Jazz in the Cathedral ?
I once asked an old Irish Roman Catholic Priest how he kept his mission fresh and kept his flock coming. His reply was…’Surprise the punters!’
It has become a habit that on the last Sunday in June, when St Mary’s Cathedral Choir stops for their Summer break, they do some spectacular music.
This year was no different…. 10.30 am saw us gathering at the Cathedral to join in a Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott.
‘Bob who?’ some of you might ask.
There you are!
He was born in 1955 and proved to be a choral man through and through. He was a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge and in 1985 became a member of the Kings’s Singers, an a cappella group, for some 12 years. In 1997 he took up composing and conducting full-time and has produced an extensive list of music, much of which is suitable for young singers. We have already had some of his music within the Cathedral.
The music for the Liturgy was supplied by a number of relatively-young musicians (well, at my age, most musicians are relatively-young!), including a flautist and clarinetist drawn from the choir. Even the very-young junior members of the treble line sang their hearts out! The enjoyment in the choir and congregation was evident as the usual high quality was maintained, and with that happiness which jazz can provide…despite the references to ‘blues’.
It was a wonderful morning, in a well-filled church, and I’m sure that my friendly Irish priest would have been pleased with ‘the surprise’!
More Ralph Vaughan Williams
For those who want to know more about this composer I can recommend the following site…..
FUNDRAISING
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FAURE REQUIEM
The RSNO organised a Workshop on the above, in Sherbrook-St Gilbert’s Church in Glasgow on Sunday. It was intended to encourage more people to join the Chorus, as, like many institutions, they can always take on more members.
This was the first time I had taken part as a singer, as previouslyI had conducted it! I would reckon that there were over 100 ladies, with about 30 men….so we were well out-numbered!
We practised from 2pm to 5pm, during which we had periods of vocal training which I found very useful. It was during this time I found out the nitty-gritty problems of trying to pitch some of the notes. It is a complex piece as far as a singer is concerned. I would actually say that there was an element of in-built orchestral writing and harmony. This may have been influenced by the fact that both his parents died about the time of writing, and his mind was in a turmoil.
The performance at 6pm had an audience of about 30 brave souls. There were moments when I felt I had lost it, but just kept an ear open for clues. So whatever the difficulty it still has a certain solemnity/reverence/tunefulness which no doubt accounts for the popularity of this wonderful piece.
R.I.P. Tom McCulla
We mourn the passing of Tom McCulla, one of our Choir members, in his early fifties. He fought bravely, and with great humour, against a brain tumour, which latterly had affected his sight, and made him very tired. He passed away on Thursday 4th June at the Hospice in Airdrie.
He was an exceptional person….a quick mind with a penchant for corny puns, skilled and adventurous in his musical writing, a great keyboard player, (he was the senior person at the piano department of Biggars, in Glasgow),accompanying the Kedron Singers, and at his own Church, and with a desire to serve any church, of whatever denomination.
The photo above was one of his favourites, and shows him at one of our visits to St. Aidan’s, Clarkston, in September 2008. By that time he knew how serious the tumour was, but still managed to show us that cheeky, child-like grin which was one of his great features.
His last event with us was at Ballachulish (see him second from the right, in the back row), when we joined the congregation at St John’s Episcopal Church and many others, on a miserable, snowy, cold 8th March, for a wonderful Service of Sung Evensong.
We had all been worried about the wisdom of his journey and participation, considering his state of health at the time, but he had been so looking forward to being with us that there was no way he could be left out.
So, due to the good and kind offices of two of our members, he was able to spend a weekend in the beautiful Argyll countryside, and join us in the singing as lustily as he was able.
A service of remembrance will be held on Thursday 11th at 11am, at St Matthew’s Church, Paisley.
He will be remembered by Angelus Singers, as much for his personality, as for his musical ability.
May he be happy, playing for the heavenly choir!
Relevant Hymns?
Thought you might be interested in the following hymn definitions….any others?
Hymn Titles By Occupation
Dentist’s Hymn………………………….Crown Him with Many Crowns
The Publican’s Hymn……………..Crossing the Bar
Weatherman’s Hymn……….There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
Contractor’s Hymn………………….The Church’s One Foundation
The Tailor’s Hymn……………………………………….Holy, Holy, Holy
The Golfer’s Hymn…………………………There is a Green Hill Far Away
The Politician’s Hymn………………………….Standing on the Promises
Optometrist’s Hymn…………………..Open My Eyes That I Might See
The Gossiper’s Hymn…………………………………………..Pass It On
The Electrician’s Hymn……………………………………Send The Light
The Shopper’s Hymn………………………………..Sweet By and By
The House Agent’s Hymn…………………………….I’ve Got a Mansion
The Massage Therapists Hymn……………….He Touched Me
The Doctor’s Hymn………………………The Great Physician
AND for those who speed on the highway – a few hymns:
45mph……………………………God Will Take Care of You
65mph…………………………Nearer My God To Thee
85mph…………………This World Is Not My Home
95mph………………….Lord, I’m Coming Home
100mph………………….Precious Memories
Gerald Finzi
At our Ascension Day Service on Thursday evening, we sang all the good old favourites, such as ‘Hail the Day…’ words by Charles Wesley, ‘The Head that once…..’ with Jeremiah Clarke’s tune St Magnus, and Saward’s ‘Christ Triumphant….’ to John Barnard’s great tune ‘Guiting Power’. ALL GOOD STUFF !!
The music of the Liturgy was Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse…..very much a ‘no-nonsense’ setting which does exactly what it says on the tin.
For the anthem, the Cathedral Choir sang ‘God is Gone Up’…..a title which is highly-suitable for such an occasion. It was written by Gerald Finzi, the son of a father of Italian/ Jewish descent and mother of German/Jewish parentage.
He was born in London in 1901, into a well-off household and was able to be educated privately. He lost his father at 7 and during the First World War the family moved to Harrogate. In his early years he also lost three of his brothers…..which no doubt had an influence on his writing. He took the chance to study with Edward Bairstow who was close-by, at York Minster.
At the age of 21 he moved to Gloucestershire where he could compose in the lovely rural countryside. However, five years later he returned to London where he became acquainted with Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Sir Arthur Bliss. He married artist Joy Black in 1933 and moved to Wiltshire.
At the outbreak of war he moved to a farm in Hampshire, where he opened the house to German and Czech refugees, and he formed the amateur group the Newbury String Players. This allowed him to work on eighteenth century pieces, and several premieres by his contempories were given.
He was diagnosed in 1951 as having Hodgkin’s Disease but he continued with his work. In 1954 there was an all-Finzi concert in the Royal Festival Hall, and Sir John Barbirolli commissioned his Cello Concerto for the Cheltenham Festival of 1955. He died in 1956.
Whilst he is not a common name in the average listener’s vocabulary, and I don’t find ‘God is Gone up’ an easy piece to listen-to, I have to admit that perhaps his music does require a little more investigation.
R.I.P. Gordon
We record the death of Gordon Moore, (2.1.1927-11.5.2009) someone known to most of our Choir. He was a great lover of church choral music, and in spite of the increasing disability caused by his deafness and Meniers’s, he continued to sing in the St Cyprian’s choir till just a few years ago. Even when the church choir was at a low ebb, he was always there in the back row.
His knowledge of music notation was not good so he learned his part by rote. His records about when and where hymns, tunes, anthems, chants etc had been used previously was often referred-to, to ensure variety in worship.
He was also very good at Scottish Country dancing and the writer was once persuaded to go to an open night. Despite instructions from Gordon, feet, brain, and music failed miserably to co-ordinate, to the consternation of Gordon, who expected that everyone should be as good at it as he was.
Let’s hope that he can find a choir and/or a country dancing group, in the hereafter.
Crimond
Today, at the Cathedral, we used a tune so well-known to church-goers and non-church-goers alike, that it is one of the favourites used at Burial Services (you just have to lookat the most-thumbed page in Burial Service Sheets!). The words are a paraphrase of Psalm 23, and the name of the tune is Crimond.
Jessie Seymour Irvine was born in July 1836, the daughter of a Scottish clergyman who served in Peterhead, and then in the village of Crimond, in Aberdeenshire. Whilst studying the organ, she wrote a tune, which was harmonised by David Grant in 1872, when it appeared in the Northern Psalter. It was thought that the original tune was by Grant but in the 1929 Scottish Psalter, she was acknowledged as the composer.
It seems to be a perfect example of the Scottish Psalter compositions, and whilst to some it may smack of sentimentality but it does have that simplicity of tune which makes it easy to learn and remember, and difficult to forget….it truly passes the ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’.
She died in 1887 and is buried in St Machar’s Cathedral, in Aberdeen…..and while she is mainly remembered for this tune alone….surely that is sufficient epitaph alone!
Keep ‘pressing’ on!
We had quite a good entry in our local paper, about our recent involvement in Evensong at St John’s, Ballachulish. Unfortunately it was not on the front page, and the photo they reproduced was black and white, whilst the original was in bright colour. We have different colours of robes for our own choir, (as they were obtained from different churches), and then the local choir memebers who joined us had their own robes so it was really colourful.
The content was absolutely correct, including spelling of names! So let’s hope it let’s other singers and churches know that we are available.
