St Mary's Music News May 2024 

Above photo: Junior Choristers and Joyful Noise taking part in St Mary’s Family Service on Palm Sunday

Much of the music you hear in church is familiar, though of course the choir and organists are always learning new pieces. Rarely, however, are the motets experimental. Kerry Andrew’s “O nata lux” was a striking exception. This requires 1 soprano to start singing these words in Latin, and then all the others join in turn, staggering their entries to ensure that they are singing independently rather than together, with liberty to vary the length of the notes. In due course there is a change to the English “O Light born of Light”, while the lower parts sing in a conventional manner, so each performance should be different. We look forward to singing it again.

In Holy Week the choir was involved in supporting 6 services. These started with the Family Service on Palm Sunday, led by the Junior Choir, together with the youngest singers from Joyful Noise, encouraged and trained by Kate Beare. In the afternoon the adult choir took over for Choral Evensong, performing William Byrd’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and his motet “Ave Verum Corpus”. On Maundy Thursday traditional music by Merbecke and Anerio preceded the silent stripping of the altar.

On Good Friday the Devotional Offering spanned the centuries, starting with Antonio Lotti’s 8 part motet Crucifixus a 8 written, probably, at the turn of the 17th century. This was followed by James Whitbourn’s “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”, particularly poignant this year as he had sadly died just a few days earlier. The centrepiece of the evening was Gabriel Fauré’s well-loved Requiem written towards the end of the 19th century. Alongside the choir were Krassimira Jeliazkova on violin, Patrick Allen on cello and Jeffrey Dyball on harp, as well as Jeremy Allen on the main organ and Ziyi Wing, the Michael Swindlehurst organ scholar, on the chamber organ.

Finally, on Easter Sunday, as ever, the congregation, choir, organist and brass group joined together enthusiastically in morning service, finishing with a rousing rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, and a delightfully jazzy version of Amazing Grace by the brass group. For the first time ever all the Junior Choristers were female. The day concluded with Choral Evensong in the afternoon. After all this all musicians took a well earned break! We are very grateful to Oli and Jeremy for encouraging, persuading and sometimes perhaps even badgering us to perform to the level St Mary’s Church deserves.

While this newsletter is awaiting publication, the SMMA will be holding its AGM on 21 April. A report of proceedings will be available in due course.

By the time this newsletter is published, Choral Evensong on 14 April will already have taken place, but the next Choral Evensong is on 12 May at 6.30pm, followed by Choral Eucharist for Corpus Christi on 30 May. So far as secular music is concerned, although the very successful spring coffee concert series is over, the lunchtime concerts will be starting on 5 June. More on these next time.

Ottilie Lefever