Welcome to St Mary's choir blog

The church has both an adult and junior choir. We are affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music(RSCM). The junior choir are provided with tuition to enable them to gain their RSCM medals. The RSCM Singing Awards celebrate singers’ achievements and progress, through formal examinations at three levels; Bronze, Silver and Gold ( Bronze award is roughly equivalent to ABRSM grade 4. Similarly Silver roughly equates to grade 6 and Gold to grade 8).

The senior choir is a four part harmony choir with its main responsibility to sing at the 10am Sunday service, including an anthem.

Our choirs do not require any fees to belong to them or for any training. New members to both the senior and junior choir are always welcome whatever their standard. If you are interested in joining us please contact our Director of Music (Joanna) via the  Contact Us page.

Sunday, 14 May 2017

May 13th 2017

The choir sang J S Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" at a wedding.

This is the common title of the 10th and last movement of the cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” (BVW 147) composed in 1716 and 1723.  It is commonly played at weddings and Christian festive seasons of Easter and Christmas.  Much of the music of this cantata comes from Bach’s Weimar period (the 1716 parts) finished in 1723 in Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He was a highly respected organist in his lifetime, although not recognised as a composer of magnitude (possibly one of the greatest) until a revival of his works in the first half of the 19th century. He showed considerable skill in counterpoint and harmony. He was able to adapt rhythm, form and texture from abroad. He was a prolific composer of church music due to the demand for huge numbers of cantatas over the Christian year.  It is thought her wrote over 300 with only around 200 surviving. He also wrote many other works sacred and secular.  It is now agreed that his music has technical command, intellectual depth and artistic beauty.

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