The Green Chapel
For Trombone Quartet and Brass Band (c.15’40)
Programme Note
For Bones Apart and Foden’s Brass Band
Located in Back Wood, part of the Dark Peak towards the Southwest of the peak district, Lud’s Church is a deep chasm penetrating the Millstone Grit bedrock, created by a massive landslip on the hill above Gradbach in Staffordshire. This mysterious cave-like hide-out is mossy and overgrown, and wet and cool even on very hot days; it is even thought to have its own micro-climate due to its depth and moisture.
It is also a place of fascinating history, mythology and supposedly paranormal activity. Lud’s Church is widely believed to be the setting for the climax in the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, referred to as ‘The Green Chapel.’ Some myths also suggest that Robin Hood and Friar Tuck are reputed to have stayed there whilst hiding from the authorities.
However, it is the fascinating connection between this hidden place and the 14th century Lollards, which has perhaps provided a most lasting and distinctive story behind this enigmatic place. The Lollards, a pre-protestant Christian group who rejected Catholicism, and because of their beliefs were persecuted and hunted down as heretics, supposedly used this cool cavern as a place to worship in peace. The name ‘Lud’ is supposed to have either derived from Llud, a Celtic god, or, more likely, from Lollard worshiper Walter de Lud Auk, who was captured during a raid of Lud’s Church.
According to Hugh Williams, ‘The congregation that met secretly at Lud’s Church was reputedly led by a priest named Walter de Lud-Auk and they say he looked after his orphaned granddaughter Alice, a beautiful young woman with “an unearthly voice” who would sing a verse of each hymn solo and entrance the assembled Lollards.’ It is said that during the same raid, Alice was accidentally killed during the arrest, and that her ghost haunts the chasm to this day, clad in white and singing loudly in her ‘unearthly voice’. This legend has been passed down through the centuries, and was commemorated in 1862, when a small figurine was placed above Lud’s Church by then-landowner, Phillip Broklehurst, in remembrance of Alice, or ‘Lady Lud’ as she came to be known.
Over time, Lud’s Church has been referenced extensively in local folklore, the earliest reference of which involves a story in which the Devil scraped his finger along the earth’s surface, thus creating Lud’s Church.’
Movement I – ‘Tranquil, Hidden, Cool’ (6’40)
Ambient, cold and eerie percussion permeates the opening, producing a dark and cave-like atmosphere, with whispering wind through the cornets. The trombones enter with unnerving, dissonant glissandi, underpinned by strange, muted harmonies elsewhere. Alongside a ghostly upward arpeggio motif, gradually more tranquil melodic ideas imbue the score, rising towards more triumphant fanfare chords in the whole ensemble. Soon, more calm and serene pedal, suspended harmonies infuse the movement, with cascading melodicism in the cornets and trombones, and softly ringing percussion, evoking a sense of this serene and peaceful place.
Movement 2 – ‘The Girl with the Unearthly Voice’ (4’)
The quartet begins the movement with a plaintive chorale, that soon opens into a livelier dance, full of counterpoint and imitation. There is a more energetic development of the opening chorale within the whole band, before the quartet introduce a more percussive, syncopated section. The band develop once again the contrapuntal dance, before a calmer and more reflective iteration upon a drone of the movement’s main melodic theme. The movement ends with a darker, more sombre repetition of the opening chorale from the quartet.
Movement 3 – ‘The Shot’ (5’)
This movement unfolds as a dramatic ‘hunt’ for the Lollards and the fatal wounding of Alice. There is an intense opening, with repeated and overlapping stabbing semiquavers becoming the major theme of the movement. The quartet soon take over with some virtuosity, as their lines interweave and interject with this accented motif. An ominous and more syncopated bass line motif takes hold at certain points below varied rhythmic interjections and decorations within the band, and in the centre of the movement a drone-like feeling of suspension occurs, signalling the fatal shot. The movement ends with some reminiscence of the serene atmosphere of the first movement, before ghostly chromatic lines interweave in muted cornets and then the trombones, suggestive of the supposed continued haunting of Alice’s ghost at Lud’s Church.
* Commissioned by the RNCM International Brass Festival. World premiere performance given by Bones Apart Trombone Quartet and Foden’s Band on Friday 23rd January 2026, at RNCM International Brass Band Festival, Manchester.