Exploring themes of peace and liberty, Invictus is a 50-minute cantata by UK husband-wife composer team, Morgan Pochin (James Morgan and Juliette Pochin). It draws on texts from a number of authors, including Thomas Paine, Emily Dickinson, John Dryden, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Ernest Henley's renowned poem 'Invictus', and culminates in 'Oh Freedom', a rousing setting of the post-Civil War African-American freedom song. Scored for youth choir, SATB chorus and orchestra Invictus was commissioned by the 2015 Brighton Festival to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.
The good news is that the cantata is now coming to your home, via an exciting new virtual chorus project launching this month!
There are two options: one for SATB chorus ('No Rack Can Torture Me'), and one for youth chorus ('King John').
'No Rack Can Torture Me' is a setting of a beautiful Emily Dickinson poem, and forms the second movement of Invictus. It's an especially poignant text in that James was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, so for James and Juliette there is a very personal and positive message in this poem; but they hope everyone will relate to these words in their own way.
How you can be part of this:
James and Juliette write "we’ve uploaded videos of James conducting 'No Rack Can Torture Me' to YouTube here along with the music for each voice part. Simply choose the video for your voice part and record yourself singing along to James conducting. It can be an audio or a video recording. Finally, send it to Dropbox using this link. We’ll put all the individual performances together to create a Virtual Chorus performance of the piece.
The PDFs of each voice part can be downloaded for free here:
Please contact us at cantataforliberty@gmail.com if you need any advice on how to record yourself. If you know children who like singing, please encourage them to join our Virtual Youth Chorus for another movement from the Cantata called 'King John' (video link here):
Thank you for your contribution, we hope it will culminate in a very moving performance of a wonderful poem with singers from all over the world. If you want to be notified when the finished video is ready, please include your email address with your video or email us; if after singing these words you feel moved to share your own story, please do include this too and we’ll compile people’s stories as part of our finished video."