THE PATRIARCH AND THE PAINTER

Libretto by David Napthine;  Music by Duncan Brown and Greg Pullen

Vocal Score    £12.99   /  €19.00

The Patriarch and The Painter is a choral work which tells the story of thirteen paintings of the biblical patriarch Jacob and his twelve sons by the 16th century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran. Painted in Seville in the early 17th century for a Catholic mission in South America, they disappeared en route (according to one apocryphal story, which we have used, they were stolen by pirates).

They reappeared in London in 1758, where they were purchased by the then Bishop of Durham, Bishop Trevor,as part of a campaign to counter anti-semitism. He hung them in a specially designed room in the Bishop's Palace, Bishop Auckland in Northern England, where they they are still on display.

The work, which lasts about two hours, was originally created specifically for the palace and was performed in the gardens, and two performance spaces within the palace, the Throne Room and the Chapel, the audience moving between performance spaces. See the Painter and Patriarch production page for details.

We have produced an edition suitable for performance in a concert hall or, if a suitable outside space is available, with portions outside.

The Patriarch and the Painter is in two parts.

• The first part traces the genesis of the paintings, opening with a recreation of a Spanish religious procession of the type that Zurbaran would have been familiar with, moving on to the commissioning of the paintings, a search for inspiration by Zurbaran in which Jacob, in a dream, gives him the subject of the paintings, closing with the completion of the paintings.





• The second part opens with the journey of the paintings, their theft by pirates (played by the childrens' choir), their appearance in London, the purchase by Bishop Trevor who justifies their acquisition to a sceptical local population. It finishes with a closing procession similar to the opening procession.

A sample of the score is available in pdf format (needs Adobe Acrobat reader, click Here to download)

It is scored for four vocal soloists, mixed voice choir, childrens'choir, brass band and instrumental ensemble (for a detailed list see below) .

It also uses one instrument unfamiliar to most European audiences. Religious processions in northern Spain are accompanied by a type of band called a cobla whose quite unique sound comes from its mix of brass instruments and an oboe or shawm-like instrument called a tible (for a sample of this sound see the Cobla Bellpuig website, click on the escolta'ns page). For suggestions on how to find a tible player or alternative instruments see the Tible section below.

Scoring

A full score and instrumental parts are available for hire or purchase, please contact us via the CONTACT FORM for further information.

Soloists
Jacob - Bass
The Narrator - Tenor
Zurbaran - Tenor
Bishop Trevor - Baritone

Mixed Voice Choir - SATB
Childrens' Choir

Instrumental Ensemble
Violin
Clarinet in B flat
'Cello
Piano
Percussion ( 1 player - Xylophone, Timps., Side Drum)

Brass Band
Soprano Cornet; Solo Cornet; Cornets 2 & 3;Flugelhorn (2); Tenor Horns(2); Baritone (2); Trombone (1); Bass Trombone (1); Euphonium (1); E flat bass (1); B Flat Bass (1); Percussion (1 Player)

Tible
For the performances in Bishop Auckland, we brought a tible player over from the Cobla Marinada in Barcelona. Should you wish to do the same, we would be pleased to give his contact details.
For those who do not wish to go to the expense of importing a Spanish tible player, we have rewritten the tible part for Soprano saxophone. Please ask for this part when requesting hire parts.