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BRENTWOOD CATHEDRAL CHOIR JOINS THE QUEEN’S
JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS
First performance from the Choirbook for The Queen at Vespers
Brentwood Cathedral launched its participation in the Choirbook for The
Queen project with a performance from the Choirbook of a setting of the
Ave Regina by Cecilia McDowall at Choral Vespers on Wednesday 7 March
2012 at 6.30pm.
Brentwood Cathedral Choir is one of 80 national cathedral, college and
other music foundations’ choirs participating in a project which has led to
the publication of the Choirbook for The Queen to mark the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee this year. The project has been inspired by the remarkable
legacy of The Eton Choirbook, the anthology of Tudor Music that was
produced between 1500 and 1505 in honour of King Henry VII.
It consists of 44 anthems, chosen to reflect the very best of choral music
written by living British composers in the first decade of the 21st century
and includes 12 new compositions written specially for the book, including
a composition by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music.
The Brentwood Cathedral Choir has been privileged to receive a set of the
Choirbook for The Queen and will be performing four of the anthems from
the book during this year as Director of Music Andrew Wright explained:
“We have been pleased and highly privileged to be able to participate in the
Choirbook for The Queen initiative for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty
The Queen. Apart from the contribution we are able to make to this exciting
project, it will be of great prestige to the Cathedral here in Brentwood and
form a very exciting and important part of the Cathedral Choir’s
development.”
The full set of the two volume Choirbook was presented to the Bishop of
Brentwood, Thomas McMahon, by Lord Petre, the Lord Lieutenant of
Essex, at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Brentwood Cathedral
last December.
Speaking at the presentation, Lord Petre said: “It is a great honour to be
able to present the Choirbook to Bishop Thomas on behalf of the Cathedral
Choir. I am told that many of the anthems in the book are very challenging
but I know that the excellent choir we have here under Andrew Wright’s
direction will be more than capable of rising to the challenge”.
150th Anniversary of the Victorian Parish Church at
Brentwood Cathedral - 3rd July 2011
The Cathedral Choir played a full part in the 150th anniversary celebrations
of the Victorian part of the Cathedral at the beginning of July 2011. The
1861 building now forms the rear section of the present-day building and
houses the choirstalls and the organ.
Two services on Sunday 3 July were the liturgical focus of the anniversary
celebrations - the 11.30am Mass and the afternoon Choral Vespers – and
both featured music from the Victorian era, some of which had been sung at
the dedication services of the 1861 church and the earlier 1837 church next
door (now the Parish Hall). There was also an acknowledgement of the
modern Cathedral with the inclusion of a Christopher Walker psalm
specially composed for its dedication in 1991.
The morning mass opened with the Bruckner Introit for the Dedication of a
Church Locus Iste which was sung from the back of the building with the
choir out of sight and created a perfect atmosphere for a prayerful and
uplifting service. The choir was in top form as it tackled Mozart’s
Coronation Mass – with an especially exhilarating Sanctus - R.R. Terry’s
arrangement of Thomas Attwood’s Veni Creator and S.S. Wesley’s Blessed
be the God and Father. Before the service organist Stephen King played the
first movement of Elgar’s Sonata in G while at the end he was joined at the
organ by Director of Music Andrew Wright for a rare performance of the
Samuel Wesley Duet for Organ.
Vespers attracted another large congregation which set the tone for a
moving service with their singing of Abide With Me to the famous Eventide
tune composed by William Henry Monk in 1861. The choir added to the
sense of occasion with a full-throttled rendition of Psalm 121 in Hubert
Parry’s well-known setting. The Magnificat was one that was well-
established in Anglican liturgies by 1861 – Thomas Walmisley’s setting on D
minor while the main motet was a complete performance of Mendelssohn’s
Hear My Prayer.
The service concluded with a piece very definitely from the Roman Catholic
repertoire of the time, Vincent Novello’s simple, charming An Evening
Prayer to the Virgin Mary from his massive collection of Music for
Convents. The organ voluntary was this time from S.S. Wesley with Stephen
King playing his Choral Song.
The specially produced service book includes an introduction by David
Worsfold explaining the choice of music.
Anniversary of the Covenant between The Cathedral
Parish of St Mary & St Helen, Brentwood and The
Anglican Parish of St Thomas of Canterbury, Brentwood,
30th January 2011
Fr Martin Boland, Dean of the Cathedral was joined by Fr Colin Hewitt,
Parish Priest of St Thomas', at a service of Choral Vespers, held in in the
Cathedral on Sunday 30th January 2011, when the Covenant between the
two parishes was celebrated.
Visit the Cathedral Parish website for more details and photographs.
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Visit the Cathedral Parish website
for photographs of this event.
Celebrity Organ Master Class and Recital by Margaret
Phillips - Saturday 21st April at the Church of Our Lady of
Lourdes, Wanstead
International concert organist Margaret Phillips brought out the wonderful
clarity, colour and range of the new two-manual Robin Jennings’ organ at Our
Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead at special recital and masterclass at the end of
April. Her programme embraced the music of five centuries and showcased
every section of this fine new instrument which was specially built for the
church last year. Margaret Phillips was full of praise for it: “It is a really
splendid organ that I am sure will serve the parish well for many years to
come”, she told the audience as she introduced the recital.
She was on top form for the recital. Her opening Bach Prelude and Fugue in C
was a masterful combination of flamboyance and simple grandeur and set the
tone for the evening which included a superb Mendelssohn Sonata in D as well
as a delightful set of six musical portraits of an idiosyncratic group of French
Carmelite nuns by the 20th century composer Jean Françaix.