Concert in support of Wildlife

Concert featuring ‘A Requiem for Humankind’ by John Middleton, inspired by Sir David Attenborough's conservation legacy, in support of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust 7.30 pm Saturday 3rd October at St James the Greater church, 216 London Road, LE2 1NE Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust will be represented at the concert, and any profits will be donated to them. Tickets are now on sale at £15.50 plus a small booking fee online or you can pay on the door. https://www.trybooking.com/uk/GUNP John (a retired Leicestershire GP and composer) writes: The escalating environmental crisis is undoubtedly the most important issue of our times, and it requires international co-operation to make much impression on it. Unfortunately a significant number of people in power are in denial or choosing to ignore it. It also seems that a large percentage of the population is also in denial or sleepwalking into the impending tragedy. Perhaps many of us feel powerless to do anything about it. Having watched the very powerful film headed up by Chris Packham, I wrote to my MP without any response. I was very powerfully moved by Sir David Attenborough’s book A Life on our Planet. It made me want to do something and this translated into an impulse to create music with the intention of moving other people. Music might give an extra emotional dimension to the intellectual arguments. Whether it will do this, or how many people might be influenced, I have no idea at the moment. At least I hope to engage with as large an audience as possible at St James the Greater on October 3rd. Maybe the approval of Sir David in his 100th year might result in wider interest. There will be a professional video of the concert. Although the term 'requiem' might suggest doom and gloom, there is hope if we develop more effective co-operation than hitherto, and this is the basis for Sir David's optimistic approach. Using the form of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, I added multicultural philosophical and religious writings to the standard elements of the Latin Mass (adapting my setting of the Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei from 1994 and interjecting an exhortation in English, in blues style). Diversity seems particularly appropriate for a first performance in Leicester. Instead of Wilfred Owen's sorrowful and angry poems from the War Requiem, I used my own summaries of parts 1-3 of the book (‘How did we come to this?’ ‘The Great Acceleration’ and ‘What must we do?’) to generate the three main movements of the music, allowing the words to suggest rhythms and then sounds. For example the catalogue of impending disasters in the middle section is in the style of a boogie, which is meant to be ironic, given the collective denial that is so widespread at present. Apart from Britten’s Requiem, I have been influenced by folk and church modes as well as blues, jazz, and eastern music. These elements have all contributed to the music of ‘A Requiem for Humankind’. The final movement, entitled