St. Thomas’s Church Choir, assisted by other Parish choirs from Canterbury, sings Solemn Vespers in honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury in the Chapel or Our Lady Undercroft in Canterbury Cathedral. There is a lot of congregational singing of English psalm texts to Gregorian Chant. All are welcome.
As I approached St. Peter’s Church at Oare on Sunday 26th October, I felt as if I were ‘going to work’ and was busy thinking about directing the Vespers and making sure that the Choir and the Congregation were settled and ready to sing the whole thing without any major snags.
Nothing prepared me for the glorious sight of the Iconostasis and its Icons as I entered the church. No photograph captures the deep yellow and sheen of pure gold and this exhibition had lots of it, with the portraits of Christ, Mary, the Saints, scenes from the life of Jesus and so on. Each picture had its individual character and its own inner story and life. We all spent minutes of wonder and awe gazing at the images in front of us.
For the Vespers we were a choir of around twenty people. We arranged ourselves in the choir stalls and waited for the Congregation to arrive. We expected a good turnout but could not believe it when we ended up with standing room only; and even that ran out by 6.30 when we began.
We sang the service through assisted by Carolin Clapperton, the Vicar at Oare. In some places the Congregation joined in as well. The Icons gave the Vespers service an extraordinary atmosphere. To conclude, the Choir came out of their benches, faced the Iconostasis and sang the solemn ‘Salve Regina’. There was a tangible sense of connection with the spirit of the images on view. After the last note died away there was total silence which lasted for several minutes before anyone felt they could move. In the end I think nobody wanted to leave the Icons.
We received many congratulatory comments from members of the congregation afterwards and, though credit should go to those of you who came along and were part of the choir on the evening, some of the success is surely due to the very nature of Gregorian Chant and the excellent setting we were in. I would like to officially thank all those who came and sang, and especially congratulate those who took the plunge and sang with us after only a limited amount of chant experience.
Our social hour afterwards at the Three Mariners sealed this project in a very convivial manner!
Vespers at St. Peter’s church in Oare is rapidly approaching!
The service itself is at 6.30pm on 25th October at St. Peter’s Church, Oare, nr. Faversham.
If you are interested in singing as part of the choir on the evening we are holding three practices to make sure that we can give a good account of ourselves.
We may divide up the reading parts, the cantor’s duties and also try different ways of singing the psalms. Of course all this depends on how many singers we have and the balance of men and women and so on. The event and prior rehearsals are free. All music will be supplied and Helen will animate the rehearsals.
Rehearsals will be as follows:
Saturday 17th October: 10.00 – 11.30 St. Thomas’s Church, Burgate, Canterbury
Saturday 24th October: 14.00 – 15.30 Orange Street Music Club
Sunday 25th October: 17.00 – 18.00 Oare Church (We will need to get our seats organised, try the lighting and try out the acoustic and decide how to enter and leave and so on.)
We anticipate visiting ‘The Three Mariners’ at Oare for a social hour after the Vespers. We hope to organise some sandwiches/sausage rolls etc. Drinks to be bought yourself!
We’re trying something new this year – staging an event as part of Canterbury Festival! The main event will be Gregorian Vespers at St. Peter’s Chruch, Oare where there is an exhibition of Icons, also part of the Festival. This will be taking place on 25th October with rehearsals on the preceding Saturdays.
In addition we are going to be running our Gregorian 101 seminar for absolute beginners (a great success last year), which will be in Orange Street Music Club (thanks again guys for the support!). 101 will be from 10am till 12 noon on 24th October.
Details of both events will be apperaring in the Fesitval brochure so rush out now and get one!
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Five members went on the Bec visit, four leaving Canterbury in the early morning to get to there in time for Mass and lunch. Helen arrived much later due to earlier commitments in London (and rubbish directions from Jonathan!).
The objective was to experience the rhythm of life in a Benedictine house for a few days and to observe the pattern of offices and prayer life of the community. There were too few of us confidently to offer any of our singing, so "silent participation" was the order of the day. This did not mean that we were not involved! Jonathan was asked to read in vespers and Helen, having asked to try the organ in the abbey which had been recently restored, was asked to play for Sunday Mass (Trinity Sunday) at which the Bishop of Evreux was presiding. No pressure there then!
All the offices at both the abbey and the monastère were in French to Bec composed chants, although most of the antiphons were Gregorian. Mass was also Gregorian. It was a delight to see and hear the experts sing. On Saturday night, the sisters joined with the brothers at the abbey to sing vigils, a beautifully choreographed office, which starts in the dark and slowly all the lights come on. It ended with them processing to the rear of the church to sing the solemn Salve in front of the statue of Our Lady. On Sunday, the sisters again joined with the brothers for Mass.
We stayed in a delightful self-contained annex to the Monastère Ste. Françoise Romaine a couple of km from the abbey itself. Prior knowledge of the ever present mosquitoes meant that we were well prepared! As ever, we were delightfully entertained by the sisters and the group had an audience with Mère Prière Placide and other sisters after supper one evening.
Between offices we went on local visits to Brionne, Le Neubourg and to Rouen where we visited the cathedral and the lovely modern church of Ste. Jeanne d’Arc which shares its roof with the local market. Many walks were taken between the monastère and the village of Le Bec Hellouin (where the abbey is) along the beautiful valley of Le Bec.
The weather was very kind to us, only raining at night, so we were able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered.
Jonathan Butchers
Well 2008 was certainly a busy one with our visit to the Canterbury Cathedral archives which proved to be a fantastically interesting morning in a most agreeable venue. We also had the very first ever (to our knowledge – feel free to get in touch if we’re wrong!) Gregorian 101 – a basic nuts and bolts Chant primer enjoyed by a small but enthusiastic group of chanters in October.
Earlier on in the year of course, we had had a chance to hear how it should be sung when we were lucky enough to spend an afternoon at Minster Priory. We are hoping for a return visit at some point this year so watch this space for details. Prior to that (no weak pun intended) abbet you all remember (that time it was, sorry) the morning we spent in Greyfriars in Canterbury.
Of course the big event of the year was our now annual Day of Chant: a candle-lit church, enthusiastic ‘Alleluias’, All Souls in Haiti and lots of fantastic chants for All Saints made for an unforgettable day in spite of the weather- it rained torrentially absolutely all day!
Philip Duffy of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge returned to lead our day. We had a mix of more experienced singers and beginners which helped with tackling the music. Philip had chosen some really beautiful antiphons and canticles for the Vespers Service we were to prepare. The ‘Alleluias’ of the New Testament Canticle were unforgettable, especially when Philip got us to sing them really enthusiastically. A talk by Helen Nattrass reviewed different traditions of observing All Saints and All Souls in different cultures. Jonathan Butchers stepped in at short notice and talked about the Monastic Community at Bec in France.
Father Mark Ball, Parish Priest of St. Mildred’s welcomed us to his Church for the Vespers Service. He had made a special effort, lighting the church with a host of candles and making every effort to observe the Solemnity of the Feast as we sang the First Vespers of All Saints at which he presided.
We are most grateful to Philip Duffy for his inspirational coaching and to Father Ball for his welcome and for making the Vespers itself such an atmospheric and lovely occasion.
Looking forward to an equally Chant-filled 2009!
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The flyer for our ‘Chant 101′ session has gone out confirming that once again our good friends at Orange Street Music are kindly allowing us to use their venue. If you are interested in coming please let us know at the usual email address.
Saturday 18th October 2008
10.00-12.00 in Orange Street Music Venue
Interested in Gregorian Chant?
Haven’t a clue about neumes, four lines, where ‘doh’ is?
This session is for you! We will look at the absolute basics
