All Saints' Church, Rotherfield Peppard
Choir News 2000
The 31st December being the fifth Sunday of the month, there will be the customary joint morning service with our friends at St. Nicholas', Rotherfield Greys. On this occasion, the 10.30 a.m. Choral Eucharist will take place at Greys and members of All Saints' Choir have been kindly invited to swell the ranks in the chancel.
By way of a 'return match', Peppard will host a Choral Evensong at 6.30 p.m. that evening, when members of Greys' Choir and other friends will join us at All Saints' for this special Millennium Service. Music will include works by Henry Walford Davies, Charles Villiers Stanford, Charles Wood and John Rutter.
Evening Prayer at 6.30 p.m. on Advent Sunday will include Come, Lord, come, a devotional sequence devised by John Harper, Director General of the Royal School of Church Music. It contains readings and music, much of which is based on plainsong and words from the monastic tradition. It will be a period of quiet reflection on the coming of Our Lord.
There will be two carol services at Christmas. The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols will be held on Christmas Eve at 3 p.m. On Christmas Day, there will be a Family Carol Service (Seven Lessons and Carols) at 11 a.m. In addition to the usual opportunities for congregational singing, the Choir will sing, at one service or the other, When Christ was born of Mary free (John Gardner), A tender shoot (Otto Goldschmidt), Lullay my Liking (Gustav Holst), Unto us is born a Son (Colin Mawby), Nativity Carol and Jesus child (John Rutter), On this day earth shall ring (Haldane Campbell Stewart), Gaudete! (trad. arr. Curtis Clark) and The truth from above (Ralph Vaughan Williams).
An article by Clare Atkinson
Sunday, 5th November at All Saints' Church was the Patronal Festival for 2000. Plans for an apt celebration of music at All Saints' for the millennium had been underway for some time. The resulting tribute to music and musicians, past and present, was outstanding.
In July 1999, the Parochial Church Council commissioned an anthem for the Choir, dedicated to the memory of Vernon Openshaw, Organist and Choirmaster at All Saints' for some 43 years. The four-part anthem for choir and organ was to be composed by Grayston Ives, Organist, Informator Choristarum and Tutor in Music at Magdalen College, Oxford. The text was to be Isaac Watts's hymn, written for All Saints'-tide: There is a land of pure delight where saints immortal reign.
The setting begins simply with sopranos alone singing the first verse. Throughout the next verse, the texture spans out and the organ accompaniment too increases in sonority. The penultimate verse again begins quietly before growing towards a climax on the words not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood should fright us from the shore. Throughout, the organ provides sympathetic accompaniment to the voices, supporting and enhancing the singing.
The anthem is to be published by Novello in a forthcoming collection of hymn-anthems and it is due to be sung next year by the Choir of Magdalen College during evensong.
Both anthem and performance were a true celebration of the standard and commitment to music at All Saints', both celebrating the past and looking forward to the future. In addition, it paid tribute to all those who work there and enhance worship through music. I wonder how long it will be before we have another world premiere!
Details of the music to be sung at the Patronal Festival on 5th November are given below. This will
include There is a land of pure delight, the specially commissioned anthem composed by
Grayston Ives.
On Remembrance Sunday, 12th November, the anthem will be Vox ultima crucis (Tarry no
longer toward thine heritage), a setting of John Lydgate's 15th century words by Sir William Harris
(1883-1973).
Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) died on St. Cecilia's Day 100 years ago. His anthem O love the
Lord, a setting of words from Psalm 31, will be sung on 19th November.
Advent Sunday falls on 3rd December. Evening Prayer that day will include Professor John Harper's
Come, Lord, come, a sequence of Advent prayers, readings and music in expectation of the
coming of Jesus, the Son of God.
The musical highlight of the Patronal Festival, to be celebrated on Sunday, 5th
November, will be the first performances of the specially commissioned anthem,
There is a land of pure delight, composed by Grayston Ives for the Choir
of All Saints' Church and in memory of Vernon Openshaw.
The Eucharist at 10.30 a.m. will be sung to the G major setting by Frederick Wadely
(1882-1970). At Festal Evensong at 6.30 p.m., the Responses will be sung to the setting
by John Ayleward (1626-1669) and the Canticles to the A minor setting by Tertius Noble
(1867-1953).
Singers from more than 25 church choirs in the Oxford Diocese, including a substantial
contingent from All Saints' Choir, will gather in Dorchester Abbey on Saturday, 14th
October for their annual festival, organised by the Thames and Chilterns Area of the
Royal School of Church Music.
The combined choir of over 300 voices, which will be directed by Philip Moore, Organist
and Master of the Music at York Minster, will sing music by Moore, Ayleward, Bairstow,
Noble, Mozart and Parry. Neil Gaston-Nash, Organ Scholar of Christ Church, Oxford, will
be the festival organist and the preacher will be Canon David Winter.
Festival Evensong, which everyone is most welcome
to attend, is at 5 p.m.
On Saturday 9th September, I, a member of the junior choir at All Saints' Church,
Peppard, attended an organ day directed by Simon Williams from the RCO
(Royal College of Organists) and David Oldfield from the RSCM at Reading
School. It was open to all that were interested in playing the "King of Instruments".
There were 2 levels of attainment from complete beginners, like myself, to more
advanced people who simply wanted help with their service playing.
I enjoyed it very much and found it very interesting learning about all the stops and
pedals. There were 3 organs that we had an opportunity to play including a digital
organ and a chamber (pipe) organ.
Nearing the end of the day, we went into the Chapel at Reading School and had a
chance to play the magnificent pipe organ there. A short recital from Simon Williams
and David Oldfield rounded off an enjoyable day.
In July 1999, the Parochial Church Council agreed to support the commissioning of a
new anthem for the Choir of All Saints' Church, as a significant contribution to mark the
Millennium and in memory of Vernon Openshaw, Organist and Choirmaster of All
Saints' from 1955 to 1998. The composer, Grayston Ives, accepted the commission
and the anthem has now been written and received. It is a setting for four part choir
and organ of words by Isaac Watts: There is a land of pure delight, where saints
immortal reign. It is intended that the anthem be sung for the first time at the
Patronal Festival which will be celebrated on the Sunday after All Saints' Day, 5th
November.
Grayston Ives is Organist, Informator Choristarum and Tutor in Music at Magdalen
College, Oxford.
Congratulations to our Churchwarden, Choir Secretary and Tenor on being awarded the MBE, for
services to Photogrammetric Science, in The Queen's Birthday Honours List. We're proud of
you Keith!
The 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach occurs on
28th July. Seven generations of the Bach family influenced German musical life from
the 16th to the 19th centuries. Johann Sebastian, the most gifted of all the Bachs,
belonged to the fifth generation. After a number of appointments as a court musician,
Bach moved to St. Thomas's, Leipzig where he remained until his death 27 years later.
While at Leipzig, he composed his five sets of Church Cantatas (295 in all), each
containing a cantata for every Sunday in the church's year.
On Sunday, 23rd July, we shall mark the anniversary at All Saints' Church at both
Morning and Evening Prayer. All the hymns to be sung that day were composed
or harmonised by Bach. With one exception, the Anglican chants for the psalms and
the canticles were composed by English contemporaries of Bach. The introit will
be the chorale God liveth still and the anthem Flocks in pastures green
abiding (from Cantata 208). On Sunday, 30th July, the anthem at Evening Prayer
will be Jesu, joy of man's desiring (from Cantata 147).
Bach was a deeply religious man, as his works prove. His last composition,
dictated from his death bed, was an organ prelude on the chorale Before thy
house, my God, I stand.
Jesus College, Oxford is the patron of the living of All Saints', Rotherfield Peppard.
We value the college's patronage highly. Within the last ten years, the college has
made several important financial contributions, towards the costs of the new organ,
the reroofing of the chancel and the rehanging of the bells. We acknowledge this
generosity with grateful thanks.
The college was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I, at the petition of Dr. Hugh
Price, Treasurer of St. David's Cathedral. The Welsh connexion helped to ensure
a succession of Welsh rectors of Peppard, many of them having studied at St.
David's College, Lampeter and then at Jesus College, Oxford.
On Sunday, 2nd July, Jesus College Chapel Choir will sing the service of Sung
Eucharist at All Saints' Church, beginning at 10.30 a.m. The setting will be the
Mass in Four Parts by William Byrd (1543-1623). The choir's visit marks a
conscious attempt by the college to strengthen links with the livings of which the
college is patron. It is to be hoped that as many as possible will wish to attend such
an auspicious occasion and to meet and show support for the students who sing
each Sunday in term.
Membership of the choir is open to all those studying at Jesus College and members
of other colleges within the university. The college pays for singing tuition for the
entire choir with Alastair Thompson who was a founder member of The King's Singers.
The choir tours regularly and this year is going to Florence and Venice. The Senior
Organ Scholar is Alex Flood who, in September, goes to the Cathedral and Abbey
Church of St. Alban, Hertfordshire as Organ Scholar.
A letter to the Rotherfield Peppard Parish Magazine
I should like to say a very big "Thank you" to the Choir for their beautiful rendering,
on Palm Sunday, of the Spiritual arranged by Francis Westbrook, "Were you there
when they crucified my Lord?" It was sung with great feeling and moved me to tears - thank
you again.
A report by Hugh Warwick of the Choir's visit to Nether Heyford.
The six bells of Nether Heyford church were ringing as the Choir of All
Saints' posed in its shadow for their
photograph under grey skies that more than
hinted at April's determination to come in like a lion with a cold snap and snowfall.
It may have been the 1st, but it wasn't fooling!
The Choir, with its Director of Music, Nigel Wallington, and Assistant
Organist, Clare Woodham, was making another visit to the village to sing Evensong
- this time for the eve of Mothering Sunday. The music had been chosen to reflect
the day, ranging from eighteenth century organ voluntaries to contemporary
anthems.
Although the church of St. Peter and St. Paul is not much bigger than All
Saints', it does not have the disadvantage of a chancel arch that restricts and confines
the sound, and the choir took full advantage of the opportunity to sing into an
acoustic that augmented and fed back to them the sound they were making. This can
always make the world of difference to the confidence of any choir, and it did here.
The Introit, Anton Bruckner's 'Locus Iste', proved this point, being well
balanced in sound, beautifully responding to Bruckner's rich yet simple harmonies,
and showing how a piece written for a large Austrian abbey church could be just as
effective in a small English village.
The Preces and Responses were sung to settings by Grayston Ives, whose
music has long been a favourite of the choir, and the Canticles were to music by
Healey Willan, with a psalm setting by Herbert Howells. The Anthem, a setting by
Simon Lole, organist at Salisbury Cathedral, of words from the familiar hymn 'Shall
we not love thee, Mother dear' is an attractive and tuneful piece well suited to the
choir's sound. After the Blessing, the Choir sang a setting of the Ave Maria by
another contemporary composer, Simon Lindley of Leeds parish church, to conclude
the service. The collection was donated to the appeal funds for the choir of
Peterborough Cathedral.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable day that was much appreciated by the
villagers and congregation of Nether Heyford, who put on a splendid spread to
sustain their visitors before the service. It was good, too, to see our friend of many
years, Rev. Canon David Evans, the Rector of the Benefice, who gave us such a
warm welcome. Sadly, he retires in a year or so, and this may be the last time we will see
him there. Our best wishes and prayers go with him and his wife, Jenny, for the
future.
Regular worshippers at All Saints' Church will have been aware of the experimental use of
a digital piano during services on Sunday, 13th February. Subsequently, a new Technics
digital piano has been purchased by the Parochial Church Council, confident in the
additional possibilities that this instrument will afford.
The annual Royal School of Church Music Three-Day Course for Choristers takes place
at Magdalen College School, Oxford from Monday, 17th to Wednesday, 19th April, 2000.
The course director is Peter Leech. All Saints' Church will be represented by Katie Hughes,
Emily Keen and Emma McLauchlan, while Graihagh Crawshaw has been invited to be one
of the house captains. Each day concludes with a service at 4.15 p.m. to which everyone
is welcome.
Easter will see the introduction of a setting of the Communion Service which is new to
congregations at All Saints' Church. In recent months, we have sung Sumsion in F,
appropriately in the centenary year of Herbert Sumsion's birth. During coming months,
we shall sing Wadely in G. Frederick William Wadely (1882-1970) came from Kidderminster.
He studied at Selwyn College, Cambridge where he was Organ Scholar and then at the
Royal College of Music under Stanford, Parratt and Wood. After positions at St. Andrew's,
Uxbridge and Malvern Priory, he was Organist and Master of the Music at Carlisle Cathedral
from 1910 to 1960. He composed widely though many of his larger works were secular in
nature. His Service in G appears to date from the 1930s. The geographical location and
regional influence of Carlisle are apparent as the Gloria contains alternative sections
for the Scottish rite.
Festal Evensong on Easter Day (23rd April) will note the coincidence with Shakespeare's
birthday in the Introit, God's goodness has been great to thee (Sir Frederick Bridge).
Other music at that service will include the Preces, Responses and Lord's Prayer
(Grayston Ives), Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Healey Willan) and Ye choirs of new
Jerusalem (Sir Charles Villiers Stanford).
Evensong for the eve of Mothering Sunday
It is several years since All Saints' Choir has sung away from Peppard but, on Saturday,
1st April, 2000, we shall be going to sing Evensong at the Church of SS Peter and
Paul, Nether Heyford in Northamptonshire. The rector there is the Revd. Canon David
Evans, a good friend of All Saints', Peppard. We have sung at Nether Heyford on two
previous occasions and enjoyed the warm hospitality of David and Jenny and their
parishioners.
It is planned to sing music by Anton Bruckner, Grayston Ives, Herbert Howells, Healey
Willan, Simon Lole and Simon Lindley at Evensong for the eve of Mothering Sunday.
A coach will leave All Saints' Church at 1.30 pm, returning to Peppard by 7.30 pm.
We hope that as many choir "supporters" as possible will come to Nether Heyford
with the Choir. Children will travel free of charge (whether they are choristers or not).
The fare for adults will be £10 each.
[I understand "team colours" are optional! - WEBMASTER.]
Please let Keith Atkinson know as soon as possible if
you would like to go on the visit to Nether Heyford.
An article by Keith Atkinson for the Rotherfield Peppard Parish Magazine.
THE EDITOR invited me to contribute to the Parish Magazine for January 2000 and, in doing so, to reflect on church music at All Saints' at the dawn of a new
century.
It has been reported elsewhere that the beginning of the 20th century was celebrated in 1901 but it would be to
swim against the present tide of misinformed public opinion to contradict that "For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no desire to be disloyal, some person in authority, I don't know who, but certainly not the Astronomer Royal"* has decreed that the 21st century will begin on 1st January, 2000.
In 1901, many poems were written and hymn tunes were composed to mark the birth of the 20th century. Perhaps the Editor would open her pages to poets and tunesmiths of the parish who may feel inspired to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
[These Web pages are certainly open to them - WEBMASTER.]
But what of music in church at this epoch? During 1999, the Choir of All Saints' sang anthems and
service settings by 15 composers who flourished prior to the 20th century and by a similar number
who worked during the 20th century. This latter group included Ernest Bullock, Herbert Howells,
John Ireland, Henry Ley, Stanley Marchant, Tertius Noble, Herbert Sumsion, Ralph Vaughan
Williams and Percy Whitlock, all of whom are now dead, as well as six living composers, John
Harper, Grayston Ives, Simon Lindley, Richard Lloyd, Simon Lole and John Rutter. I wonder
whether our predecessors at All Saints' in the early years of the 20th century would have expected
such a blend of old and new in the service music of their small country parish church.
My own devout wish is that, in 2099 and beyond, there will still be men and women, boys and girls,
who will want to maintain the musical traditions of the Anglican Church in this place to the best of
their abilities and who will continue to sing music by Tallis and Purcell, S. S. Wesley and Bruckner,
Vaughan Williams and Howells. By then, they will have found that musical idioms which now defeat
us will have become second nature to them (John Tavener's music is a case in point) and that they
will also revel in the best of 21st century church music.
However, of one thing we can be certain. This year, we will rejoice in the music of the great master,
Johann Sebastian Bach, the 250th anniversary of whose death falls on 28th July, 2000.
K. B. ATKINSON
* Paraphrase of part of the Pirate King's recitative, Act II, The Pirates of Penzance, with apologies
to Sir William S. Gilbert.
October 2000
September 2000
by Sarah Woodward, age 15
August 2000
July 2000
May 2000
on Sunday, 2nd July, 2000
reproduced here by kind permission of the author.
April 2000
March 2000
Church of St Peter and St Paul
Nether Heyford
Saturday 1st April 2000 at 5 p.m.
sung by
The Choir of All Saints' Church
Rotherfield Peppard
Organ
Concerto No. 2 in G minor
Matthew Camidge (1758-1844)
Introit
Locus iste
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Preces and Responses
Grayston Ives (1948-)
Psalm
122
Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Office Hymn
The Lord whom earth and sea and sky
(Tune Veni, redemptor gentium)
Canticles
Healey Willan (1880-1968)
Anthem
Shall we not love thee, Mother dear?
Simon Lole (1957-)
Hymn
The King of love my shepherd is
(Tune Dominus regit me)
After the Blessing
Ave Maria (Litany to Mary)
Simon Lindley (1948-)
Organ
Voluntary Opus 7 No. 8
John Stanley (1713-1786)
February 2000
January 2000
All Saints' Choir Secretary