Annual choir photo taken after the Good Friday service.

Maundy Thursday 13^th April 2017.

The choir sang Duruflé’s  Ubi Caritas from Quatre motets sur des themes grégoriens Op 10 for choir a capella (1960).

Duruflé was born in 1902 and was a chorister in Rouen Cathedral choir school. Moving to Paris when he was 17, he took organ lessons and joined the Conservatoire de Paris in 1920, graduating with first prizes in organ, harmony, piano accompaniment and composition.

Ubi caritas is a hymn of the western church traditionally used as one of the antiphons for the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday.  The Gregorian melody was composed sometime between 4th and 10th centuries with the text believed to be from early Christian gatherings before the formalisation of the Mass.

At the ending of the service Psalm 22 was sung in plainsong, women and men alternating verses as the altar was stripped ready for the Gethsemeny Watch.

Good Friday 14th April 2017

Olivet to Calvary  John Henry Maunder (1858-1920) words by Shapcott Wensley.

Maunder was born in Chelsea and studied at The Royal Academy of Music in London.  He was organist at St Matthew's, Sydenham and St Paul's, Forest Hill, as well as churches in Blackheath and Sutton.  He was an accompanist at The Albert Hall and trained the choir for Sir Henry Irving's original production of Faust in 1887.

His sacred cantatas were widely performed and admired but went out of fashion, to be revived in the Netherlands and UK. 

Olivet to Calvary is considered to be a fine example of music written for the late Victorian/early Edwardian Anglican church. Some today may find it sentimental, but it has a sincerity and dedication which has carried the piece onwards despite being a product of its time.   It considers the last few days of the life of Christ on earth.

The choir's rendition was interspersed with readings which reflected the music.

Music for November 2016 at St Mary our Lady

6th November   Family Service                                                    All Saints (transfered)

197   For all the Saints
Motet by Junior Choristers  'Mathew ,Mark, Luke and John' by Lindley
478 Ye Watchers and ye holy ones
Anthem      Give us the Wings of Faith Bullock
231 Palms of glory raiiment bright
War March of the Priests  Mendelssohn

13th November Village Remembrance Service

490 Judge eternal, throned in splendor
417 O God our help in ages past
Anthem So they gave their bodies Aston
488 Jerusalem
413 Now thank we all our God
Fugue in E flat BWV 552

20th November Christ the King

443 Rejoice the Lord is King
388 Jesus shall Reign where'er the sun
O Thou, the central Orb
352 Crown him with many crowns

Music for October 2016 at St Mary our Lady

2nd October 10:00 Family Eucharist                                                          Trinity XVIII

259 Come ye thankful people                                                                       Harvest Thanksgiving
Gloria Ode to Joy/ Parish Mass Murray
261 To thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise
304 Once, only once, and once for all
The Lord has been mindful of us  Wesley
262 We Plough the fields and scatter

Choral Prelude 'Nun danket'  Karg-Elert

   18:00 Village Harvest Thanksgiving
       separate service sheet
    Thou visitest the earth  Greene
     Nunc dimittis in C Stanford

     Piece d'Orgue BWV 572  J S Bach




9th October   Parish Eucharist                                                                    Trinity XIX

440    Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
404    Lord of our life and God of our salvation
324    Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old
           Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face     Whitlock
300     O food of men wayfaring
Sheet   To God be the Glory
       
            Alla Marcia      Ireland     


16th October Matins                                                                                     Trinity XX

232 Awake my soul and with the sun
       Psalm 119 97-104
       Let thy merciful ears, O Lord   Mudd
357 Father, hear the prayer we offer
484 The Curch's one foundation

       Sonata No 2i     Hindesmith


23rd October   Parish Eucharist                                                  Last after Trinity XXI

644  Thou who's almighty word                                                                  Bible Sunday
359   Fight the good fight
398   Lift up you hearts
        O for a closer walk with God  Stanford
295  Let all mortal flesh keep silent
312  He who would valient be

       Sonata No 3       Mendelssohn

30th October  10:00pm Parish Eucharist                                       Fourth before Advent

233 Glory be to thee, who safe hast kept
402 Lord it belongs not to my care
376 I heard the voice of Jesus say
       Ave verum corpus   Byrd
306 Strengthen for thy service, Lord, the hands
363 Glory in the highest to the God of heaven
       Festal Voluntary

             18:00 Commemoration of All Souls

      Messe de Requiem    Faure

29 November 2015

Today is Advent Sunday, the start of the church’s year when we begin a time of preparation for Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

 

The choir begins the service by singing the Matin Responsory:

I look from afar; and lo! I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth; go ye out to meet him and say “Tell us! art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel? High and low, rich and poor, one with another, Go ye out to meet him and say: Hear, O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep: Tell us, art thou he that should come? Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come to reign over thy people Israel.

 

The text is from the old Latin service of Matins and is based on the odd verses of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and the doxology (Glory be to the Father ...); this setting is adapted from Palestrina.

 

The words remind us that Advent is a time of penitence, anticipation and hope, when the church prepares to celebrate the coming of the Messiah, which means an anointed one. We await the return of Christ as judge and king, reigning over the whole world but also judging the people of the earth as well. During Advent we reflect on the last judgment, often through the parable of the sheep and goats in St Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 25).

 

In our preparation for the coming of the messiah the church encourages us to consider our lives and to make ourselves ready spiritually: the traditional way of doing this was through fasting and making confession.  We need to remember that as well as anticipating the coming of the Saviour with joy, we should also prepare for it with repentance. This theme is reflected in the motet at communion which has words taken from Psalm 25 and set to music by Richard Farrant (c1530-1580): Call to remembrance, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness which have been ever of old; O remember not the sins and offences of my youth , but according to thy mercy, think thou on me, O Lord, for thy goodness.

 

The organ voluntary is the Fugue in E flat BWV 552 “St Anne” from J S Bach’s Clavier-Übung III.

28 March 2015 The Crucifixion by Stainer

Join us for a performance of John Stainers Crucifixion at 6:00pm on 28 March 2015 in St Mary Our Lady Sidlesham,

The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer is an oratorio composed by John Stainer in 1887 and is scored for a full chorus of mixed voices with an organ accompaniment. It features solos for bass and tenor.

Stainer intended that piece would be within the scope of most parish church choirs; it includes five hymns for congregational participation. The text was written by W J Sparrow Simpson, the librettist of Stainer's two earlier cantatas, The Daughter of Jairus and Mary Magdalene. Stainer dedicated his work  "to my pupil and friend W. Hodge and the choir of Marylebone Church", who first performed it on February 24, 1887, the day after Ash Wednesday.

The Saint Mary Our Lady choir February 2015

St Mary Choir with Fr Stephen and Joanna