S O U N D B O A R D D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 1 SOUNDBOARD CHURCH MUSIC AND MUSICIANS THE MAGAZINE OF CHURCH MUSIC DUBLIN ▪ Giving worship a vibrant voice through music ISSUE 34 DECEMBER 2015 Archbishop’s Certificate in Church Music Awards The annual presentation of certificates to ACCM students took place during evensong at Christ Church Cathedral on 22nd November. Emma Galloway (Waterford) received the final certificate, recognising three years of successful study. Year 1 students, Janet Armstrong (Newcastle, Co. Wicklow), Arthur Greene (Christ Church Cathedral), Thomas Maxwell (Taney) and Jonathan Stanley (Bray) also received certificates, as did Denise Guidera, the first person to Above: Members of Peregryne in the quire of Bristol Cathedral. (Photo: Stuart Kinsella) complete the new Foundation Course Peregryne in the West Country in Church Music. The vocal ensemble Peregryne, which has enjoyed singing compline in Dublin Below: Students on the Archbishop’s churches throughout the year, was delighted to be the choir-in-residence at Certificate in Church Music with their certificates at the recent awards ceremony in Bristol Cathedral from Monday 24th to Sunday 30th August. The music for Christ Church Cathedral. (Photo: Philip Good) each service took different geographical themes. Monday, St Bartholomew’s day, was Franco-Flemish, with works by Adrian Willaert, Melchior Franck and Josquin de Prez. Tuesday was Irish with, unusually for England, the responses and canticles as Gaeilge , composed by Caitríona Ní Dhubhghaill, who had prudently set ‘A Thiarna, saor an Bhanríon’. The anthem was by Hugo Kellyk (fl. c. 1480), the orthography of whose name (Ceallaigh?) suggests a Gaelic origin. Two of Spain’s greatest 16th-century composers, Tomás Luis de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero featured on Wednesday, while Friday was auf Deutsch including canticles by Schütz and Bach’s motet, Singet dem Herrn . Saturday featured an eclectic Celtic fringe of composers, while Sunday morning was decidedly Francophile: Frank Martin’s double-choir mass married with Messiaen. The final evensong was an all-English affair, concluding with John Browne’s sumptuous Stabat Mater . The group rehearsed daily in the resonant Romanesque chapter house, but also made forays outside, singing a lunchtime recital in nearby St Mary Redcliffe on Wednesday, and travelling on Thursday to Bath Abbey to give a lunchtime concert, followed by an informal concert at St Michael’s Without. On Saturday, after evensong, Peregryne scaled Bristol’s hills to sing compline in Clifton Cathedral, bookending it with Eton Choirbook works by Kellyk and Browne. Stuart Kinsella Living Worship 2016: Saturdays in January, 10.30am–12.30pm 16th January (Mageough Hall, Cowper Road): Bishop Harold Miller discusses music for Holy Week and Easter Day. 23rd January (Mageough Hall, Cowper Road): Archdeacon Ricky Rountree looks at options for the use of music at the Eucharist when it includes the liturgy of Holy Baptism. 30th January (Sandford Parish Church, Ranelagh): Gerard Brooks leads a workshop on service accompaniment. (See page 6.) 2 S O U N D B O A R D D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 New website: churchmusicdublin.org Share Soundboard Church Music Dublin’s new website was launched recently. The previous website Once you have finished reading your dates from 2006 and developed somewhat haphazardly since then. A team copy of Soundboard, perhaps you comprising Philip Good, David McConnell, Jacqueline Mullen and James Pasley might like to share it with clergy or has produced a menu structure that reflects how parish musicians go about other church musicians, or perhaps with their work. All the information from the previous site has been transferred, but is your choir members. Additional copies classified in a more logical way. A gallery page has been added and photos of can be provided if you would like to church music events will be very welcome. An innovative feature of the site is leave a few copies in the choir pews. that its background colour changes appropriately as the church’s liturgical year passes by. Have a look and let us know what you think. The site was designed Photos and feedback and developed by Sándor Gera of getonline.ie in Dublin and his colleagues in For future issues, we need good images Hungary. Existing URLs continue to function and redirect automatically. of people singing, chatting, enjoying themselves—images that reflect the Soundboard subscriptions (€15/£13) are now due singing church in action. We are particularly interested to hear about You may pay online: new projects and events, and we are Go to the Make a Payment page on happy to offer publicity for any new www.churchmusicdublin.org endeavours in church music. We are always very happy to receive constructive feedback on the content of Soundboard. Please send photographs, news items, articles and feedback via email to [email protected] . Deputy organists If you are on the deputy organist list, be sure to let us know when your contact details change. We receive occasional advice that the contact numbers are incorrect or that organists are no longer available. The list can be found online at www.churchmusicdublin.org/deputy . Above: Members of the Culwick Choral Society, with conductor Bernie Sherlock and organist David O’Shea, performing Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem at Sandford Parish Church, Remuneration guidelines Ranelagh, on Remembrance Day, 11th November. (Photo: Arnaud Cras) The guidelines and recommendations are on the website. The suggested rates Simplified hymn accompaniments continue at the 2009 level. The This issue’s hymn accompaniment is Irby , to which the hymn ’Once in royal guidelines are published jointly by David’s city’ is sung. Many other simplified accompaniments are available on our Church Music Dublin and the Advisory website at www.churchmusicdublin.org/Education . These are a useful resource Committee on Church Music of the for organists who find the harmonisations in Church Hymnal challenging to play fluently. If you require a specific tune not yet available, please let us know. Roman Catholic bishops. S O U N D B O A R D D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 3 ACCM Syllabus News from Donegal The organ-playing syllabus for the Archbishop’s Daniel Braddell discusses musical endeavours in the northwest Certificate in Church Music has remained North Donegal is not normally associated with Anglican choral substantially unchanged for over twenty years. For music, but we have a sizeable Church of Ireland community some time the Executive Committee has felt that compared with other parts of the Republic of Ireland. In 2013, I the syllabus is unnecessarily orientated towards founded Gaudium Chamber Choir, an amateur adult group organ repertoire. A completely fresh syllabus will be counting members from across all denominations, dedicated to implemented from September 2016, with emphasis presenting high-quality performances of sacred music, on effective hymn-playing. Varied selections of especially from the Anglican tradition. The first evensong, given hymns have been chosen for each year. Six must be in Conwal Parish Church, Letterkenny in November 2013, prepared in Year 1, an additional ten in Year 2 and a included Reading’s responses, Stanford in G, and Wesley’s Thou further twelve in Year 3. A simple transposition test wilt keep him in perfect peace. Much of this music was new to has been introduced in Years 2 and 3. The new both singers and audience, and made a big impression. syllabus will be on the website from early in 2016. Since then, we have continued to sing choral services as well as presenting concerts of sacred and secular music. A recent highlight was solemn vespers for Pentecost in St John the Baptist church, Carrigart last May, where we were joined by young soprano, Harriet Burns, who sang Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and Schubert’s Ave Maria . Vespers was followed by a short concert including Stanford’s settings of The Blue Bird and My love’s an arbutus as well as Michael McGlynn’s Siúil a Rúin . On Saturday 28th November last we presented a concert entitled ‘The King of Love: songs of penitence and praise’ in Trinity Presbyterian Church, Letterkenny, a mixture of sacred choral and organ music, interspersed with readings linked to the music Our programmes include solo organ music in an attempt to raise the profile of the instrument and to allow the audience to hear good organ music well performed, even on instruments Appointment of Organists with limited capabilities. Letterkenny cathedral possesses a It is a long-standing practice that vacant organist modest-sized instrument originally by Telford, altered by positions in the Dublin area are advertised publicly. Kenneth Jones in the 1980s and recently overhauled by This supports the organist profession by giving Stephen Adams; it sounds marvellous and I have been younger musicians the opportunity to apply and by privileged to give a couple of solo recitals there to small but facilitating established organists, who may seek a enthusiastic audiences, including music from the French and change. However, Church Music Dublin has become German symphonic repertoire. I have also recently presented a concerned at what seems to be a trend for select programme of Mendelssohn, Wesley and 18th-century English vestries and clergy to rely on informal means to music in Donegal Town Church of Ireland, which possesses a make a vacancy known, rather than advertising. small unaltered Telford organ from the 1870s. Whenever a position falls vacant, we urge You can follow Gaudium Chamber Choir on Facebook at that it is advertised publicly. This procedure has www.facebook.com/gaudiumchoir . become all the more important as a consequence of the recent implementation of new charities legislation.