In Praise of George Herbert: Festival To Celebrate His Life and Work, July 10-13

Transcription

1 PRESS INFORMATION For immediate release April 2014 ================================================================================= Bookings Now Open In Praise of George Herbert: Festival To Celebrate His Life and Work, July Bookings for the July festival to celebrate George Herbert, the 17th century poet and priest remembered for his lyricism, humility and emotional intelligence, are now open. The writer of some of the most famous devotional poems in the English language, 'Love bade me welcome...' and 'Teach me my God and King...', Herbert's influence on British culture is profound and enduring, from A-level set text to the work of contemporary writers such as Vikram Seth, who now lives in the Old Rectory where Herbert spent the final three years of his short life, as a country pastor in rural Wiltshire. "Herbert s poetry is valued for its clarity, its wit, its honesty and depth, and for his sheer skill as a wordsmith," says Canon Judy Rees, festival chair. "It continues to touch and speak to our lives in the 21st century with remarkable power and relevance." George Herbert s poetry is a resourceful vehicle for thinking (and feeling) through some of the most difficult areas of human experience frustration, blankness of emotion, resentment, corrosive selfdoubt," says Dr Rowan Williams, master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. "He presents an extraordinarily rich picture of the diverse tangles of human doubt and human dignity. The former archbishop of Canterbury's contributions include giving a talk, Why Herbert Matters, at the Salisbury Playhouse ( 7) on Thursday July 10th, leading a poetry discussion group (free) as well as an event for Year 12 students, funded by the festival. The George Herbert in Bemerton Group has led the festival planning along with representatives from lay and church organisations in and around Salisbury. All events are being held locally to reflect the importance of Herbert's time as the Rector of the Parish of Fugglestone-cum-Bemerton between 1630 and 1633 as well as his family connections to Wilton House, owned by the Pembroke family since The first Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert, was George's distant cousin. The poet was a frequent visitor to Wilton House and is said to have acted as chaplain to Philip Herbert (the 4th Earl) and his wife Lady Anne Clifford.

2 The 'One Harmonie' concert on Saturday July 12th will be held in the sumptuous Double Cube room, which houses Pembroke family portraits, some painted by Van Dyck. Performed by The Farrant Singers, Salisbury's oldest chamber choir, the concert of words and music will illustrate how Herbert has been the source of inspiration for composers and writers. There is a steady stream of international visitors to Bemerton, and this festival will attract devotees of Herbert from all over the world. Contributors from North America will join local distinguished speakers such as Sir Andrew Motion, former UK Poet Laureate and Gillian Clarke, the National Poet of Wales. The programme is varied and includes presentations, talks, poetry readings, discussion groups, musical events, and local walks, all designed to enrich understanding and enjoyment of Herbert's life and works. To make the festival as accessible as possible, many events are free and some are aimed especially at young people. In addition to the senior school event with Dr Williams, there will be a junior school competition based on Herbert's poem, 'The Flower.' For a brochure, contact the George Herbert Festival 2014 secretary, Lesley Burton: festival2014@georgeherbert.org.uk or download a pdf from the festival website: All event bookings are through Salisbury Playhouse: and can be made by telephone +44 (0) , post or by ing a scanned booking form to Box.Office@salisburyplayhouse.com ====================== IMAGES Pencil drawing of George Herbert. Courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University. MS Eng 1405 Other photographs and drawings relating to the festival and George Herbert are available upon request. Contact For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact: Christine Nielsen-Craig, via Sarum College +44 (0) (0) cnc@sarum.ac.uk

3 Background notes George Herbert ( ) Born into a notable Welsh family in Montgomery and kinsman of the powerful Earls of Pembroke, Herbert lost his father at the age of three and was raised by his mother Magdalen, a patron of John Donne. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he was an academic high-flier who at the age of 26 was elected Public Orator of the University. In 1624 he was briefly an MP. But in 1627 he disappeared from public view and little is known of the intervening three years before his ordination as priest of his little parish in the shadow of Salisbury Cathedral. The George Herbert in Bemerton Group Local enthusiasts of George Herbert who promote and celebrate his life and works in Bemerton and Salisbury and all are welcome, whatever their faith (or lack of it). The festival committee also included representatives from Sarum College, Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury Cathedral and the Diocese of Salisbury. Literary legacy Nearly four hundred years have passed since the great devotional poet George Herbert lived in and ministered to the parish of Fugglestone-cum-Bemerton. Over that time people s awareness of him and his works has risen and fallen. In the 17th century his verse was in huge demand, with no fewer than thirteen editions of his poetry volume The Temple being printed between 1633 and 1709, but in the 18th century he was scarcely visible. Rediscovered in the 1830s, he became a religious literary beacon for the Victorians only to fade again for much of the first half of the 20th century. It took the publication in the 1940s of Canon Hutchinson s magisterial collection of Herbert s works to bring him to public attention once again, and since then he has been studied and analysed as never before, especially in the USA. Musical legacy Some of Herbert's poems have endured as popular hymns, including "King of Glory, King of Peace" (Praise): "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing" (Antiphon) and "Teach me, my God and King" (The Elixir).[6] Herbert's first biographer, Izaak Walton, wrote that he composed "such hymns and anthems as he and the angels now sing in heaven".

4 The 'One Harmonie' concert will be sung by The Farrant Singers, the longest-established chamber choir in Salisbury. It was founded in 1958 by the composer Richard Lloyd (then Assistant Organist of Salisbury Cathedral), initially to give performances of church music in the diocese. The choir currently comprises around 38 singers and its repertoire includes a wide range of sacred and secular music, spanning many periods and styles. In 2009 it took part in the world premiere of Bob Chilcott's Salisbury Vespers, and it has also featured on BBC Radio 4 s 'Sunday Worship', in a service dedicated to George Herbert broadcast live from his own church of St. Andrew s Bemerton. Contemporary influence Some recent examples of the enduring legacy of George Herbert: 1) Music at Midnight, a biography of George Herbert published last year, was written by the author John Drury, a fellow of All Souls, Oxford. The author will give a free talk on his book, the culmination of a lifetime interest in Herbert, on Friday 11 July at Sarum College, 19 The Close. 2) In January, plaques engraved with verse from the atheist author Vikram Seth's poem Lost, based on Herbert's Paradise, were unveiled in the newly renovated Market Square of Salisbury. Organisers said the connections of both men to Salisbury and to each other made the words We turn, we learn, we twist, we pray / For word or tune or touch or ray, a fitting choice to be set into the stone of the city both could call home. 3) In the first of a five-part series of blogs (The Guardian website, posted during February and March) on George Herbert, Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, vicar of Belmont & Pittington in Durham, said she blames the devotional poet for her becoming a Christian. "The question Herbert's poetry raises is eternally contemporary. The poems don't ask us "Is this true?" but "How do I feel about this?" It is this question that slipped under my guard as a teenager. It was easy to dismiss the truth of the 20 impossible things that religion seemed to expect me to believe before breakfast. It was much harder to dismiss my own emotional reaction to these poems: the beauty, the yearning, the enticing danger. They left me with the sense that I was standing on a cliff, staring out to sea, hearing marvellous tales of lands beyond the horizon and wondering if they were, after all, just fairy tales or whether the intensity with which the tales were told was evidence that the teller had indeed seen a barely imagined kingdom."

5 Country pastor Admired by Anglicans as an archetypal country parish priest, Herbert is commemorated on February 27th. While in Bemerton Herbert wrote a work of prose popularly known as 'The Country Parson', first published in During his three years in Bemerton, "...before his sickly frame brought him to the grave in his late thirties, Herbert virtually invented the Anglican country parson, both in the last works of his poetic genius and in a prose meditation on pastoral care which breathes gentle, humorous common sense." (Diarmud McCulloch, in a review of Music at Midnight) Wilton House Wilton House stands on land surrendered at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, and then given by King Henry VIII in 1541 to William Herbert, the 1st Earl of Pembroke and a distant cousin of George Herbert. Building of the original house was completed in 1550, but it had been considerably enlarged by Herbert's time. Following a fire, it was rebuilt by the 5th Earl in the 1650s. Originating from this period is the famous Double Cube Room where two events on Saturday 12 July will be held, by kind permission of the Pembroke Estate and Trustees of Wilton House. This great room of the house, built to house the family portraits of the Earls of Pembroke, has white walls with luxurious gilt mouldings surrounding individual portraits by Van Dyck. School engagement Junior Schools George Herbert Project A few local junior schools have been offered the chance to run a competition based on 'The Flower' poem. Children will be encouraged to either paint or draw a card based on the poem or write their own poem reflecting the ideas expressed in 'The Flower'. Winning entries will be displayed in the Salisbury Library window. Senior Schools George Herbert Event This project will bring together Year 12 students from maintained schools in and around Salisbury. It has its origins in a special request from Rowan Williams, who is keen to have an opportunity to work with young people during his visit to Salisbury. Following an introductory talk about Herbert's poem from Dr Williams, teachers will lead group discussions and readings of selected poems. The project will be funded by the Festival and there will be no charge to the schools and students involved. -ends-