HAYDN Seven Last Words – for String Quartet, with Readings
The Hanover Band Quartet will play Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ and Canon David Twinley and clergy colleagues will read the mystical words in St. Nicholas Church.
As Haydn described at the time, in 1786 he was commissioned by a Canon of the Cathedral in Cadiz to compose an orchestral work (Haydn would later write the version for string quartet) for the Good Friday service in the Holy Cave Oratory in Cadiz.
He tells us that the Bishop spoke the first of the seven words, and, bar the final “Earthquake” movement, all of the nine movements are composed in the adagio form.
THE HANOVER BAND QUARTET
Julia Kuhn violin
Kelly McCusker violin
Dan Shilladay viola
Sebastian Comberti cello
HANOVER (Not Hannover; Germany) In terms of British history the majority of the music we play is from the Hanoverian period. Hanover also refers to Hanover Square in London, where Haydn performed his symphonies and arias in the Salomon Concerts in the 1790’s.
BAND (ref: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)
‘An instrumental ensemble, larger than a chamber ensemble. Thus the ’24 violins’ of Louis XIV were called ‘la grande bande’ to distinguish them from Lully’s ‘petits violons’, and Charles II’s similar ensemble was known as ‘the King’s Band’. By extension, ‘band’ came to mean an orchestra in colloquial British usage’.
THE HANOVER BAND a period name for a period orchestra.