Repertoire for St. Martin choir camp not 'kiddie music'

Posted 8/18/16

The Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields’ parish music director Erik Meyer plays an “instrument” that looks like a rocket. It is actually a pipe from St. Martin’s pipe …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Repertoire for St. Martin choir camp not 'kiddie music'

Posted

The Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields’ parish music director Erik Meyer plays an “instrument” that looks like a rocket. It is actually a pipe from St. Martin’s pipe organ. The Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields’ parish music director Erik Meyer plays an “instrument” that looks like a rocket. It is actually a pipe from St. Martin’s pipe organ.[/caption]

by Michael Caruso

The Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Chestnut Hill is a beehive of musical activity in both the near and far future. Parish music director Erik Meyer explained that the church is the site of a choir camp running from Aug. 22 through 26. Slated for August of 2017 is the adult choir’s weeklong trip to England, where it will sing at both the 12th century Bristol Cathedral and the 13th century Westminster Abbey.

Joining Meyer directing the choir camp, now in its third year, will be Rae Ann Anderson, director of the children’s choir at Settlement Music School and wife of Eric Anderson, director of Settlement’s Germantown Branch.

Meyer explained that the camp’s genesis was to create a sense of community for 2nd through 8th graders singing in the parish’s children’s choir but that it soon blossomed into an independent outreach effort on the part of the church for the entire community of Chestnut Hill and nearby neighborhoods in Northwest Philadelphia.

The cost of attending the camp is $75 for the entire week of full-day activities starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m. Lunch is included as well as a culminating trip on Friday, Aug. 26, to Old Christ Episcopal Church in Society Hill, the first Anglican church in Philadelphia and the site where American Anglicans declared their independence from the Church of England.

“We’ll be singing the music of Choral Evensong at Christ Church but at the time of the Noonday Prayer,” Meyer said. “By opening the camp up to the entire community, we have the chance to include a broader cross section of young people than if the camp was only for parishioners.

“For some of the kids, this is their first exposure to classical choral music, the first time some of them have ever sung choral music composed for the Anglican liturgical tradition or for any church musical tradition. We attract a broad gender and racial mix of kids, usually numbering about 60. And we usually pick up a few new members for the parish’s children’s choir.”

That choral ensemble numbers approximately 20 choristers that sing twice a month during the church’s Sunday services, once with the adult choir and once on their own. Meyer described the choir’s repertoire as not “kiddie music” and pointing to its performance of “St. Nicholas” by Benjamin Britten, one of England’s and the world’s leading classical composers of the 20th century.

The 35-member adult choir sings Choral Eucharist every Sunday and Choral Evensong the first Sunday of every month, beginning Oct. 2 at 5 p.m. Its repertoire includes motets or anthems for the Offertory and Communion as well as two full settings of the Roman Catholic Church’s Latin Mass, such as Louis Vierne’s “Messa Solennelle” (Solemn Mass) for the Solemnity of Christ the King. The 2016-17 season also includes a “Messiah” sing-along, the annual Advent Procession and the Lessons & Carols for Epiphany. Throughout the previous year, the adult choir sang music exclusively written by living composers. For the season about to begin, the repertoire will include large portions of the repertoire composed for the last of England’s Tudor monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558 until 1603. It was Elizabeth I, through the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith, who established the Church of England and the Anglican liturgical and musical tradition of which St. Martin’s Church is a part.

The adult choir will make the trip to England next August. “We’ll be singing the choral music for the full set of three liturgies for Sunday,” Meyer explained. “Matins, Choral Eucharist and Evensong. We’ll also be singing Choral Evensong throughout the week with the exception of Thursday, when we’ll travel to London for the day and sing Evensong at Westminster Abbey. A year ago, when we sang at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, our choristers all felt that London is more cosmopolitan than English, so we wanted a more ‘English’ experience this time around, but we didn’t want to pass up London altogether.”

For more information call 215-247-7466 or visit contactSM@stmartinec.org.

note-worthy