Welcome to the Saint Mary choir blog. We are a SATB (ie: four part harmony) choir. We sing at the 10:00am service most Sundays through out the year.We welcome new members to our choir. If you are interested in joining us please contact our Director of Music (Joanna) via the  Contact Us page.

There follows a description of some the music that we have sung.

Friday 30 March 2018

30th March 2018 Good Friday

The Cross of Christ

Our Good Friday service followed the form of The Cross Of Christ from the Royal School of Church Music.

The choir sang 3 motets:

"Is it nothing to you"  Ouseley (1825 - 1889)

Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley was born in London and showed a prodigious faculty for music, composing his first opera at the age of eight! In 1844 he inherited the baronetcy and also went to Christ Church, gaining his BA in 1846 and his MA in 1849.  He was ordained the same year as gaining his MA and served as curate in St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.  He was throughout his life conflicted by his aristocratic heritage and his performance of Anglican music, considered to be below someone of his standing. In 1850 he took the degree of Mus. B at the University of Oxford, 4 years later the degree of Mus.D.  In 1855 he was Heather Professor of Music at Oxford until 1889.  In 1856 he founded and endowed with his own money, St Michael's College, a model choir school in the Anglican tradition.  He was also its first Warden. His works are little known today, but his most notable student was Sir John Stainer.
Frederick Ouseley.jpg
Ouseley
Picture from Wikipaedia
2 Kings 24:13  Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.


"O Lord who dares to smite thee. "  J S Bach

Taken from his St Matthew's Passion
See  also 13.5.17.


"O Saviour of the world"  Sir John Goss (1800 - 1880)

Sir John Goss was a boy chorister in The Chapel Royal and later a pupil of Sir Thomas Attwood, organist at St Paul's cathedral.  He spend a short time in the chorus of an opera company before being organist at a number of churches, finally at St Paul's where he worked hard to improve the musical standards. His works are mostly vocal, both sacred and secular.  From 1827 until 1874, he was a professor at The Royal Academy of Music teaching harmony.  He taught Arthur Sullivan and John Stainer who succeeded him as organist at St Paul's.

upright=Goss circa 1835
Sir John Goss
Picture from Wikipedia
See also 18.3.18.

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