Counterpoint
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Choral music from medieval to modern - A chamber choir founded and directed by David Acres Louis en l'Isle next to Notre Dame.
Counterpoint was formed in 1989 by David Acres, initially at the behest of friends who were living in Paris, who wanted an English a ca****la ensemble to sing in St. The choir has altered radically over the past 22 years and has become known as one of the leading choirs in the South West of England. It continues to comprise singers from all age groups and all walks of life, who have combined to gi
The next clip from our Buckfast Abbey Concert, just under two weeks ago, is Ivo Antognini’s O Magnum Mysterium. The ensemble between the voices is beautifully realised, and the motet comes to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Abbey.
O magnum mysterium et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderunt Dominum natum, viderent Dominum natum jacentem in praesepio. O beata Virgo, cuius viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Jesum Christum. Alleluia.
Translation:
O great mystery and wonderful sacrament that animals should see the newborn Lord lying in a manger! Blessed Virgin, whose womb was worthy to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia.
07/07/2026
Here are just a few of our choir members from our concert at Buckfast Abbey on Saturday, 27th June. One of the photos was taken during the concert and the others are less formal, taken at our after-concert drinks and get-together. There are more to come when everyone has shared their own photographs.
We’re finally getting around to editing out clips from the Counterpoint concert at Buckfast Abbey on Saturday, 27th June. It was such a wonderful occasion seeing some singers who we hadn’t seen for nigh on twenty years.
Much of the music was new to the majority of singers and yet, we only had two to three hours to prepare it that afternoon. This concert should definitely be a recurring event, and one that we shall attempt to replicate once every two years.
David came, across Owain Park’s (b.1993) new carol last year. He loved the Howells composition around these fascinating words by Frances Chesterton, but Owain’s composition throws a new light on this moving prose, that remains throughout the year, even though it is a Christmas Carol.
Here is the little door,
Lift up the latch, oh lift!
We need not wander more,
But enter with our gift;
Our gift of finest gold.
Gold that was never bought or sold;
Myrrh to be strewn about his bed;
Incense in clouds about His head;
All for the child that stirs not in His sleep,
But holy slumber hold with ass and sheep.
Bend low about His bed,
For each He has a gift;
See how His eyes awake,
Lift up your hands, O lift!
For gold, He gives a keen-edged sword.
(Defend with it thy little Lord!)
For incense, smoke of battle red,
Myrrh for the honoured happy dead;
Gifts for His children, terrible and sweet;
Touched by such tiny hands,
And Oh, such tiny feet.
There is so much wonderful music to sift through from Saturday night’s concert at Buckfast Abbey, it’s going to be difficult to do this whilst on holiday. I shall restart when we return home on July 4th but, until then, here is Rand C Matheson’s beautiful adaptation of the Sibelius melody from Be Still My Soul. My dearest friend Kit Perona-Wright is singing the tenor solo at the beginning, and the choir’s ravishing ensemble and blend belies the fact that we only had the opportunity to rehearse the whole concert’s music that afternoon. The majority, if not all of the music, was new to the most of the choir!
06/28/2026
What a night we had in the Abbey last night. The pews were filled with past friends, colleagues and supporters of the choir, and we sang a varied and emotional program of sacred choral music from around the world.
We started rehearsing at 2.30pm and it was wonderful being involved once again with singers who were such dear friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen or been involved with for nigh on twenty years. After a short break between 6.00pm and 7.00pm, we returned to the Abbey to prepare for the concert at 7.30pm.
We sang past repertoire and a wide range of new music, with the concert lasting just over an hour and a half. The new piece An Evening Prayer, with a wonderfully evocative Native America melody that I discovered via my friend Jacqueline Ridgeway, was very well received. Other highlights were a newly rearranged work by our friend Graham Keitch, or was in the audience to hear its Buckfast premier. Also, Good Night Dear Heart by Dan Forrest, Ubi Caritas by Michael John Trotta and Here is the Little Door by Owain Park were enthusiastically received. We dedicated Flow gently sweet Afton to the loving memory of our dear friend and colleague Mary O'Shea Hayward, who should have been singing with us, but sadly passed away earlier this year. It was an emotional and fitting tribute to a beautiful soul, whom we miss so dearly.
We then retired to the Northgate for drinks and relaxation, finally retiring to bed at just after midnight. A long and wonderful day of renewing friendships, singing and being in a place that means so much to me spiritually and emotionally.
We shall listen to the various recordings from the night and commence posting clips over the next few days.
06/25/2026
Our concert is just two days away!
This motet is included in the programme on Saturday night. It is Circumdederunt me dolores by the Mexican composer Padilla, and was recorded around twenty years ago. It ably illustrates how much the choir loved to sing renaissance music, wringing every inch of emotion from the text and the notes on the page. The thumbnail for this live YouTube clip shows two of the tenors from that time, Tim and Phil, deep in conversation on one of our trips to Brittany, in the vestry of Locmaria, a glorious church in Quimper that is over 900 years old.
Tim and Phil are singing on Saturday night, so come along and rediscover with them the beauty to be found in these lesser-known works of raw power and emotion from the late 1500s.
Tickets are on sale via the Buckfast Abbey website: https://www.buckfast.org.uk/event-booking-system/?event=EVENT-259
https://youtu.be/oaF4e6M-9S8?is=IyiAU37cLJodSRBR
Circumdederunt me dolores This emotionally charged motet is by Juan Gutierrez de Padilla (159...
06/23/2026
Just four days until we are back at Buckfast Abbey, preparing for the reunion concert of past Counterpoint singers and guests. Tickets are now on sale via the Buckfast Abbey website.
The evening comprises a fabulous array of old favourites, and new works that I have discovered over the past twelve months. One of the new pieces is Ubi Caritas et amor, Deus ibi est - Where charity and love are, God is there - by Michael John Trotta, using the old Gregorian plainsong chant, as Maurice Duruflé did so successfully.
Sung here by the superb ensemble Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, we can’t wait to hear how this sounds in the glorious acoustics of the Abbey.
Ubi Caritas - Michael John Trotta - Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short Sheet Music: https://www.mjtrotta.com/music-catalog/sheet-music/sat...
06/21/2026
We are counting down the next seven days until our concert at Buckfast Abbey this coming Saturday, 27th June. Tickets are on sale via the Abbey’s website and are selling fast.
We have a wonderful array of singers from the past twenty-five years of the choirs’ existence; from all four corners of the country.
We have a splendid, eclectic programme of sacred choral music that spans nigh on a thousand years, from the 11th century to the present day. One of those pieces is C. Rand Matheson’s arrangement of the Sibelius melody used for Be Still My Soul. Matheson was 17 when he composed the harmonies used in this beautiful version of the hymn. This recording is by our sister-choir in Cleveland, Contrapunctus Early Music, during a concert in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Cleveland in March 2022.
Be Still My Soul - C. Rand Matheson (b. 2003) Live Concert Performance - The King's Counterpoint + Contrapunctus ...
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