On 6 December contemporary folk fiddle player Aidan O’Rourke and Sean Shibe premiered a new version of Tom Coult’s O Ecclesia, after music by Hildegard von Bingen, for violin and electric guitar at Kings Place. It appeared as part of Lùban, their programme exploring the partnership of classical and folk traditions, with further performances at the National Centre for Early Music in York and Perth Concert Hall.
O Ecclesia is based on a chant by Hildegard. This material is presented in full, though very freely adapted – stretched, compressed, and multiplied to fit its new clothing. The violinist intones Hildegard’s melody in a quasi-improvisatory wat, while Shibe’s electric guitar provides a gentle underlay, flecked with bright colours.
The 8-minute piece reworks music from Coult previously heard in versions for violin and strings and for violin and organ - the latter appeared on Daniel Pioro’s debut album Saint Boy. In March 2024 Pioro and the Marian Consort premiered a version of O Ecclesia for violin and voices at Wigmore Hall, reprised in June at the Aldeburgh Festival at Blythburgh Church.
As part of his composer-in-association role with the BBC Philharmonic Coult has created several reworkings and elaborations of Baroque and Renaissance repertoire. In April 2023 the orchestra premiered After Lassus with soprano Anna Dennis - a 15½ -minute work that takes six duets from Lassus’ Novae aliquot (1577) and refashions them “like plasticine – reshaping, stretching and compressing them”. The work featured, alongside his violin concerto Pleasure Garden, on Pieces That Disappear, his debut orchestral portrait album on NMC, released November 2024.