RONALD CORP conducts his new composition, DHAMMAPADA by Candlelight at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 14th June at 7.30pm.

5/20/2011 9:54 AM EST

The concert continues a long tradition at St Martin-in-the-Fields of tolerance, understanding and hospitality to religious and cultural diversity. The eighteenth-century church’s intimate acoustic and candlelit ambience are a beautiful setting for a thoughtful programme by British Composers of Buddhist and Hindu inspired music.

For Dhammapada, Ronald Corp, an Anglican Priest, has collaborated with the translator Francis Booth, to set the strikingly beautiful images expressed in the original ‘Dhammapada’ text to a choral piece of exceptional spirituality. The eight choral movements are interspersed with recordings of bells from sites where the Buddha lived, taught and died creating music that is both meditative and inspiring, and captures the soothing and didactic nature of the Buddha’s words.

The first half of the programme includes works inspired by Eastern mysticism. Holst’s Choral Hymns sets incantations from the ancient Rig Veda blending lyrical and ritualistic elements for women’s voices and harp and his Two Eastern Pictures uses text from the Indian poem Ritsusamhara by the famous Sanskrit poet, Kalidasa. Rubbra’s song-cycle The Jade Mountain sets five Chinese poems from the Tang Dynasty for soprano and harp.

There will be a retiring collection in aid of Prospect Burma.

Tickets are available from St Martin-in-the-Fields Box Office on 020 7766 1100 or online www.smitf.org
Full Programme

Thursday 14th June 2011
7.30pm
Dhammapada by Candlelight

Holst - Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda
Rubbra - The Jade Mountain
Holst - Two Eastern Pictures
Ronald Corp - Dhammapada for a choir of eight soloists and pre-recorded temple bells

Apsara
Elizabeth McNulty Harp
Ronald Corp Conductor

Tickets: £18, £15, £9