Sunday, July 29

Sunday morning Eucharist, 10:00 a.m.

Did you celebrate "Anglican Communion Sunday" with us two weeks ago at St. Mark's? If so, then you received a foretaste of the feast to come, so to speak, as we celebrated the Communion liturgy and music nearly IDENTICALLY to the service here in Bristol. We borrowed the language of the contemporary Anglican Prayer Book and sang the same setting of the service music, in this case by British composer Harold Darke (click HERE for more info on him).

Completely unknown to us was this AWESOME bit of "it's a small world" - the composer of our chosen communion anthem "If Ye Love Me", Philip Wilby, is the HUSBAND of the Rev. Wendy Wilby, the CANON PRECENTOR of Bristol Cathedral, who has been the cantor for most of our Evensong services!! It's one of Ed Rieke's favorite pieces, and he chose it completely unaware of the connection - isn't that amazing?! Here they are with Ed, Grace and Kristin.


We got to meet Philip earlier this week when he attended the Evensong on Friday night. Last night he had a piece for organ and brass premiered in the Royal Albert Hall at the Proms Concerts - his music is a big deal!

Here we are lined up in the Chapter House awaiting the start of the service. This part of the cathedral is where the monks used to gather - it dates from 1180!

It was wonderful to have Rev. Mike Chalk participating in this morning's service as well. He joined the processional and was the priest who served all of us communion. It was very moving for us.

After a short lunch break we were back at the cathedral for our final service of this residency. It's gone by so quickly... it hardly seems possible that the week is over.... (Can you keep a secret?? We've already convinced Ed to plan the next one! We hope YOU'LL join us next time!)

Our final service at Bristol Cathedral.

Preces/Responses: Hancock
Psalm 88:1-10
Service: Dyson in D Major
Anthem: Hancock You Are One in Christ Jesus

Sir George Dyson (1883–1964) was a well-known English musician and composer. His son is the physicist Freeman Dyson and his grandchildren are Freeman's children the science historian George Dyson and his sister Esther Dyson. He attended the Royal College of Music (where he studied under Stanford) and then worked for thirty years as a school music teacher (at Rugby, Wellington and Winchester), before being appointed as Director of the Royal College of Music in 1937. He received a knighthood in 1941 and was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1953.

Dyson composed some fifty works for the Anglican liturgy, including two complete morning and evening Canticles in D major and F major, as well as a setting of the evening service in C minor for trebles. The two evening services for full choir remain extremely popular in English churches and cathedrals, and are certainly part of the core repertoire. In the Oxford Companion to Music, Percy Scholes described his compositions as "skillful, sometimes deeply felt, but never forward-looking in idiom".

Gerre Hancock’s anthem, You Are One in Christ Jesus, was commissioned by the members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to honor and commemorate 25 years of service by their Organist and Director of Music, Edwin Rieke. The anthem opens with quietly intense “alleluias” growing out of the organ motive. The text (Galatians 3:27-28) is supported by an undulating organ accompaniment which grows in color and volume to return to the “alleluias.” In the final section, the entire text is chanted on a single note while the organ plays the hymn tune, McKee, “In Christ There Is No East or West.”

Following the Evensong service, Philip and Wendy Wilby hosted a lovely wine and cheese reception for all of us in the Chapter House. Both Philip and Wendy are such lovely people. In fact, all of the cathedral staff has just been fabulous to us, so warm and welcoming and helpful with this detail and with that question. And they've been very appreciative of our singing also.


Some of our group are going their separate ways tonight, either back to the States or on to various other vacation destinations. Most of us, however, will board the bus for London tomorrow for three more days of sightseeing. Keep checking in for more pictures and news!

Saturday, July 28th Evensong

Saturday, 28 July 2007

Preces/Responses: Lehman (see our post of July 23)
Psalm 24
Service: Howells - Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Worcester Service
Anthem: Mathias Lift Up Your Heads


Herbert Norman Howells (1892-1983) was born in Lydney, Gloucestershire, the son of an amateur organist. He studied first with Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral, and later at the Royal College of Music under C.V. Stanford, Hubert Parry and Charles Wood. In 1915 he was diagnosed with Graves' disease and given six months to live. Since doctors believed that it was worth taking a chance on a previously untested treatment, he became the first person in the country to receive radium treatment.

Howells would assist Richard Runciman Terry in editing the voluminous Latin Tudor repertoire that he and his choir were reviving at Westminster Cathedral. He took great interest in this work, absorbing the English Renaissance style which he loved and would evoke in his own, and continued it until joining the faculty of the RCM in 1920. During World War II, he served as acting organist of St John's College, Cambridge.

Howells is particularly known for his large output of Anglican church music, including a complete Service for King's College, Cambridge (the Collegium Regale) and settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for the choirs of St John's College, Cambridge, New College, Oxford, Westminster Abbey, Worcester (TODAY'S SERVICE MUSIC), St Paul's, and Gloucester cathedrals, among others, as well as for two parish churches, St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol and St Augustine's Church, Edgbaston. These settings are often tailored for the building after which they are named.

William Mathias (1934-1992)was born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire. A child prodigy, he started playing the piano aged three, and composing aged five. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Lennox Berkeley, where he was elected a Fellow in 1965. He was professor of music and head of department at the University of Wales, Bangor from 1970 until 1988. He founded the North Wales Music Festival in 1972 and directed it until his death in 1992. He is buried outside St. Asaph cathedral.

Much of Mathias' music was written for the Anglican choral tradition, most famously the anthem Let the people praise Thee, O God written for the 1981 royal wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, which had a television audience of an estimated 1 billion people worldwide. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates" is a setting of Psalm 24 depicting the King of Glory's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey with perky rhythms and dialogue between acapella chorus and organ.

Friday, July 27 Evensong

Friday, 27 July 2007

Preces/Responses: Quinn
Psalm 22
Service: Sumsion in A Major
Anthem: Dvorak Blessed Jesu from Stabat Mater

Welsh organist Iain Quinn began his musical training as a chorister at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, Wales. The Preces and Responses (St. John's) were written for the Cathedral Church of St. John, Albuquerque, NM, where Quinn has served as Director of Cathedral Music since 2005.
Herbert Sumsion (1899-1995)was organist and choirmaster of Gloucester Cathedral from 1928 to 1967, during which time he was an influential director of the Three Choirs Festival. He is remembered as a composer for his service settings and anthems such as They that go down to the sea in ships; he also wrote music for the organ. He enjoyed personal friendships with many English composers of the inter-war period, especially Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Sir Edward Elgar. Great choral works such as Howells's Hymnus Paradisi and Finzi's Intimations of Immortality were first heard at Gloucester Festivals in Sumsion's period of direction.

Sumsion's own music has a very distinctive style that endears it to performers and listeners alike. Word setting is always felicitous and, as might be expected, his accompaniments are imaginative - and playable. There is also some fine chamber music which deserves wider recognition, and numerous works for the organists' repertoire.

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) was the first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition and to this day, he remains the most played Czech composer. In his music we find unusual styles such as the furiant, a bohemian dance rhythm that changes abruptly between 6/8 and 2/4, and the pentatonic scale, a scale consisting of five notes and generally being found in folk music.

The Stabat Mater is based on an ancient Roman Catholic poem, in Latin (click here to read the entire text), that tells of the Virgin Mary’s grief over the crucifixion of Jesus as she is standing under his cross. In 1875, Dvorak lost all three of his then living children, including his two-day-old daughter Josefa. The grieving father began work on his Stabat Mater, as a means of coping with his beloved child’s death.

Thursday, July 26

(Sorry for the delay in posting - it's been more difficult to get to the internet.)

Greetings -

Today is DUMB DAY. Although some may wonder if this is a comment on the intelligence of some not-to-be-named group member, in fact it means only that we are not singing today. :)

Our afternoon off allowed us a much longer excursion today. After breakfast we departed for Gloucestershire to visit Glastonbury Abbey and Wells Cathedral. Glastonbury Abbey was once one of the grandest structures in all of Britain - over 600 ft. in length and tall enough to "inspire even the dullest of minds to prayer" (quote from their museum). The last abbot was hung, drawn, and quartered by Henry VIII, at which time he also removed the valuable lead roof and stained glass windows. The property was then used as a quarry and stones from the Abbey continue to turn up in all kinds of houses and other buildings in the area. It is still unbelievably impressive in its current ruined state. Check out how small the people are beneath this arch over the high altar!



For more pictures of Glastonbury Abbey (the oldest above-ground Christian church in the world!), click HERE.

Because we did not have a service this afternoon, we were able to head on to Wells and view the magnificent Wells Cathedral. Here are the glorious stained glass windows that contain 56 scenes from the life of Christ:



Wells Cathedral also houses one of the earliest mechanized clocks. Click HERE for their website.

And for our fellow St. Mark's singers - check out these choir chairs from Wells Cathedral!! They are currently interlocked with the music stands and kneeling racks, but you can make out how the backs of the chairs rise to reflect the level of experience of the choristers. Imagine how tall some of our chairs would have to be since some of our members have sung in the choir almost 30 years!!



It was a long full day, so at dusk when we returned to the hotel, we were grateful to have our evening meal there in the restaurant. As with many places in Europe, dining is not just nutrition - it is an experience of itself, with courses taken one at a time with plenty of time for conversation in between. We have a full English breakfast every day at the hotel, which includes scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, cereals, tomatoes, baked beans, prunes, grapefruit, and apricots. The food is excellent and plentiful. We are frequently on our own for lunch in whatever place we are visiting so a big breakfast gives us more time for sightseeing! Meals at the hotel usually consist of three choices for salads, main courses, and dessert. And when we are on our own for dinner, Bristol has many fine restaurants to interest every palatte, many of them just a few feet from our hotel.

Thanks for checking in. I'll post Friday's stuff soon!

A Guest Contributor

Here are some WONDERFUL photos, courtesy of tenor, Robert Patlan.

This is all of us in front of the high altar, along with Canon Wendy and Canon Douglas:




And here we are rehearsing in the choir stalls:



If you'd like to see Bristol Cathedral up close and personal, check out their website (click HERE) or go to our first post and click on the panoramic photos - very realistic!

And some more from Windsor Castle:




And some more from the Clifton Bridge and it's neighboring castle. Robert rode his bike up on one of our more recent SUNNY days!




Robert has a blog of his own that he invites you to look at for more trip stories and photos. Click HERE for Robert's blog!

Thanks for checking in today - be sure to leave us comments to let us know when you stop by!

Wednesday, July 25 Evensong

Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Tonight's Service

Preces/Responses: Hancock
Psalm 94
Service: Hogan Mt. St. Albans
Anthem: Marshall He Comes to Us



Gerre Hancock, (born February 21, 1934 in Lubbock, Texas) one of America’s most highly acclaimed concert organists and choral directors, is Professor of Music at The University of Texas at Austin where he teaches organ and is developing a curriculum for the study of Sacred Music. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Hancock held the position of Organist and Master of Choristers at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City, where, for more than thirty years he set a new standard for church music in America. He has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York City and taught improvisation on a visiting basis at the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University in New Haven, CT, and The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He is listed in “Who’s Who in America,” and his biography appears in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. Gerre Hancock’s consummate skill is clearly apparent in his concert appearances. Possessing a masterly interpretive ability, he is an artist of taste, warmth, perception and style. Considered the finest organ improviser in America, Dr. Hancock has been heard in recital in many cities throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Japan. On occasion he performs in duo recitals with his wife, Judith Hancock. Compositions by Dr. Hancock are published by Oxford University Press. His compositions for organ and chorus are widely performed and his textbook, Improvising: How to Master the Art, is used by musicians throughout the country.

H. David Hogan was a noted composer of liturgical music, a choral director, singer, writer of art and theater songs and a musical educator who co-founded the esteemed Walden School in New Hampshire. His life came to an early tragic end as a passenger on TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996. The Mt. St. Alban Service was written in 1990 for Washington National Cathedral in celebration of the completion and consecration of their new building.

Jane Marshall is an author as well as a composer whose published works cover a 50-year span. She was a consultant for the United Methodist Hymnal, 1989, and many of her hymns appear in hymnals of various denominations. A longtime member of the Meadows School of the Arts theory faculty and the Sacred Music graduate faculty at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, she is also the author of Grace, Noted, a collection of homilies, essays and hymns published by Hope Publishing Company.

Tonight's service will be accompanied by Parish Choir member, and frequent guest organist, Dr. Grace Ohlenbusch.

Tuesday, July 24th Evensong

By the way - all the text that appears in a different color (the Psalm, and selected other words) indicate a link you may click for more information about that item.

Tonight's Service:

Preces/Responses: Phillips
Psalm 144
Service: Harper - Washington Service
Anthem: Bertalot Amazing Grace

Craig Phillips was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1961. He is the Music Associate at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, Calif. He maintains an active concert schedule, and is a noted composer, having received numerous commissions. He received a B.M. from Oklahoma Baptist University, and a M.M. and D.M.A. and the Performers Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y., where he studied with the late Russell Saunders. (N.B. St. Mark's own Ed Rieke and Kristin Roach also hold graduate degrees from the Eastman School of Music!)

Published in 2002, this setting of the Preces and Responses is the only accompanied setting St. Mark's Choir will present during its 2007 residency. It features an extended Lord's Prayer where the 4-part chorus dialogues with the organ in sumptuous harmonies and clean, open voice leading. Phillips compositional style is beautifully tonal with gently shifting meters that highlight his chant-like settings of our most beloved texts.

In honor of St. Mark's upcoming 150th anniversary celebration, the Parish Choir has commissioned Dr. Phillips to write a new setting of Psalm 150, to be presented at the Sunday morning worship services on April 27, 2008.

In 1998, John Harper (b.1948) took over the leadership of the Royal School of Church Music. The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) is an educational charity promoting the best use of music in worship, church life, and the wider community. It is an open, life-long learning organization, offering training programmes, published resources, courses, and activities. With over 8,500 affiliates, members and friends in over 40 countries it is an international network, encouraged by over 750 volunteers, and supported by a small staff based in the UK.

Harper has had a life-long career in church and choral music, starting as a chorister at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge under the direction of Boris Ord and Sir David Willcocks. (Read more of his fascinating and extensive biography here!)

Today's service was written for the RSCM training course for singers in the National Cathedral, Washington, July 2001. It was made for a resonant building, with slow-moving harmonic material, and choral emphases on unison lines and block chords.

John Bertalot's (b. 1931 in Kent) more than 40 years of professional music-making include posts at Westminster Choir College and leadership of the most ambitious Episcopal Church music programs anywhere in the world. His 5-verse setting of Amazing Grace features an ambitious organ part that literally "pulls out all the stops" and displays the full vocal range of the large choral forces required.

This year all of Britain is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery (almost 80 years before the U.S.!). The cathedral staff was especially enthusiastic about our choice of anthem today, whose text was written by John Newton, a British slave trader, upon his repentence and conversion.

Touring Bristol

Tuesday, July 24

The great thing about a bus tour is that it keeps you high and dry during the everpresent rain showers! We feel so fortunate to have escaped the devastating flooding in Oxfordshire and Glouscestershire and are keeping those thousands of people displaced from their homes in our prayers.

Yesterday after breakfast we boarded the bus for a tour of the different areas of the city of Bristol. Over a thousand years of history has seen this city in many incarnations, from a major import/export site, to an industrial hub, and now to a financial and service industries mecca. One of the greatest men in the history of Britain, Isambard Kingdom Brunell (click HERE for more about this great pioneer), supervised the construction of the Great Western Railway and the "symbol of Bristol", the Suspension Bridge:



We also drove through the Clifton area, site of some magnificent aristocratic homes, and past many landmarks we'll try to spend more time with on some of our free periods. The smaller ship in this photo is a replica of John Cabot's ship, the Matthew, that sailed from Bristol to Newfoundland in 1497, and the larger ship is Brunel's "ss Great Britain". (Click here for it's website.)



Then we were off to the church for rehearsal and our first evensong service. Here we are loading our vestments into the choir room, warming up in the choir stalls, and having a first go at the organ:





Then off for dinner, and perhaps a nightcap at an historic pub: The Duke. Do you notice who's portrait has replaced the Duke of Wellington?



That's right! It's Duke ELLINGTON!

Thanks for checking in - see you tomorrow!

Monday, July 23rd

Monday, 23 July 2007

Our first service today! I'm going to post the notes about the services separately from the travel and pictures stuff. Thanks for checking in -



Tonight's service:
Preces/Responses: Lehman
Psalm 4
Service: Stanford in C Major
Anthem: David Hurd Love bade me welcome

Here's some info about's tonight's music:

Robert W. Lehman (b.1960) holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in organ performance with honors from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Master of Music degree in church music from Westminster Choir College. He has served on the staff of several distinguished churches, including the Washington National Cathedral, the Princeton University Chapel, and St. Bartholomew's Church, New York City. Presently, Mr. Lehman serves as Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church (Episcopal) in New Haven, Connecticut where he is also a fellow of Davenport College (Yale University) and teaches at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

Mr. Lehman's acapella setting of the Prayers and Responses for the Office of Evensong displays a wide range of contemporary romantic harmonies and a wide emotional palette, from the richly textured Gloria Patri to the somber unison of the Lord's Prayer.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)(click here for Wikipedia biography) composed 10 different settings of the Anglican services, this one in 1909. He also published works for symphonic orchestra, opera, art song, organ and piano solo, chamber music, part-songs, madrigals, incidental music for the theatre, concerti, and several books - including an autobiography. Although known for his temper, his music is beloved for its lush textures, attention to detail of the text, and the ease with which he moves through a wide range of tonal centers.

David Hurd (born 1950) is a composer, concert organist, choral director and educator. He is a Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Chapel Music at the General Theological Seminary, Chelsea, New York City. He is also the Music Director at the Church of the Holy Apostles, also in Chelsea. His setting of George Herbert's poem dates from 1991 and features 6-part close-knit acapella writing. It has become one of the St. Mark's Parish Choir's signature anthems.

Across the Wide Blue Sea

Sunday, 22 July 2007

We’ve all arrived safely in Bristol! After a short flight to Houston, we flew across the pond and landed Sunday morning at Gatwick. And, the biggest blessing – all the luggage arrived with us!




After boarding the bus, we spent the afternoon touring Windsor Castle and enjoying the beautiful COOL weather. The Queen’s Doll’s House was fascinating – a complete castle in miniature. And here's our first trip through a beautifully manicured English garden.


Then off to Bristol to settle into the hotel and get over jet lag. Here we are enjoying our evening meal in the hotel.


And then connecting with home at the internet cafe.


And now off to bed - first service to sing is tomorrow!

Getting Packed!

Dear Friends and Fellow Lovers of Song -

We of the St. Mark's Episcopal Church Parish Choir thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers as we depart for England tomorrow. We'll gather at the airport for a 4:20 departure on Continental Airlines and arrive in Gatwick Sunday morning.

For a fabulous virtual tour of where we'll be singing, check out:

www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/in_pictures/360_panoramas/cathedral/

And don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to this blog just beneath the photo at the top -

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