Communion music
During Communion this week, we shall be listening to “The Shepherds’ Farewell” by Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), sung by Guildford Cathedral Choir.
This piece started life in 1850 as a work for organ solo, but Berlioz soon turned it into a choral movement. At its first performance it was passed off as the work of an imaginary 17th-century composer “Ducré”, and Berlioz was amused to find many people who usually hated his music – regarding it as discordant and bombastic – were taken in by the hoax, even saying “Berlioz would never be able to write a tune as simple and charming.” He later (1853–4) incorporated it into his oratorio “L’Enfance du Christ” (The Childhood of Christ).