Jenny Lewis was commissioned by Brighton Early Music Festival to write a special poem to celebrate the joys and benefits of singing. The poem is sung to a 13th century melody from the Spanish Cantigas de Santa Maria. It received its first performance on Saturday, 25th October 2008 when it was sung by four choirs coming together to launch the Festival's 3 year project to get the city singing: Sing Brighton!
The performance formed part of a special procession which started at 6.30pm near the Theatre Royal on New Road and went on to St Bartholomew's Church on Ann Street. The choirs then took part in a concert at St Bartholomew's Church of a cappella music from Scotland and England, including a performance of Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium with forty individual vocal lines all happening at once.
Jenny, who has been working with Clare Norburn, Artistic Director of the Brighton Early Music Festival, for several years, was given an Arts Council grant to study troubadour lyrics in the Languedoc. These were developed into a concert of troubadour songs and poems with the early music group, Third Voice and performed at festivals round the country and at the Royal Festival Hall.
There are more details about Sing Brighton! on the Brighton Early Music Festival web site.