Interim Organist Required

I am taking a sabbatical! More about that later. In the meantime: St. Andrew's Leytonstone is looking for an Interim Organist and Choir Director to cover a one year sabbatical by our current Director of Music. The successful applicant will be a skilled and passionate musician, who will be able to direct and accompany a small amateur robed choir in sacred music. The church has an extremely fine...

Love (III)

At St Andrew's Leytonstone we had the final service of our much-loved parish priest, Fr Duncan, this morning. I've interrupted the Song Cycle pilgrimage to come back and play. He is retiring and we will all miss him loads. I wanted to do something special for this service, so I asked him for a favourite poem. When he said "Love bade me welcome" by George Herbert, I was delighted; and I had...

Up-Hill

This is another piece written for Song Cycle, a big project of mine this summer. The text was suggested by the Revd Canon Kathryn Fleming, due to be installed at Coventry Cathedral on 31st May, and I'm very pleased with how it has turned out. – Does the road wind up-hill all the way? – Yes, to the very end. – Will the day’s journey take the whole long day? – From morn to night, my...

Liturgical hair: Going for Green

I have been dyeing my hair in liturgical colours since the beginning of Advent. This is to raise money for repairs to the bellows of our very fine Lewis pipe organ at St Andrew's. I've done purple, pink, purple with red, white/gold, and white with red. The sponsorship started well, and has now raised £1436 £1507.40: enough to sponsor 47 50 full days of hair in liturgical colours. Thanks so much...

Gaudete

First a little music -- the second track from my album, Cheerful voices, available at Bandcamp. As I've written there: This carol is from the Piae Cantiones, a cllection of Scandinavian sacred music published in 1582. Only the music for the chorus is given; the traditional tune for the verses is taken from other songs from around that time. Thanks to Ruth Moss for the English half of the chorus....

Good problems

It's getting near the time for the annual Carol Service at St Andrew's Leytonstone, and rehearsals started last night. For the Carol Service we have a "Community Choir" -- people from the community, and people from church who don't usually sing in the choir, join us for four rehearsals (plus a run-through on the day) so that we can do some repertoire that just won't work with lower numbers. The...

So why does a poor East London church need a pipe organ, anyway?

At St Andrew's Leytonstone we're hosting a hymnathon this weekend, to raise money for the repair of our pipe organ. Fundraising is going well, but there have been some questions. In this time of austerity, unemployment and recession, what are we doing raising money to pay for the repair of an instrument a century old? Can't we just get an electric organ, and spend the money on more useful things,...

Let all the world in every corner sing.

I had a bit of a rant on Twitter this morning. I was upset by the government's continued assault on the poor and vulnerable through the dismantling of the welfare state, and I was frustrated with churches for what seems like apathy in the face of it, though it may be that it's closer to self-preservation than lack of care. Too often, it seems, we want to leave "politics" out of our religious...

St Andrew’s Hymnathon

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...

Organ fundraising

The organ at St Andrew's Leytonstone has been in need of repair for some time. Before I got there, a first stage of repairs was done; the second stage was deferred. Here's a quote from our organ builder's estimate on the second stage: "The four remaining bellows up in the main organ chamber are very awkward to access (being sited on floor level) and require dismantling/removal of the Choir...