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.
Felix Mendelssohn
We recently spent a weekend in Skye which has many interesting geological structures, and shows similarities to other islands off the north coast of Ireland and the west of Scotland, especially those of the Hebrides. When we think of Staffa we think of the Hebridean Overture by Felix Mendelssohn.
The picture above, which was painted in 1829 (by Thomas Duncan), during his trip to Scotland, has been loaned to the ‘Mendelssohn on Mull’ Festival. It will be on display in St John’s Oban Episcopal Cathedral during the opening concert on July 4th.
He was born in Hamburg 200 years ago, a German Jew, into an intellectual, well-to-do family and this no doubt allowed his precocious skill to develop.
His parents took the step of converting to the Lutheran Church, which would make them more socially-acceptable outside their ghettos, and they moved to Berlin where his parents took the added name of Bartholdy. It was here that he studied composition and piano playing. He was also very competent on the violin and was a good linguist.
Travelling to Paris, he studied the music of Mozart and J.S.Bach and started his prolific compositions. At the age of 12 he visited Goethe, with whom he continued to correspond. The overture to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was composed at the age of 17! This was just before he went to study music at Berlin University. Following his studies he travelled all over Europe, including, Italy, France, England and of course Scotland where he was intrigued by the landscape. It was from the same type of scenery as we saw recently, that he derived the inspiration for Fingal’s Cave.
As far as vocal music was concerned St Paul and Elijah are probably the best known. Now if he only lived longer than his 38 years, he might have given us an interpretation of the Isle of Skye!
Royal School of Church Music
In these days when educational establishments want to be called universtities, colleges, academies, institutions, etc, there is still one modestly called a ’school’. …..RSCM
The moving figure was Sir Sidney Nicholson. He was born in 1875, studied at Oxford, the Royal College of Music, and then Frankfurt-in-Main. By his late 20s he was holding positions at Carlisle Cathedral, and Manchester. He was then at Westminster Abbey from1918-1928.
By then he had decided to establish St. Nicholas College, and an associated School of English Church Music, to improve the quality of music in Churches. (Makes me wonder what was happening around the rest of the UK!) The SECM, was formed by Sir Sidney, on 6th December 1927 (the feast of St Nicolas, Patron of Choirboys and children) at a meeting in the Abbey. It had a number of associated choirs and churches all committed to high standards.
From 1929 to the outbreak of war it operated from Bullers Wood in Chislehurst, Kent, and organised major choral festivals in the London area. By this time there were some 1300 affiliated churches home and abroad. Many students were called-up in 1945 but Sir Sydney continued travelling round teaching to Parish Churches and Dioceses, from Tenbury and Leamington Spa.
At the end of the war, it became the RSCM operating from the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral with the College of St Nicholas being re-established there. By 1952, there were over 3000 affiliated churches.
Most of us who have any connection with the RSCM, will know the picture of Addington Palace, Croydon where they moved to in 1954. It had been the home of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and was a wonderful setting.
From 1996 to 2006 the headquarters were at Cleveden Lodge near Dorking, and is now established at Sarum College, in Salisbury.
It is and has been, arguably the most decisive influence on the quality of our religious praise over the last 80 years, and no doubt will continue to be so, and all because of Sir Sydney Nicholson.
