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- Judith Weir
Upwards (2025)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. First performed on 7th May 2025 at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by John Butt.
- 0.3.0.0/2.1.0.0/str
- 5 min
Programme Note
UPWARDS for baroque orchestra
Judith Weir (2024-25)
Upwards has been written as an overture to Bach's Cantata 128, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt Allein (BWV 128) to celebrate the acquisition of Bach's manuscript score by the Bodleian Library in 2024. The Bach Cantata's opening movement presents the seven lines of the chorale "Auf Christi Himmelfahrt" sung by the choir; their melody is slow, widely spaced and level in contour. Meanwhile the orchestral figures surrounding them (including high leaping horns) are always surging energetically, as befits music which expresses the joy of Ascension Day. I have borrowed these contrasting musical styles in my five-minute overture, which features two high horns in G, an even higher trumpet in D, a chunky trio of historical oboes and a small string orchestra. Later in the piece, a bassoon and double bass begin to assert the chorale melody unobtrusively in a low register, while the higher instruments climb ever upwards.
Judith Weir
More Info
- Judith Weir's 'Upwards' to be premiered alongside Bach's Ascension Day Cantata
- 6th May 2025
- On Wednesday a unique celebration will take place marking 300 years since the composition and premiere of Bach’s 1725 Ascension Day Cantata 'Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein', including a new overture to the work composed by Judith Weir.