Tag: church music

St Andrew’s Hymnathon

Byartsyhonker June 22, 2012 0 Comments
The historic nearly-100-year-old pipe organ at St Andrew's Leytonstone will soon fall silent unless we can raise £25000 to repair the bellows. We'll be hosting a sponsored hymnathon, singing all of the hymns in the New English Hymnal. Could you come and sing for an hour or two between noon on Friday 12th October and 6pm on Saturday 13th? We'll be singing through the night (though you can arrive...

One thing leads to another…

Byartsyhonker May 24, 2012 4 Comments
Today has been one of those bitty days when I can't quite settle to anything. A twitter chum of mine had a comedy exchange with a twitter chum of his, which resulted in this: While dead in sin and error’s way, My soul was troubled greatly. My grief o’ertook me night and day, Pain was all I did see. The light of the Gospel grace did shine, My darkened soul arose. Made anew, Baptized, too, By...

How to introduce new music in churches

Byartsyhonker April 16, 2012 1 Comment
I wrote this as a comment elsewhere, and thought it perhaps worth reproducing:You can get congregations to sing new music, but it takes a bit of work and cooperation from your organist/music director/whoever. 1) If you have one, see if you can get the choir (or music group or what have you) to sing the new tune (possibly to old words!) as a Communion hymn or an anthem a few times.2) In the weeks...

When you made this planet

Byartsyhonker December 8, 2011 1 Comment
Some time ago, Thomas Thurman drew my attention to a text to try setting as a hymn. The story behind the text, as well as the text itself, is here. After spending the requisite months sitting in a "drafts" drawer while I got distracted by other things, and some help with editing from various people (Dr Christopher Parker at St Mary's Addington was particularly helpful), I think it's about as...

St Andrew’s Carol Service

Byartsyhonker November 17, 2011 0 Comments
This service will draw on a mix of Advent and Christmas repertoire, including the Advent Prose and Berlioz's Shepherd's Farewell, as well as a West Gallery carol and traditional hymns.There will also be a rehearsal at 3.30pm on 11th December. All are welcome to join the choir. If you can't make all the rehearsals but would still like to take part, please speak to me.

Friday Evensong at St Paul’s-in-the-Camp, 6.15 for 6.30pm.

Byartsyhonker October 27, 2011 3 Comments
EDIT, FRIDAY AFTERNOON: It turns out St Paul's are having Evensong tonight after all, but didn't tell anyone about it until late morning. While I don't wish to compete with them, I think we should go ahead and have Evensong outside anyway.END OF EDITOn Friday we will have Evensong outside St Paul's. While the Cathedral has said they will be open for worship, I don't believe they are having...

St Paul’s Evensong at OccupyLSX

Byartsyhonker October 23, 2011 7 Comments
I didn't think, when I got up this morning, that I would somehow wind up leading a BCP Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral.The cathedral has had Occupy LSX, a protest camp, on their doorstep for the past week. Last weekend the Canon Chancellor, Revd Dr Giles Fraser, told the police to leave the protesters alone. As the week has worn on and the tents have stayed up, the cathedral has been operating on...

Metrical Psalms for Advent

Byartsyhonker October 19, 2011 1 Comment
I want to encourage the use of psalms in liturgy. To this end I have committed to compiling a small booklet of metrical psalms for use this coming Advent (Year B). As with everything else I publish I will release the work under a CC BY-SA licence so that other people can use it, free of charge, without having to bother me for permission.I aim to have two settings of each of the psalms for the...

Multi-tracking chant experiment

Byartsyhonker July 17, 2011 0 Comments
This is a brief experiment with multi-tracking Creator lucis optime (English) by artsyhonkerYou see, I've got this hare-brained idea about podcasting a sung Compline online, possibly in some kind of Whitacre-style virtual choir. That's hard to coordinate, with chant: the pulse is directed by the words, so metronome markings are no help, for starters. But gathering together a little schola...

Dances, not dirges

Byartsyhonker June 27, 2011 7 Comments
On Saturday I had the pleasure of conducting the <a href="http://www.lgq.org.uk">London Gallery Quire</a>, not once but twice. We started with a service of Mattins at St John's, Fulham, and then in the evening made our way to St Peter's in the Forest for a concert as part of their Flower Festival.Elsewhere there are conversations going on about music and liturgy, and as usual there is...