin.

The poem is also, of course, about reading as experience: in reading we build mental images which are, in a way, even more powerful than something witnessed in reality. My own experience of ‘Norway’ – cobbled together through my mother’s battered childhood copy of Norwegian Fairytales, the odd documentary, and envy of a primary-school-friend’s marvellous Scandinavian jumpers – appeals to me, and if I ever do get to the real Norway I’ll be looking for elements of my conceptualised place (that unwrinkled lake, that misty forest) in whatever is actually present. It’s a sort of Romantic confirmation bias. So I look forward to mapping my notions of places onto their actual counterparts on my upcoming travels in Europe.

Thank you for making me a part of the University Church for the past three years. I’ve felt welcomed and stimulated, and I’ve found the experience richly rewarding. It has been an absolute privilege to work here. I’ve got the odd poem out of it, too.

With love,
Penny