Page 23 - Church Music Quarterly March 2018

RSCM AWARDS EVENSONG
London Area
St Paul’s Cathedral, 18 November 2017 The beautiful mosaics of St Paul’s Cathedral sparkled as 19 award recipients processed solemnly to the quire stalls followed by the cathedral choir and clergy. The introit, Batten’s
O Sing Joyfully was a fitting description
of what we were there to celebrate. Completing an RSCM Bronze or Silver Award requires a variety of skills, so it
is lovely to be able to acknowledge this hard work. After Stanford’s Magnificat
in C, the recipients lined up on the dome steps with their choir trainers to be presented with their certificate by the Dean or Bishop, before singing Ireland’s bold and colourful anthem Greater Love. At the end of the service there was plenty of time for selfies with family and friends. Congratulations to you all! Hannah Parry, London Area Committee
CELEBRATING THE REFORMATION IN BELGIUM RSCM North West Europe
On Sunday 29 October, several churches in Ghent, Belgium jointly celebrated the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in a ‘traditional’ open-air manner. This gave the choir of St John’s Anglican Church an opportunity to use the RSCM Reform and Renewal festival book to sing Rutter’s arrangement of ‘A Mighty Fortress’ (Ein feste Burg), one of the best-known hymns by the reformer Martin Luther. Countries represented in the choir were Belgium,
The Revd Quenton Little congratulates Tyler Mäkinen
Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, India, Sweden and the Netherlands, with a Hungarian Protestant pastor dressed as Luther sitting alongside. They were accompanied by
a portable pedal-pumped harmonium. In the 16th century, Protestants were not allowed to conduct worship services
within the city bounds. They would gather outside the city for an open-air sermon (in Flemish ‘hagepreek’ or ‘hedge sermon’). To commemorate this the celebration was held in the park in Ghent’s Old Beguinage. More than
100 people gathered under clear blue skies as the service began with a visit from ‘Martin Luther’, posting his 95 Theses to the door of the church next to the park. This was the St Elisabethkerk, formerly Roman Catholic, which is now the home of St John’s parish. Naturally, there was also a rousing sermon in the fresh air.
Graham Look
FINDING YOUR FEET IN BAILDON
RSCM Bradford Area
St John, Baildon is justly proud of its 1997, two-manual and pedal, tracker action organ by Principal Organs of York, and its architectural case by
David Graebe with pipe shades based
on patterns found in the wrought iron chancel screen. We chose this organ
for a ‘Finding your Feet’ day last October because its en fenêtre console has ample space around it for observers to sit or stand. It was also able to answer a query from one of the participants who had
The Choir of St John’s, Ghent (with portable harmonium and Martin Luther)
seen a Zimbelstern on the organ of
All Saints, Bingley and wanted to know what it was. He was given a demonstration of Baildon’s eight bowl-shaped bells
in the manner of the original Stumm glockenspiels of the 17th century!
Ten people had signed up as participants and another three came as observers. Alex Berry (Bradford Cathedral) and Jeremiah Stephenson (All Saints, Margaret Street, London) – both young and respected organists – kept the sessions moving, yet were able to
answer questions either verbally or by demonstration, which meant that even the ‘audience’ felt included in the process. Jeremiah shared his practise technique – learn how to practise; don’t just play; don’t practise wrong notes; do it slowly; practise two or three bars until they are secure; remember – you are training your brain! One by one the participants adjusted the organ stool for height and distance before playing their piece, and each
was given advice or shown by Jeremiah himself – and each returned to his/her seat with a smile, confidence boosted.
Alex went back to basics with hymn playing and leading the congregation. We were reminded that the play-over gives out the tune and sets the speed. Worship songs can be enriched by the organ – it has so much more to offer than a ‘keyboard’: concentrate on the tune and the bass line and practise filling in the harmony by building
the chords suggested by the bass line (if you have a hymn book that gives the guitar chords, help is provided).
Jeremiah gave us a starter lesson on improvisation and shared some of the
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