21st July 2019 Matins Trinity 5

Benedictus in b flat    C V Stanford

This is the Canticle of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist,  and is taken from Luke's Gospel (Luke 1:68-79) It is sung daily at Morning Prayer.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) thought to be one of our great British composers was actually Irish, born in Dublin, although educated at The University of Cambridge and then studied music in Leipzig and Berlin.

Whilst an undergraduate, he was appointed organist of Trinity College, Cambridge and was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life.  He was also Professor of Music at Cambridge.  His pupils included Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams whose fame went on to surpass his own.

He is best remembered for his sacred choral compositions for church performance in the Anglican tradition. Along with Hubert Parry and Alexander Mackenzie, he was thought responsible for the renaissance of music in the British Isles.

C V Stanford in 1921 from Wikipedia

Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring

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.

J S Bach from Wikipedia

Sunday 7th July 2019 Trinity 3 Sea Sunday

I Give To You A New Commandment   Peter Nardone

The anthem today is based on  John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you.  What makes this anthem particularly lovely is the Latin hymn Ubi caritas which is sung by the men after the ladies have sung through the New Testament words as a wonderful counter-tune below the ladies.
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exsultemus et in ipso jucundemur. Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.
















Peter Nardone - (Bach Cantatas Website)

[Where charity is true, God is there. The love of Christ has gathered us into one. Let us rejoice and be glad in him. Let us fear and love the living God. And from a sincere heart let us love one another.]

Peter Nardone was born in Scotland in 1965 and studied organ and piano at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He later studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 2012 he was Organist and Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral and artistic director of the Three Choirs Festival.  As a singer, he has sung with the Monteverdi Choir, Tallis Scholars, Kings Consort  and many others.

His compositions are mostly religious.


Crossing The Bar  Sir H Parry   Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was a British poet, and for much of Queen Victoria's reign was Poet Laureate



Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson by George Frederic Watts
Alfred Lord Tennyson, from Wikipedia

C H H Parry was born in Bournemouth in 1848 into a rich family and was educated at Eton where he also gained his music degree.  He went to study further at Oxford.  His music influenced other great English composers such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams.  He wrote his best music in his later years and this include his Songs of Farewell.  He died in Rustington in 1918, just before the end of the Great War.



Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
From Wikipedia

Sunday 30th June 2019 Trinity 2 St Peter and St Paul

Communion Service in F major  Herbert Sumsion

The choir sang the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei  from the setting.

Herbert Whitton Sumsion (14.1.1899 - 11.8.1995) was an English musician and organist at Gloucester Cathedral from 1928 -1967. As a major figure is the Three Choirs festival he had links with the major 20th century composers.  Although known primarily as a cathedral organist, his work was far ranging.

Give Us The Wings Of Faith  Ernest Bullock  Text Issac Watts

Sir Ernest Bullock (1890- 1979) was an English organist, composer and teacher. He was born in Wigan, Lancashire and joined the local church choir as a small boy.  Both his parents died when he was still a boy and the organist there, Edward Bairstow, under took his education, taking him as an articled pupil.  He went to the local Grammar School.  In 1906, Bairstow moved to Leeds and took Ernest along with his own three children. As a non residential student, he qualified with a degree in Music from Durham University in 1908 and obtained a Doctor of Music in 1914.  He qualified in 1909 as a fellow of the Royal College of Organists.

In 1928 he became organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey where he stayed until 1941 having involvement musically in  the coronation of King George VI. In 1941 he moved to Scotland, as Professor of Music in Glasgow. He is noted for his church music and in particular his anthems. 

Sir Ernest Bullock from Wikipedia

Give Us The Wings Of Faith was written by Issac Watts (1674-1748) who was the son of a schoolmaster and born in Southampton. He had a precocious talent and was studying Latin before he was four and writing verse by the age of seven. He went to London to study for the ministry at the age of sixteen.  He was an assistant minister and pastor in London before at the invitation of Sir Thomas Abney, moving to Abney Park and remaining there for the rest of his life.  He was a prolific writer and his collected works were first published in 1720. He is best known for his hymns which he often wrote to consolidate the meaning of his sermon, coming after he had preached. He published more than 800 hymns.  There is a monument to him in Southampton and also one in Westminster Abbey.

Issac Watts from hymntime.com