Miss Marple, Sex and the City?
The popular theme tune takes on a new twist.
Surely this year’s most extraordinary chart contender is the single Evensong - a winning collaboration between legendary hit composers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley and award-winning a cappella octet VOCES8, which aims to propel choral music into the national best-sellers.
The result is Evensong - an intriguing version of Howard and Blaikley’s unforgettable theme tune from BBC TV’s Miss Marple featuring a haunting new lyric, combined with the glorious, beautifully blended voices of VOCES8. The association between composers and group sprang from a serendipitous meeting at a charity concert which began with expressions of mutual admiration and quickly turned into a discussion as to how they might all work together.
The song tells the tale of a sophisticated teenage girl’s attempt to lure a younger chorister away from his choral duties to the bright lights and temptations of the big city. Just as Evensong dramatises the very contemporary conflict between traditional and permissive values, so the eponymous CD album reflects many facets of life in a wide spectrum of musical styles - ranging from pop to jazz to liturgy, enhanced by Jim Clements’ innovative arrangements.
“You can’t watch VOCES8 and not be amazed by their extraordinary talent, their youth, energy and total professionalism. We instantly wanted to work with them, and they too were looking to reach out to a wider audience. Evensong is based on an instrumental theme that has meant a lot to us, but VOCES8 has transformed it into something completely new - a powerful mini-drama about the conflict between traditional and contemporary values.
The idea of a young a cappella vocal group setting their sights on a chart hit is certainly from left field - but if anyone can bring it off, VOCES8 can.” say Howard and Blaikley.
With more people singing than playing football, choral music is well loved in this country. According to the BBC hit television show, Last Choir Standing, “Singing in choirs is one of the nation's favourite pastimes with over 25,000 registered choirs and at least half a million members.” For VOCES8, it has been more than just a pastime, but a life long passion. Formed by ex-Choristers of Westminster Abbey, the group has been universally praised for its ability to switch effortlessly between styles and vocal colours, VOCES8 has won 13 international awards at major choral competitions in Italy, Spain and Slovenia. Concert tours throughout Europe have gained the group considerable attention on the continent, while back at home they made their debut at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in September of last year. They have recently been invited to perform with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on 8th of November, and will embark on a US tour in March 2009. Their love of music extends beyond the stage and into the classroom. Forming a key part of an education programme, the group works in over 90 schools teaching young Britain to sing. The group already has two successful CD’s under their belt: ‘From Gibbons to Gershwin’, an eclectic mix of music from the last 500 years; and ‘Snowed In’, a light-hearted mix of traditional Christmas carols.
Now, with Evensong, VOCES8 offers what may be the strangest Christmas offering of the year, but with its catchy melody and powerful lyric, surely the most compelling.
Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley are responsible for more than 40 Top Twenty hits, including many international million-sellers. They were the first British songwriters to write a hit for Elvis Presley - I've Lost You. They composed the music and lyrics for the hit musical The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. In addition to the BBC’s Miss Marple series, they also scored the memorable Flame Trees of Thika for ITV and BBC's epic By the Sword Divided. They have been described by the Sunday Times as possessing “…a wit, gaiety, dignity and melodic flair reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein that suggests pop is becoming the serious music, in the proper sense of the word, of the age."
