Robert Hugill's Passion to be performed at Chichester Cathedral by the cathedral choir as part of the Good Friday liturgy 2022

I am pleased to be able to announce that Passion, my setting of the passion story from St. John's Gospel, with interpolated poems by Carl Cook, is being performed on Good Friday (15 April 2022) by the choir of Chichester Cathedral, organist and master of the choristers Charles Harrison, as part of the Good Friday liturgy at Chichester Cathedral. This will be the work's first performance since 1999!

Lasting around 40 minutes and written for four unaccompanied voices, the work interweaves the passion story from St John's Gospel with chorales based on poems by the Black American poet Carl Cook selected from his collections Postscripts and The Tranquil Lake of Love which were both published in the 1990s.

Passion was written in 1998 for The Burgundian Cadence, a four-man a cappella vocal ensemble (Rupert Damerell, counter-tenor, Simon Biazeck, tenor, Matthew Woolhouse, tenor, Damian O'Keeffe, baritone) that specialised in music from the 14th and 15th centuries. The work was performed during 1998 and 1999 on a short tour, with an avant premiere in the 14th century Lovekyn Chapel at Kingston Grammar School, and then performances at St Mary Abbott's Church, Kensington, the British Music Information Centre, Lincoln Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. The group issued a recording on their own label in 1999 [still available from tutti.co.uk]