Music Update for the Week of November 22

The full Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys will sing choral services on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday of this week. The Gentlemen of the Choir wll sing Choral Evensong on Wednesday November 25. Music for the 11am Festal Eucharist and 4pm Festal Evensong on Sunday November 22 include works by Leighton, Macferren, Hancock, Williamson, Howells, and Forbes. Music for the 11am Solemn Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 26) will include works by Widor, Haydn, and Friedell.

Sunday November 22

11am Fesal Eucharist

  • Service: Missa Christi, Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)
  • Psalm: 93 Anglican Chant (Macfarren)
  • Anthem: Judge eternal, Gerre Hancock (1934-2012)
  • Anthem: Dignus est Agnus, Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003)

4pm Festal Evensong

  • Responses: Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
  • Psalm: 145 Anglican Chant (Hanforth)
  • Magnificat & Nunc dimittis: Aedis Christi I, Sebastian Forbes (b. 1941)
  • Anthem: Let all the world, Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)

  • Tuesday, November 24

    5:30pm Choral Evensong

    • Introit: Lord, we beseech thee, Adrian Batten (1591-1637)
    • Responses: Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
    • Psalm: 119:1-32 Anglican Chant (Pye, Nares, Garrett, Hylton Stewart)
    • Magnificat & Nunc dimittis: in E-flat, Herbert Brewer (1865-1928)
    • Anthem: King of Glory, T. Frederick Candlyn (1892-1964)

    Wednesday, November 25

    5:30pm Choral Evensong (sung by the Gentlemen of the Choir)

    • Introit:Fantasia Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
    • Responses: Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585)
    • Psalm: 119:73-104 plainsong (Tone IB10, Tone II1)
    • Magnificat & Nunc dimittis: The Short Service, Christopher Tye (c. 1505-1572)
    • Anthem: The Lord bless us and keep us, Robert Whyte (c. 1538-1574)

    Thursday, November 26

    5:30pm Solemn Eucharist

    • Service: Messe Solennelle – Widor
    • Psalm: 126
    • Anthem: The heavens are telling the glory of God – Haydn
    • Anthem: Draw us in the spirit’s tether – Friedell

    Notes on Sunday’s Repertoire

    Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) was a key figure in British composition in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. He was a chorister at Wakefield Cathedral and studied under Bernard Rose at Oxford, before going on to take up a number of academic posts in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Oxford respectively.

    The Missa Christi was composed for the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, in 1988. The work exhibits all the hallmarks of Leighton’sstyle (strongly-profiled rhythmic figures and recurrent use of unusual chromatic intervals) yet in this, his last choral work, the tension and energy of the louder sections are balanced by a calmness and lyricism of intense beauty (most notably in the Benedictus and Agnus Dei). It is a fitting valediction for a composer who found church music a profound means for expression and whose days as a chorister were an essential formative influence. As he said “In my music … I speak as one who comes from inside the Church.”

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