Saturday 18th May 2013
12.00 at St, Dunstan’s Church
Canterbury CT2 8LS
We sing the Angelus at the traditional midday hour as part of St. Dunstan’s Parish ‘Mediaeval Day’. Come and rehearse with us at 11.30 and join in the singing. Or just come and listen at 12.00.
All are welcome.
Saturday 9th March 9.30-12.30
Grimond Lecture Theatre 3, University of Kent at Canterbury
From the University’s History Department:
Helen Gittos on the use of English in mediaeval liturgy and Jayne Wackett on the motivation for and production of high quality books for religious use in mediaeval England.
Cost: £5 at the door (CGMS Members Free)
2nd February 2013 at 7pm in St. Thomas’s Church, Burgate, Canterbury, CT1 2HJ. We are singing Compline to celebrate the feast of Candlemas. We will be singing mostly in English set to Gregorian Chant tones for this particular service. If you would like to sing with us, join us for the rehearsal. We meet in the room above the Sacristy in St. Thomas’s Church at 5.30 on the day. Otherwise just come along at 7pm and join in singing with the congregation.
There is no charge to participate or to attend.
St. Martin
CGMS makes its customary appearances on Saturday lunchtimes during the 2012 Canterbury Festival. We celebrate Canterbury’s mediaeval heritage by singing ‘The Angelus, the Ave and the Salve’ at the customary hour of 12.00 midday in three local churches. Everyone is welcome to come and rehearse and sing with us, or just come and listen. There is no charge to participate or to attend.
Saturday 13th October: St. Martin’s Church, North Holmes Road, Canterbury. 10.30: Guided tour of the church, 11.15: rehearse, 12.00: Service begins
Saturday 20th October: St. Thomas’s Hospital, Eastbridge, Canterbury (Canterbury High Street). 11.30: rehearse, 12.00: Service begins (no tour)
Saturday 27th October: St. Nicholas’s Church, Harbledown. 10.30: Guided tour of the church, 11.30: rehearse, 12.00: Service begins
Helen Nattrass shows the Archbishop of Canterbury the antiphon manuscript.
Sunday 15th July was a busy day. In the morning CGMS-member Helen Nattrass was at St. Mildred’s Church, Canterbury. The Parish was celebrating their Patronal Feast with a Mass concelebrated by the Parish Priest, Father Mark Ball and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams. Helen sang one of the Antiphons of St. Mildred at Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury was interested in the music and Helen showed him a print of the page from the manuscript which she had used to prepare the transcription. Later in the day, in Minster Parish Church, Solemn High Mass was celebrated by Bishop John Hine of the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark. This was an important part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the re-foundation of Minster Abbey as well as being the celebration of the Patronal Feast of its Benedictine Community. During the veneration of the relics of St. Mildred, Helen Nattrass and Mark Bateson joined members of the Benedictine Community to sing another of the Antiphons of St. Mildred. It was a poignant moment.
Since then Helen has visited the British Library to look at the source manuscript for these Antiphons. She found sixteen pages of music dedicated to St. Mildred, of which she had only seen prints of two pages previously. So over 2012-2013 CGMS hopes to see all this music transcribed and ready for singing.
St. Mildred – Patroness of Minster Abbey
We make our annual visit to Minster Abbey on the afternoon of Saturday 21st July. There will be some coaching from Prioress Mother Nikola and practice in groups. The afternoon will be broken by afternoon tea with lush cakes. The event concludes by singing Vespers with the nuns at 6pm. We will be looking at music in honour of St. Mildred we have recently transcribed from early manuscript sources, as well as some beautiful gregorian chant hymns.
Prioress Mother Nikola with the combined choir
CGMS joined singers from parish choirs in Ramsgate, Canterbury and Faversham for a major event in Augustine week 2012. An open air Mass was celebrated in the ruins of St. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury on 25th May in glorious sunshine. Prioress Mother Nikola from Minster Abbey directed a choir of about thirty people who sang the Gregorian Chant ‘Ordinarium Missae’, together with a few special chants, to celebrate St. Augustine. The Augustine Week was held to mark the inauguration of the new national shrine of St. Augustine in Ramsgate, at the former Benedictine Abbey church built by Pugin. The whole choir gave a good account of itself, leading the congregation and supporting the ceremonies through all the key points of Mass. St. Augustine arrived from Rome with Gregorian Chant in 597. It was a special moment to sing this music in the very same place where Augustine also sang it.
