St. Paul's Choir has 9 openings for London performances

Posted 7/28/16

St. Paul’s Adult Choir.[/caption] by Michael Caruso The big news coming from the music ministry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill is the Adult Choir’s trip to London, England, …

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St. Paul's Choir has 9 openings for London performances

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St. Paul’s Adult Choir. St. Paul’s Adult Choir.[/caption]

by Michael Caruso

The big news coming from the music ministry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill is the Adult Choir’s trip to London, England, July 21-31, 2017. Director of Music Zachary Fritsch-Hemenway explained that the choir starts its week of performances with a Choral Evensong at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, the patron namesake of Chestnut Hill’s other Episcopal parish. Fritsch-Hemenway and the Choir will then spend a week in residence at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. and Rt. Hon. Richard Chartres, and the “mother church” of the Anglican Diocese of London. It is also the “mother church” of the worldwide 85-million-member Anglican Communion. The vast majority of Anglican missionaries who evangelized throughout the British Empire were sent out by the Bishop of London. The “first among equals” of bishops throughout the Anglican Communion, however, is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Justin Welby.

The current St. Paul’s Cathedral is actually the fourth church built as such. The first dated back to 604 A.D. and was consecrated by St. Augustine of Canterbury. He was commissioned as the “apostle to England” by Pope St. Gregory the Great in 595 A.D. St. Augustine was Canterbury’s first archbishop and established the hierarchy of the Church in England, including a bishop in London.

The present cathedral was built between 1675 and 1710 and was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. The previous cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in September of 1666. It is the second largest cathedral in United Kingdom. The modern cathedral in Liverpool is the largest.

Although it is also smaller than the unfinished Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, St. Paul’s is nonetheless a very large church, indeed. It is 518’ in length, its nave is 121’ in width, its transepts span 246’, and it is 356’ in height. Its musical establishment, under Andrew Carwood, is equally impressive. Its choir includes 30 trebles, eight probationers and 12 vicars choral (professional adult men). Its pipe organ is the fourth largest in the U.K. and sports five manuals (keyboards), 108 stops and 189 ranks, making it even larger than the Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ at St. Paul’s Church in Chestnut Hill.

Fritsch-Hemenway explained the importance for the Choir of the trip in general and the residency in particular by pointing to the parish singers, the fountainhead of the Anglican tradition of liturgy and the music sung within it.

“It will help all of us,” he said, “to delve more deeply into the traditions of the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church (USA) is a part. It’s particularly powerful because the patron saint of the Cathedral, the Apostle St. Paul, is also the patron saint of our parish church here in Chestnut Hill.”

Fritsch-Hemenway mentioned that the choir stalls at the cathedral seat 50 singers. “Only the adult choristers are traveling,” he said, “and as of right now we have 41 members of the choir who are planning to make the trip. Which means, obviously, that we have space for nine additional singers. So we’re hoping that any local singers who are interested in joining the Adult Choir on our trip to London will consider joining the choir this September.”

St. Paul’s Adult Choir rehearses every Thursday evening during the regular liturgical church year and sings every Sunday morning at the Choral Eucharist and one Sunday each month at Choral Evensong. The morning repertoire includes two anthems and a choral setting of the Psalm of the day, usually taken from the settings used at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Alongside a setting of the Psalm, Choral Evensong also includes choral arrangements of the “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis,” plus an Offertory anthem.

“Although we’re not a ‘professional’ choir,” Fritsch-Hemenway said, “we do strive to achieve the highest standard in choral singing. We push to do our very best because we view our singing as an offering to God, so it’s important to all of us that we’re doing our very best work every week. We understand that we’re not going to achieve perfection in the sense of being a ‘performing ensemble,’ but we do try to come as close as we can.”

For more information call 215-242-2055.

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