The Glenkens is to host a world premiere of the Easter Passion next month – sung and spoken in Scots.
A Tale o’ Guid Friday and Ayont will be performed by the men and women of Glenkens Parish Choir.
The 7.30pm performance in Dalry Parish Church on Saturday, April 8 is free to all.
The remarkable concert is the work of New Galloway man Geoff Davidson, who performed internationally with the BBC Singers.
It is based on Lorimer’s The New Testament in Scots – a landmark work which brought alive the bible in the Scots language.
Mr Davidson told the News: “Scots is raw, it’s gutsy, it’s expressive and at times unbearably sad.
“I don’t think setting Lorimer’s Scots to The Passion has ever been done before. There has been very little written since JS Bach wrote the original.
“It’s wonderful to be able to do this in broad Scots. And even if you don’t understand every word you are able to get the gist of it.”
Baritone Mr Davidson, 74, who also sang with the famous Monteverdi Choir, composed a choral work, Angel of the Tide about the Covenanter martyrs which was performed in Wigtown in 2014.
But the Easter Passion is his most ambitious project to date – and he reckons the rendition in Scots gives the work added power.
He said: “At the end, when Jesus is on the cross, the English version is that Jesus ‘gave up the ghost and died’. But in Scots it’s ‘wi’ that, he souched awa’ which is just beautiful.
“Another example is when Mary is at the empty sepulchre on Easter Sunday morning and Jesus suddenly appears before her. The English passage is ‘She did not know that it was Jesus, supposing him to be the gardener. But in Scots it’s simply ‘She jaloused him tae be the gardener’. That’s wonderful.”
He added: “I’ve kept the framework Bach used, only with three hymns – one at the start, one on the middle and one at the end.
“In between will be Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas the high priest, John the Evangelist, Judas and Peter speaking in Scots. The music in the background will be from two Yamaha electric keyboards which will sound like an orchestra.”
Mr Davidson had originally planned to stage the work with Kirkcudbright Choral Society early in 2020.
But just as final arrangements for the show were being made the first pandemic lockdown hit.
“I composed it four years ago,” he said. “But Covid wrecked it. We were two weeks away from doing the concert and it all got stopped.”
The concert will feature baritone Robert Lind as Jesus and soprano Nicola Junor as Mary Magdalene.
There will be a collection for the Abba’s Rest Orphanage, Malawi.
