Music (St M)
Music Report - St Mary’s
First the statistics:
- Total number of sung services during the year - 128
- Concerts - 5
A commentary on major concerts is to be found elsewhere in the Annual Report.
The Choir and Organists are to be thanked for their devotion and dedication to maintaining this level of commitment and the high standard for which the music at St Mary’s is known.
At the end of April Edward Higginbottom, Organist, Fellow and Tutor in Music at New College, Oxford, spent a Saturday with the Choir giving a Workshop on the Te Deums of Purcell and Charpentier and music by Howells and Villette. This was a most rewarding day.
The year saw great changes in personnel. In the summer we said au revoir to members of the University who had completed their studies - Laela Adamson, Brandon Becker, Dawn Herbert, Aurélie Guinard and Polly Jackman (not only a fine singer but a great help finding instrumentalists from the University). Other members who moved away were Sophie Allen and Paul Evans. In the summer Philippe Rogueda who had been a member of the Choir for many years and Clerk to the Trustees of the Choral Scholarships, left us to test his vocation at Klosterneuberg. His place as Clerk to the Trustees has been taken by Jonathan Stork who brings his own passion and dynamism to the rôle. Particular mention must be made of James Newton, the longest standing member of the Choir having joined in 1984, who left to take-up a Layclekship at Lincoln Cathedral in the autumn. Ben Lewis-Smith was organ Scholar for the academic year 2006-2007 and took-up the Organ Scholarship at The Queens¹ College, Oxford, last Michaelmas Term. His place has been taken by the welcome return of Simon Williams, sometime Organ Scholar of Robinson College, Cambridge, who also studies for an MA in Art History at Nottingham University.
In the autumn we had a pleasing number of quality applicants for Choral Scholarships. The new appointments were: Emma Fox, Alexandra McPhee and Elisheba Stevens (sopranos); Oliver Yew (alto); Harry Oulton (tenor) and Paul Suter (bass-baritone).
Michaelmas Term started well with the joint choirs giving a concert in St Peter’s and then joining forces for a celebratory service the weekend of 22 and 23 September. Other services and the vast range of music performed by the two choirs are noted in the termly booklet for all to see.
Following the morning service on 30 September a presentation was made during a champagne d’honneur to mark Andrew Abbott’s 20th anniversary of being appointed to St Mary’s. I take this opportunity of thanking him, again, for his friendship, sterling support and wonderful musicianship.
The last weekend of November nearly all of the Choir travelled to Nürnberg to perform the Duruflé Requiem with the Choir of the Egidienkirche during Gottesdienst on the Sunday morning - a moving experience as this is Ewigkeitsonntag when Germans traditionally remember their dead and sing ‘Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme’. This is not the first time the choirs have sung together. Thanks to the contacts made by William Burn when he was a Fremdsprecherassistent in Nürnberg, the choir was previously invited to sing in a concert to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II and we were visited by the Egidienchor in 2006 when we performed a joint concert and sang together for the Sunday Mass.
The Choir was joined at the Advent Procession by six string players for the Buxtehude Magnificat and Bach’s Cantata 61. We manage to preserve the spirit of Advent in spite of incursions from those who want to get Christmas in early - this means that the Nine Lessons on Christmas Eve still has a Œsparkle¹ and always leads to a happy Christmas Morning with a full sung Mass.
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