Tag: choral music

A creative response to copyrighted lyrics…

Byartsyhonker April 26, 2011 0 Comments
Eric Whitacre wrote this music to fit the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Rather stupidly, Robert Frost's estate told him that he couldn't use it until it becomes public domain in 2038.So he asked Charles Anthony Silvestri to write a new poem to fit, using the same meter and some of the same words... this is the result: The whole virtual choir thing is pretty darn...

In the great congregation I will praise…

Byartsyhonker April 22, 2011 2 Comments
Though my diocesan cathedral in Chelmsford is a bit of a trek for me, I'm privileged in London to be within easy travel distance of both St Paul's Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral.Yesterday, partly out of curiosity and partly out of a desire to attend a service that I couldn't mess up by playing the organ in the wrong place, I attended the Chrism Mass (actually called "The Renewal of Ordination...

Ruht wohl

Byartsyhonker April 20, 2011 0 Comments
Last night I went to hear Bach's St John Passion at St Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral is not the best acoustic environment for it, to be honest: there's a very long echo and the sound just gets incredibly muddy. Bach is better, I think, with some clarity.The Passion was sung in English. As a rule I tend to prefer singing in the original language and as an audience member I think I feel the same,...

In Commendation of Music

Byartsyhonker April 18, 2011 0 Comments
Somehow, I neglected to blog about this at the time... last year I wanted to make a birthday present for Stella, who keeps everything ticking over smoothly at Quire. So of course I wrote a piece of music. The text is by one William Strode, and I chose it (after the usual laboured searching) because it was a fairly simple metrical poem which I could set in the style of an 18th-century glee. PDF...

Psalm 31 vv 9-16 to Aylesbury

Byartsyhonker April 17, 2011 0 Comments
This is the last of the metrical Psalms for this Lent. On Maundy Thursday we'll be singing Psalm 22, right enough, but it will be a chanted version using the Common Worship text. The plan is to keep that very simple: two notes only, a minor third apart.I wanted to use the opportunity to teach the choir (and expose the congregation) to another good tune that's in the New English Hymnal but which...

Psalm 130 to Cheshire

Byartsyhonker April 13, 2011 0 Comments
This past Sunday -- Passion Sunday -- was not an All-Age Service, or anything else requiring exceptional liturgy, and so it was back to metrical psalms with a congregational response.I was pleased with this setting of Psalm 130. The tune I chose is one that we'll be using on Palm Sunday and which is not terribly well known in the congregation, so sneaking it in as the psalm is one way of getting...

Psalm 121: Anglican Chant with a congregational response

Byartsyhonker March 30, 2011 1 Comment
Continuing with the inclusion of psalms to our liturgy during Lent, on 20th March at St Andrew's we sang Psalm 121. This is a favourite of mine and of many others, and I wanted to use Anglican Chant this time. There are various chants that can be used; the one by H. Walford Davies, with solos in the first and third quarters, is certainly well-known. But it wasn't really appropriate for our very...

With cheerfulness rejoice

Byartsyhonker March 13, 2011 0 Comments
Psalm 51 on Wednesday night went well, I thought: the congregation sang their response and the choir led well. There were even some positive comments after the service! For this morning's service I wanted to keep things simple -- fitting in the extra music for Ash Wednesday had already squished our rehearsal time a bit. So I decided we'd do the same thing, using a metrical version of Psalm 32 and...

Carol Service

Byartsyhonker November 11, 2010 0 Comments
As part of my work as organist and choirmaster at St Andrew's Leytonstone I am helping organise the annual Carol Service. This year the service will be on Sunday, 12th December at 4.30pm.Choral singing is great fun, and I've always found it a good way of keeping my spirits up in the increasing gloom of November and December. Why not come and join us?Rehearsals will be Fri 19th Nov, Thurs 25th...

Music for St Michael and All Angels

Byartsyhonker September 29, 2010 0 Comments
Today I've been to St Paul's Cathedral for Evensong, to hear the winning entry in the recent New Music Competition. There were 58 entrants, out of which one was chosen for the £1000 prize. Andrew Cusworth chose the same text as I did for the competition, one previously used by Richard Dering in this gem (YouTube link). It was interesting to hear the difference in our approaches to it. I like to...