Psalms and Sacred Songs
A personal reflection by Forbes Mutch on Rachel Chaplin’s ‘Music from an Inner Space’, performed at St Andrew’s Church in March 2024.
Most music lovers will recall moments in time when they first heard a memorable song or tune or genre that changed their lives. For me it was seeing rock band Pink Floyd for the first time, or my earliest visit to a concert hall to hear a 90-piece orchestra. On both occasions, A Saucerful of Secrets and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony created a sound so huge and so different from anything I had heard before that I almost felt able to touch it and new doors in my life of musical appreciation were opened.
It's no exaggeration to say that a similar moment occurred for different reasons when we heard Rachel Chaplin launch her first album of spiritual songs on the altar stage at St Andrew’s. There was no light show or rousing Ode to Joy, but it was an evening of such hauntingly lyrical brilliance that it left many of us in the audience mesmerised, spellbound even, by the vividness of a musical tapestry that has put this evening on the top shelf of my musical memory bank. Move (or roll) over Beethoven.
Rachel is an exceptionally talented professional oboist who performs with top musicians in major venues around the world. And yet she felt that it was right to launch her CD among friends and family at St Andrew’s because, she said, ‘church is the perfect setting for music like this’. Music like what? I’m not clever enough to describe it accurately in melodic terms but Rachel’s songs, based on Bible stories, psalms and prayers, are like musical poetry set against a background of chamber music, which, as Google will tell you, is ‘intimate music, suited to the expression of subtle and refined ideas’. That will do for me.
The scene of excellence at our concert in March was set by a virtuoso performance from award-winning violinist and singer Flora Curzon, playing her own song cycle Hold Still Liminal, which the talented performer and friend of Rachel released as an EP last year. Flora then joined Rachel and a small group of musicians for the first live performance of Music from an Inner Space. The composition comes in three parts: prayers, stories and songs. Written for piano and strings, each movement was introduced by Rachel with personal stories, which made the performance intimate and heartfelt. She played the church’s grand piano and was joined on stage by violins, viola, cello and bass, with brief cameos from her husband Sam on trumpet and flugel horn. The vocals were provided by Rachel’s friend and musical collaborator, the inspirational Evi Dobner, a singer, songwriter, dancer and sacred artist who was instrumental in the making of the Inner Space album.
Playing the album in full, we heard Rachel’s adaptations of The Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 51, the lament of Mary, Christ’s anointing at Bethany and four remarkable songs based on Psalm 23, including a moving finale called In the Valley. Each piece was followed by an interlude for piano or strings. Rachel will be embarrassed when I say this, but it’s easy to take musical genius for granted when it belongs to a member of your own church choir. But genius this was and is, and we were privileged to be part of the first public performance of music that takes Rachel into new artistic and creative territory. I, for one, look forward to her next CD.
Meet Rachel Chaplin
Rachel's music is spacious and reflective, her songs described as ‘beautiful and powerful, better than any medicine’ by BBC Radio 3 Presenter Hannah French.
Rachel performs in top concert halls and venues around the world as an oboist, including in Carnegie Hall, at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall and recently in Westminster Abbey for the Coronation of King Charles III. Music from an Inner Space has been her private passion project, written in between her schedule of performing.
Evi Dobner, vocals
Flora Curzon, violin/vocals
Find out more about Rachel Chaplin
www.rachelchaplinmusic.com
More about the album project...
An extract from an article in February 2024's St Andrew's parish magazine:
Many of you will have read about Rachel’s project to record an album of Psalms & sacred songs which she has
written. Music from an Inner Space is now complete and will be performed and celebrated at a special launch concert on Saturday 2 March at St Andrew’s.
Rachel writes:
“I’m hugely grateful for the support so many at St Andrew’s gave me towards this creative project. It is exciting to have finished it and I’m looking forward to a year of performing and promoting the music, which I hope will bring these words and stories deeper into people’s minds and hearts. I’m delighted to bring the launch concert to St Andrew’s – I attended one of the folk gigs at the end of last year and loved the atmosphere; it made me appreciate all the more the wonderful building St Andrew’s is. I’ll be performing on piano with a group of string players who are professional orchestral colleagues of mine and we’ll be joined on vocals by my longstanding friend and collaborator Evi Dobner. My husband Sam will also make a guest appearance on trumpet for a couple of the songs.”
Rachel’s album is available on CD or vinyl. Her ‘contemplation packs’ include a limited edition booklet and candle, made especially to go with the music.
