802-775-4301 | Worship every Sunday @ 8:30 am and 10 am
802-775-4301 | Worship every Sunday @ 8:30 am and 10 am
Sanctuary
The Rutland Area Chorus will be presenting Handel’s Messiah and John Tavener’s God Is With Us on Dec. 14, 2025, at 3:30 pm and 7 pm.
*No tickets or reserved seating – all spaces are first come, first serve.
John Tavener – God is With Us: A Christmas Proclamation
The RAC will perform an unusual work alongside Handel’s Messiah this year – John Tavener’s powerful, God Is With Us: A Christmas Proclamation. This will be a wonderful challenge for our community chorus, what with the piece being (mostly) unaccompanied and in 8 parts!
Sir John Tavener was an English composer best known for his extensive output of sacred choral works including the Song for Athene which was performed at the funeral of HRH Princess Diana in 1997.
Tavener first came to prominence in 1968 with the completion of his dramatic cantata The Whale. This piece was recorded on the Beatles record label, Apple Records in 1970 after Tavener’s brother Roger, a builder at the time, convinced Ringo Starr to listen to the piece whilst carrying out some work on his house!
In 1977, Tavener converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. Following his conversion, Orthodox theology and liturgical traditions became a major influence on his work This drastically changed the way that his music sounded. The angular, atonal and aggressive music of the 1960s was replaced by a more ‘open’ and tonal sound which Tavener would continue to utilise until his death in 2013.
God Is With Us: A Christmas Proclamation is written for SATB choir, tenor soloist and organ. The basses open the piece singing a low chant-like passage on the opening line ‘God is with us’. The rest of the choir join and then the solo voice, our wonderful Ryan Mangan, emerges with a bold and highly decorated solo reminiscent of a Middle Eastern style chant.
As the piece progresses, Ryan becomes more artistically free on his line with phrases such as ‘Prince of Peace’ being highly decorated. The choir contribute with variations on the opening refrain, again, becoming more complex before coming together for the last two lines of the text.
The work ends with a completely unexpected twist – magnificent, earth shattering and glorious! Come to our Messiah concert to hear for yourself that, in the music of Handel and Tavener, Christ is indeed born!