Page 20 - Church Music Quarterly March 2018

The church of St Alphege, Solihull, has a long-established musical tradition. Michael Palmer has been part of that tradition for 65 years, since he joined as a treble in 1952, and then continued to sing countertenor thereafter. Over that long and loyal period, he has always been supportive of new initiatives, new choristers, new countertenors, new choirmasters and new clergy.
THANK YOU
Thank you to all of our donors, members, churches and choirs who gave so generously in 2017 in support of our work. We are most grateful for every donation that we receive: in 2017 these donations totalled £62,845.29. Your gifts support our education programmes, national and regional choirs, and outreach work in local communities facilitated by the sterling work of our Area committees. We also acknowledge with great gratitude legacies left to the RSCM in 2017, totalling £73,274.07 (final figures are subject to audit).
2018 LEGACY SOCIETY SERVICE
The annual Legacy Society Service
will take place on Monday 14 May 2018 at Sarum College, Salisbury. Please contact Deborah Graham-Vernon at development@rscm.com or telephone on 01722 722851 for further information about the service or about the
Legacy Society more generally.
RSCM MUSIC SUNDAY
This year Music Sunday will take
place on or around 10 June. This is
an opportunity to share your music with your community and to spread
the word about the work of the RSCM. Please register your event using the form on our website (www.rscm.com/ support-us/rscm-music-sunday/). We will send you publicity material about the RSCM to display at your event as well as Gift Aid envelopes. Please post or email your forms to development@rscm.com. We wish you every success with your event, whatever form it takes.
RSCM CELEBRATION DAY 2018
Saturday 8 September
Salisbury Cathedral
Following our Millennium Youth Choir’s residence in Salisbury Cathedral during the last week of August, this year’s Celebration Day will also take place in our home city. The Cathedral Choir, under the direction of David Halls, will sing the service during which we will present this year’s honorands (see above)
with their awards. We look forward to welcoming supporters of the RSCM in the congregation on that day. See our website at www.rscm.com/celday
and Facebook (www.facebook.com/ rscmcentre) for more information as it becomes available.
Rainford’s new junior choir
20 CMQ
RSCM PUBLICATIONS
This year’s RSCM Young Voices Festival book, God’s Green Planet, is very topical as it looks at the human effect on the world. With a foreword by the Bishop of Salisbury, the Church of England’s lead bishop on the environment, God’s Green Planet draws together a wide variety of music styles including anthems, hymns and songs, as well as carefully chosen Bible readings and other prose and poems. Together, texts and music focus on many different aspects of the environment and our responsibilities as stewards of God’s creation.
In this the 100th anniversary year
of the death of Sir Hubert Parry, the RSCM has published new editions edited by Professor Jeremy Dibble of Songs of Farewell and also Hear my words, ye people, both vocal score and full score of the original version that was first performed in Salisbury Cathedral in 1884, with 2,000 singers and the band of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, Portsmouth Division. This is the first publication of the full score; parts
are also available.
As part of this year’s focus on women in choral music, the RSCM is delighted to announce the publication of the St Helen’s Service, a new
congregational setting of the communion service by the English soprano and composer Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, coinciding with International Women’s Day on 8 March. The setting, commissioned by Hugh and Susan L’Estrange for the parish church and choir of St Helen, Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, has been described as ‘fresh’, ‘uplifting’ and ‘delightfully singable’. In addition to the standard choir and organ version there are optional parts for piano, bass and drums, which are downloadable from the website. The St Helen’s Service is a must for parish church choirs and congregations who are keen to try a new communion setting.
The RSCM’s recent surge in publishing organ music continues apace, firstly with The Complete Organ Works of Herbert Sumsion, edited by Daniel Cook. This 170-page book brings together for the first time organ works from a number of music publishers, as well as some pieces previously unpublished.
From the pen of French-Canadian organist Denis Bédard comes his latest composition, Gibraltar March, written to mark the rededication of the organ at Gibraltar Cathedral, following its major overhaul in January this year.
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