Sunday 3rd November 2019 All Souls Requiem Mass

Requiem Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

Taken from the service sheet.

Gabriel Fauré, born in 1845, was appointed titular organist a La Madeleine, Paris, in 1896 and director of the Paris Conservatoire in 1905.

Fauré started to think about the composition of a requiem in 1885 after the death of his father.  Unlike Berlioz and Verdi he removed the Dies Irae sequence, which he considered over theatrical.  Hence the Offertorium comes up much sooner than is usual in a requiem mass setting.  He permits himself only a brief reference to the “day of wrath” in the Libera me baritone solo.

Gabriel Faure
Gabriel Fauré by John Singer Sargent [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons"

Fauré’s Requiem happily lends itself to a liturgical performance by amateur choirs, being particularly popular with English choirs, with the organ taking the place of the orchestra. This seems to have been recognised early on its life, coinciding as it did with liturgical experimentation in the Church of England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – experiments now adopted and sanctioned for universal use with the introduction in 1980 of the Alternative Service Book and more recently the Common Worship services. These owe their formation to the proposed 1928 Prayer Book and the English Missal (1933) and their structure, including additions to the Book of Common Prayer, fit best with Fauré’s arrangement of sections. The 1928 Prayer Book and English Missal largely formalised a variety of liturgical practices which had been used in sung Communion services previously. 

The service is an act of worship, to include remembrance of the departed, and may sound something like a similar service in an English church at about the time of Faurés death in November 1924, when sections of his requiem were sung at his funeral at La Madeleine.

Faure in 1907 from Wikipedia

Sunday 3rd November 2019 All Saints

Give Us The Wings Of Faith  Words Issac Watts  Music Ernest Bullock

This anthem was written for All Saints' Day, the words from a hymn by Isaac Watts.

Sir Ernest Bullock (1890-1979) was not primarily a composer, but an educationalist and organist.  He was born in Wigan, where he became organist at his parish church. He was then assistant organist at Leeds Parish Church in 1907.  In 1908, he received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Durham, gaining his Doctor of Music in 1914. In 1912, he was assistant organist at Manchester Cathedral.  After WW1 he was organist at St Michael's College, Tenbury, almost immediately moving to Exeter as cathedral organist in 1919.  In 1928 he succeeded Sir Sidney Nicholson as Master of Choristers in Westminster Abbey.  He provided music for the coronation of King George VI, writing most of the fanfares for that and also the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.
 In 1941, Bullock went to Glasgow as the Gardiner Professor in Music at the university. In 1952 he became director of the Royal College of Music.  He was knighted in 1951 and he retired in 1960.

Sir Ernest Bullock  from Wikipedia

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was born in Southampton, the son of a committed religious nonconformist. His father, also Isaac was twice incarcerated for his beliefs.  He received a classical education at the King Edward VI school, but was barred from attending Oxford or Cambridge universities as they were restricted to Anglicans. He went to the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690. He was pastor of a large independent chapel in London where he helped train preachers.  However, his religious opinions were more ecumenical than was usual for a nonconformist. He promoted education and scholarship rather than preaching for a particular sect. He is famous for the writing of the words of hymns. He promoted hymn singing and his prolific hymn-writing helped to usher in a new era of English worship.

Issac Watts Unknown artist from Wikipedia

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 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.

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 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 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.

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