Sunday 27 October 2019

Sunday 27th October 2019 Last after Trinity

Alleluias of Saint James  (Let all mortal flesh keep silence) Words Liturgy of St James  Music Trad. French melody arr. A. J. Greening

This is a translation from the Greek Liturgy of St James. It is usually set to the traditional French tune of Picardy. Today's arrangement of this hymn tune was verses 1 and 3 in unison and verses 2 and 4 ladies being the leader and gentlemen the follower singing in canon.

Next week at 6pm the choir will be leading the service with Fauré's Requiem for All Soul's.

Sunday 20 October 2019

Sunday 20th October 2019 Trinity 18

Te Deum Laudamus in B flat C V Stanford

The "Te Deum" is from Morning, Evening and Communion Service in B flat Major first performed in Trinity College Chapel,Cambridge on 25th May 1879. 

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.

Image result for c v stanford composer
Stanford from Wikipedia

O Lord Increase Our Faith   H Loosemore (1607 - 1670)

Henry Loosemore was born in Devon.  He was a chorister and afterwards a lay clerk in one of the Cambridge colleges. At some time he was organist at King's College. In 1660 he became organist at Exeter Cathedral.  He died suddenly in 1670 whilst in Exeter. 

O Lord Increase Our Faith has incorrectly been attributed to Orlando Gibbons in the past, and in Gibbon's version, has the word "our" replaced by "my".  However a manuscript was found of Loosemore's which allowed the correct attribution and also the correction of the text.

Thursday 17 October 2019

Thursday 17th October 2019

Guy Jonathan Borer

Today we said farewell to our friend and fellow chorister, Guy. He was a stalwart of the bass line and died after a short illness. We shall miss our enthusiastic and committed member of the choir.

The music at his funeral was chosen because he loved it.

O Thou The Central Orb   Charles Wood  Words H R Bramley

Guy particularly liked this anthem as it has a stirring bass entrance in the middle of the piece.

The choir said together

Bless, O Lord, us thy servants, who minister in thy temple.
Grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts,
and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our lives.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

As Guy took his final journey on this earth, we sang the Nunc Dimitis in C by C V Stanford.

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou has prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be;
World without end.
Amen.

For the recessional, our musical director Joanna Chivers, played Guy's favourite organ piece,  The War March of the Priests  from Athalia by Felix Mendelssohn.


Sunday 13 October 2019

Sunday 13th October 2019 Trinity 17

Let Thy Merciful Ears, O Lord      (Thomas?) Mudd   b c 1560

The words to this anthem are the Collect from the 10th Sunday after Trinity.

Mudd whose first name was possibly Thomas was born 1559 or 1560, and was probably born in London. His father served as organist and Vicar Choral at St Paul's. Aged 17, he matriculated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.  He was not allowed his degree because of his Catholic sympathies.  He achieved his BA from Peterhouse in 1581 and MA from Pembroke College (1584).

In 1598 he was thought to be one of England's 16 excellent musicians. Unfortunately, many compositions of this era are attributed to Mudd or Mr Mudd and so it is difficult to know which piece can be apportioned to the correct Mudd! There were a number of Mudds composing about this time.


Thursday 10 October 2019

Sunday 6th October 2019 Trinity 16

Ave Verum Corpus  Mozart

Ave Verum Corpus (Hail, true body) is a setting of the Latin Hymn, in D major.  It was written for Anton Stoll, a friend and church musician of St Stephen, Baden.

It was composed in 1791 whilst visiting his wife Constanze who was pregnant with their 6th child and staying at the spa Baden bei Wien.  It was composed for the feast of Corpus Christi.  Mozart's manuscript has only "Sotto voce" marked at the beginning with no other markings.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Mozart was a child prodigy competent on keyboard and violin.  He began composing at the age of five. He performed around Europe for royalty.  At the age of 17 he was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but was restless and travelled looking for a better position.  Whilst visiting Vienna he was dismissed from his position in Salzburg.  He remained in Vienna, where he gained fame but no financial security.

He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as the finest in symphonies, concertante, operatic, chamber and choral music.  He remains one of the best loved classical composers, whose work influenced many composers.  Joseph Haydn said of Mozart "Posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

W A Mozart from Wikipedia







Wednesday 9 October 2019

Sunday 29th September 2019 Harvest Thanksgiving

O Lord How Manifold Are Thy Works   Joseph Barnby 1838-1896 

Joseph Barnby was born in York, the son of an organist and from age 7 was a chorister at York Minster.  He was educated at he Royal Academy of Music and in 1862 appointed organist at St Andrew's, Well St, London where it is said he raised the services to a high degree of excellence!

He conducted "Barnby's Choir" from 1864 and in 1871 was appointed conductor of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society. In 1875 he was director of music at Eton College and in 1892 became principal of the Guildhall School of Music and in the same year was knighted.

From Wikipedia

O Lord How Manifold Are Thy Works is a Harvest anthem taking the words from  Psalm 104 -65 and 103.