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Recently in Christ Church Category

Enthronement of new Arch Bishop

You are not alone in anticipating the upcoming enthronement of Michael Jackson as the new Arch Bishop of Dublin and Glendalough in Christ Church this Sunday. It’s human nature to be happy about this thriller event. It’ll be one day in your life when you feel you’ve just got to be there. It’s a tickets-only event, and I suspected they’ll all be gone too soon, but there might just be one more chance if you apply quickly to the cathedral office. And remember the time; the service starts at 4.00pm. Will you be there?

Christ Church Girls' Choir Open Day

The Christ Church Cathedral Girls’ Choir is currently recruiting new members. The choir is open to any girl from sixth class to fifth year with a love of singing, regardless of their previous musical experience or religious background.

The choir meets on Tuesdays (5.00-6.45) and Wednesdays (4.45-6.45) during term time. The Girls’ Choir sings the service of evensong in the Cathedral every week. In addition, choir members are offered:

• individual singing lessons
• help to improve their sight-reading, aural and musicianship skills
• the opportunity to perform alongside the Cathedral Choir in services and concerts
• tours in Ireland and Europe
• the chance to work towards the Voice for Life Award Scheme, run by the Royal School of Church Music

Membership of the choir is free; tours and awards are subsidised by the Cathedral. New members should be enthusiastic and committed to the choir, and able to attend regularly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Entry is by a short audition with the choir’s director, Rosemary Beecher Bryant.

Prospective members and their parents are invited to attend an open rehearsal and service on Wednesday 19th January 2011, at 4.45-7.00. The timetable of the evening is as follows:

4.45 Prospective members rehearse with the current choir upstairs in the Chapter House; parents are welcome to observe
5.00 The choir moves down to the Cathedral to rehearse with the Choral Scholars
5.45 Break
6.00 Evensong service
6.40 Parents’ question and answer session; opportunity to arrange auditions

If you would like to attend, please email Rosemary Beecher Bryant, or call 085 7424722 to book a place.

Ten Weeks

I finally decided just before Easter that I was going to hand in my notice at the cathedral choir. I’m now working out my notice, and I finish at the end of term in 10 weeks time.

There’s a myriad of reasons that sit behind my decision, but if you boil it down, I’ve just had enough. I’ve been at Christ Church for just over two years now, and it’s a very demanding role. And with an equally demanding day job, something had to give eventually. And so, in the middle of July I’ll be bidding a fond farewell to the choir - although I suspect I may be back from time to time to dep.

For the time being, I’m not planning on leaving Dublin or changing anything else in my life. And I’ve not yet lined up any other singing opportunity - but I guess there’s lots of time to find something, perhaps after the summer. And in the mean time, I’m looking forward to reclaiming my weekends, and finding out what ‘normal’ people do on their Sundays.

CD Released

The Howells CD I Love All Beauteous Things has finally been released on Signum Records.

Those of you with long memories will recall the recording sessions back in February, when the Christ Church Cathedral choir decamped to St Bart’s in Ballsbridge.

It’s taken a long time for the CD to come out, but I hear that it sounds really good. I haven’t secured my own copy yet, but I’m looking forward to listening to it.

Buy the CD from Amazon.co.uk - £11.69

Christmas Music

5.00pm, Sunday, 30th November
Advent Procession
Byrd Vigilate
Boles Adam lay y bounden
Piccolo Jesus Christ the apple tree
Goldschmidt A tender shoot
Parsons Ave Maria
Esquivel Veni Domine
Magnificat Noble in B minor
Weelkes Hosanna to the Son of David
Arr. Llewellyn Fum fum fum
Voluntary: Reger ‘Improvisation’; from Sonata No. 2 in D Minor

8.00pm, Wednesday, 10th December
Carols at Christ Church - Concert

4.00pm, Wednesday, 17th December
Live Broadcast of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3
Introit: Boles Adam Lay Ybounden
Walsh, Preces and Responses
Canticles: Howells Gloucester Service
Psalms 42, 43
Anthem: Maw Evening Hymn
Final anthem: Alan Smith There is No Rose
Voluntary: Durufle

3.30pm, Sunday, 21st December
Service of Lessons and Carols
arr. Parshall Enniscorthy Carol [IN IRISH]
Arr. Chilcott Gaudete
Bax (arr. Dawkes) There is no Rose
Tavener The Lamb
Palestrina O magnum mysterium
Arr. Chilcott Sussex carol
Walker Adam lay y bounden
Nelson Out of your sleep
Voluntary: Briggs Sortie on ‘In Dulci Jubilo’

8.00pm, Monday, 22nd December
Service of Nine Lessons and Carols
Walker Adam lay y bounden
arr. Parshall Enniscorthy Carol [IN IRISH]
Bax (arr. Dawkes) There is no Rose
S. Jackson Noel nouvelet
Nelson Out of your sleep
Tavener The Lamb
Arr. Chilcott Lully lulla
Warlock Bethlehem Down (arr.Hill)
Arr. Chilcott Gaudete
Arr. Chilcott Sussex carol
Handel And the glory
Arr. Hill Rocking
Tavener Christmas Proclamation
Voluntary: Briggs Sortie on ‘In Dulci Jubilo’

Tenor Vacancy

Appearing in today’s Church Times newspaper are details of a current vacancy for a Tenor Lay Vicar Choral at Christ Church Dublin, to commence as soon as possible.

If you’re interested in joining the choir, do get in contact with the Director of Music, Judy Martin.

Choir Calendar

If anyone’s interested, I’ve just updated the choir calendar to list all of the rehearsals, services and events for Christ Church choir from now up until Christmas.

Although this information might be useful for non-choir people, it’s probably going to be more useful for the Lay Vicars and Choral Scholars. The calendar does not included any details about the music being sung at services, or of any non-choir cathedral events. For that kind of information, you need to visit the Diary of Cathedral Events.

Organ Improvisation of Silent Movie

This Friday evening (20th June) there’s a live organ accompaniment of a silent movie in Christ Church, beginning at 9.00pm. The organ improvisation is provided by David Briggs, who’s rather good at this kind of thing. I remember very much enjoying last year’s event, when the same organist improvised along to the film Phantom of the Opera—which, although it had nothing to do with the Andrew Lloyd-Weber show, had the odd flash of homage to the more well-known stage musical.

This year’s screening is of the 1939 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I’m hoping to be able to attend. That’s if I can get a ticket. They’re available free of charge (courtesy of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust who sponsor the event) from the Central Ticket Bureau (Phone: 0818 205 205). And if last year is anything to go by, it’ll be a really popular event.

Ordinations

This afternoon at Christ Church, we celebrated the ordination of 3 deacons within the diocese. This is the first of two ordination services taking place in the cathedral; the second of which being the ordination of priests next Sunday.

Both the services are quite special in their own way. However, for me the ordination of deacons seems like the more significant occurrence for those involved, as it’s the culmination of years of study and preparation, and it’s also the process that marks the final transformation of ordinary people to members of the clergy.

And as such, it was great today to have so many people in the congregation; there to support these people as they made this big step. We also had a lots from clergy from all over the diocese and beyond (including the Bishop of Cork) attending the service in support of their new colleagues.

The music for today’s service was:

• Processional Hymn: At the name of Jesus (Evelyns)
• Gradual Hymn: I, the Lord of sea and sky (Here I am, Lord)
• Gospel Fanfare: Tu es Petrus - Duruflé
• Litany Ending: Agnus Dei - Peter Hurford
• Hymn: Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (Veni Creator)
• Offertory Hymn: O Jesus, I have promised (Wolvercote)
• Mass Setting: Missa Brevis - Lennox Berkeley
• Communion Instrumental Piece: Ruach - Anne-Marie O’Farrell ‡
• Communion Motet: Tu es Petrus - Robert Pearsall
• Communion Motet: Holy is the True Light - Harris
• Post-Communion Hymn: Pour out thy Spirit from on high (Warrington)
• Voluntary: Toccata from Vième Symphonie - Widor

‡ piece for three wind instruments, written specially for today’s service by one of the ordinands.

Rehearsal Weekend

This weekend the cathedral welcomes the visiting choir Exultate to sing its services on Saturday and Sunday, while the cathedral choir has one of its rehearsal weekends.

The rehearsal weekends normally take place twice a year; with the choir taking time off from its normal duties to prepare some of the more difficult pieces of repertoire for the coming months. It’s quite a gruelling processing, amounting to about 12 hours of rehearsal over the course of 2 days.

This time around we will be spending a significant about of time on preparing the Cloud of Unknowing by Francis Pott, for a concert performance at the end of term.