Piers Plowman (1980)

A stirring two-act opera-cantata that deserves far-reaching appeal to choral societies. In a direct, modern, tonal idiom, clean, vivid orchestration supported gloriously rich chorales, sustained dramatic outbursts and soaring lyrical lines to which the soloists responded sensitively.

It is most refreshing to hear a Three Choirs first performance of a choral work in a style independent of the influence of Walton and Howells and with a quality to make further hearing more likely than the majority emerging from the festivals of recent years. Such was Piers Plowman by Gerard Schurmann. He bases his own text on William Langland, and with its gentle allusions it repays considered attention in its own right. Musically a fresh voice is heard, one not afraid to sing singable tunes, not overloaded by heavy accompaniment. Much of the most grateful writing is allotted to the soloists and displayed lively dramatic sense and authority as the moral conflict (symbolized perhaps in the polytonality of some sections) was developed until resolved in the apotheosis. Some exciting choral passages, such as the vigorous jousting episode, a striking build-up of tension in the second act, and inventive use of tuned percussion, are further features of a piece that promises to be a valued addition to the repertoire.

The most substantial item was the first performance of Gerard Schurmann's Piers Plowman. The music is colourful and tactfully written for the large choir. It provides much that is rewarding to sing and that must be the main function of new works written for Choral Festivals.

Gerard Schurmann's Piers Plowman was the outstanding success. Such a plan anticipates writing with a strong descriptive sense and a flair for characterful contrast and this just about sums up Schurmann's powerful answer. The solo writing is lucid and lyrically felt, and the orchestral contribution tense, colourful and responsive to situation in a way that betokens a theatrically aligned mind. But it is in the choral passages that Schurmann is at his most expressive, and here he achieves something harmonically colourful, alternating between the rhetorical and the quietly beautiful, and evolving a complete musical canvas of all the emotions which motivate Langland's poem. Piers Plowman is a work of practicability and quick communication.

...entirely appropriate for the typical English choral society SATB forces, and yet suitably demanding on its professional soloists. Violent and dynamic, this powerful score is full of richness of coloration and construction. The music is highly atmospheric, at times magical and vitriolic, with the composer juxtaposing blocks of texture and sonority, integrating the soloists' often lyrical and attractive lines with forceful attack or ethereal halo of choirs.

William Langland's text falls into two parts, each containing at its core a disputation. In the former, the issue is over man's earthly obligations; in the second, the pictorialized Crucifixion-Joust reflects the struggle for man's very survival and salvation in the face of the threat from Antichrist. Schurmann's piece is tersely conceived and boldly executed, with sharp transitions, curt phrases and graphic poetic images. Schurmann moulds his own vibrant language from the first moment when the harp paints onto the canvas the six-note "Piers-Salvation" motif, a sort of musical Jacob's ladder from which much derives.

As in many of his earlier works the composer reveals himself as a musical dramatist of tremendous inventive power. Who, I wonder, could forget his spine-chilling sound picture near the beginning of the work, or the frenetic duel and "the shedding of blood" which seem almost to take physical shape before our eyes. There is tenderness in "Love is Weal and Love is Woe" there are the dream-like sequences, the influence of plainchant when Conscience declares "All are equal in death", and the music of affirmation and resolve when Faith urges: "Follow me in the lands to espy him". It is a testimony to the composer's deft handling of the vast forces at his disposal that he rarely allows his often extrovert and percussive orchestration to obscure the vocal line. Altogether, Piers Plowman is a work of stunning virtuosity and dramatic power.