Music

  Music List: September - December 2010

  Music List: Easter - September 5, 2010

Overview

The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is considered by major critics the outstanding choral ensemble of the Anglican musical tradition in the United States today. Besides offering a full concert series each year, the Choir of fifteen men and twenty-four boys sings at five weekly principal worship services, preparing an astounding four hundred pieces of sacred music a year.

The Men of the Choir are professional singers; the Boys attend Saint Thomas Choir School, the only church-related residential choir school in the United States, and one of only a few similar schools remaining in the world.

The Choir has been directed since 2004 by John Scott, formerly Organist and Director of Music at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The Choral Services Calendar is regularly updated with music listings for each upcoming Choral Service. For your convenience, you may also choose to download a PDFs of the most recent Music Lists, at the top of this page.

About the Organs

The Great Organ of Saint Thomas Church was built in 1913 by the Ernest M. Skinner Organ Company of Boston, and installed when the present building was first used for services that year. It was extensively revised and rebuilt in 1956 by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company, also of Boston, under the personal direction of G. Donald Harrison. it was then dedicated as the Arents Memorial Organ, given by George Arents in memory of his wife. Further revision of the instrument was completed in the late sixties by Gilbert Adams of New York, and in the early eighties by Mann and Trupiano of Brooklyn.

The current organ includes tonal designs which are characteristic of the organs of Bach's time. In addition, it is especially notable for its French Romantic colors. Consisting of six divisions, the instrument features a Trompette-en-Chamade under the rose window over the Fifth Avenue entrance. The organ console is hidden from view at the left of the chancel.

In the spring of 1996 the gallery instrument was dedicated as the Loening-Hancock Organ. The firm of Taylor & Boody of Staunton, Virginia built the instrument which contains twenty-one stops over two manuals and a pedal. The instrument is inspried by the tradition of organ building which was active in the Netherlands and North Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Stop and key action are mechanical and the temperament is Kellner.

The Martha J. Dodge Continuo Organ was built and initiated in December, 2001. This superb portative instrument, consisting of 4 ranks and pipes, was built by the firm of Taylor & Boody.