Welcome to the Saint Mary 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 senior choir is a SATB choir with its main responsibility to sing at the 10am Sunday service, including an anthem. See below for more details.

Our choirs do not require any fees to belong to them. 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.

Saturday, 27 July 2024

Sunday 21st July 2024 Trinity 8

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.

head and shoulders shot of an elderly man with full head of hair, moustache and pince-nez
C V Stanford in 1921 from Wikipedia



Fairest Lord Jesus  German 17th Century, translated by Lilian Sinclair Stevenson (1870-1960)

Silesian folk song (1842) arranged by Martin How.

The music is a folk song from Silesia, a culturally rich area of Europe from the 1st century, now forming part of modern day Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.  The words are a 17th century German hymn adapted by British organist, composer and choir master Martin How.

Some think this was originally The Crusader's Hymn, sung by German crusaders as they made their way to the Holy Land.

Franz Liszt used the tune in his oratorio The Legend of St Elizabeth as a crusader's march and so the tune became known as St Elizabeth.

Martin How (1931- ) was born in Liverpool, moving to Brighton and then Glasgow just before the start of WWII.  He spent most of his childhood in Glasgow. He was awarded an organ scholarship at Clare College, Cambridge, reading Music and Theology.

He spent most of his career with the Royal School of Church Music, principally as a choir trainer, motivating and training young singers. He initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme used in various forms around the world.

He was appointed MBE for Services to Church Music in the 1993 New Year Honours List .

taken from Wikipedia

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