The Church Music Society

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The Church Music Society remembers with gratitude and great affection Dr Simon Lindley (1948-2025), its long-serving Sec...
26/02/2025

The Church Music Society remembers with gratitude and great affection Dr Simon Lindley (1948-2025), its long-serving Secretary from 1991 to 2023, and subsequently a Vice-President of the CMS, who has just died. He was a tireless ambassador for the Society, for its members and its work. He was a consummate musician, outstandingly generous in friendship and a great, though modest, servant of all that is best in worship in the house of God.

New in the Downloads area of the website: the Evening Service in E by Miss Lucy Moseley dating from 1812. Little is know...
21/05/2024

New in the Downloads area of the website: the Evening Service in E by Miss Lucy Moseley dating from 1812. Little is known about Lucy Moseley beyond being from Exeter, where a volume of church music was printed in 1813 containing several works that were sung at the Cathedral. This is 60 or so years earlier than other choral settings of canticles by women composers previously identified. Here's the start of the Nunc dimittis...

The CMS is delighted to announce the publication of the Preces & Responses by David Trendell, composed when he was organ...
09/04/2024

The CMS is delighted to announce the publication of the Preces & Responses by David Trendell, composed when he was organ Scholar at Exeter College, Oxford, before going on to become one of the most admired scholar-performers of his generation, and a great friend to so many. He sadly passed away too young, ten years ago this year. The P&R have already been sung twice on BBC Radio 3's Choral Evensong, directed by Jeremy Summerly at St Luke's, Chelsea, and by Matthew Martin from the Edington Music Festival. Available from OUP now!

The Music Downloads page now contains a new reconstruction of the splendid but fragmentary 6th Evening Service by Thomas...
07/02/2024

The Music Downloads page now contains a new reconstruction of the splendid but fragmentary 6th Evening Service by Thomas Weelkes. It contains significant differences to the other versions currently available in print or online, e.g. the realisation of the Tenor verse 'He hath shewed strength' as a duet, as shown here.

And here's an excerpt from the SATB version...
07/02/2024

And here's an excerpt from the SATB version...

This little-known setting in the Wanley partbooks, like the famous setting by Stone, has the appropriate short text used...
07/02/2024

This little-known setting in the Wanley partbooks, like the famous setting by Stone, has the appropriate short text used at Matins and Evensong. It's ideal for Lower Voice services, or there's an arrangement for SATB provided as well in which some of the movement of the inner parts (one of which is editorial in any case) is adjusted. Here's the start of the AATB original...

07/02/2024

Newly available on the Music Downloads page of the website are editions of most of the surviving 16th-C. settings of the Lord's Prayer in English not already published in print form by the CMS:

A) Anonymous, Wanley partbooks (AATB)
B) Anonymous, Wanley partbooks (arr. for SATB)
C) Anonymous, Wanley partbooks (TTB)
D) John Sheppard (SAATB)
E) William Parsons (1563; SATB)
F) William Daman (1579; ATTB)
G) William Daman (1591 tune in Tenor; ATTB)
H) William Daman (1591(ii) tune in Cantus; SATB)

Those by Parsons & Daman use the standard tune also found in the settings by Morley and Farmer. The Sheppard setting is a polyphonic work, given here in the key of G.

The splendid cover image is a woodcut in the manner of Dürer by van Oostsanen dating from 1514.
07/02/2024

The splendid cover image is a woodcut in the manner of Dürer by van Oostsanen dating from 1514.

Here's that final Tallis cadence in Homo quidam...
07/02/2024

Here's that final Tallis cadence in Homo quidam...

The fifth release in our series of great 16th-C. Responds edited by Sally Dunkley is now available from OUP: Tallis, Hom...
07/02/2024

The fifth release in our series of great 16th-C. Responds edited by Sally Dunkley is now available from OUP: Tallis, Homo quidam (a certain man...). This is scored for SATTBarB, with the chant placed in the 2nd Tenor part. Intended for the Feast of Corpus Christi, it can be sung at any Eucharistic service, either as a straight-through motet or alternating with chant, in which case the superb final cadence is heard three times.

Our latest contemporary release, the Missa Verbum supernum and motet Tantum ergo by Rupert Jeffcoat, is now published! W...
08/11/2023

Our latest contemporary release, the Missa Verbum supernum and motet Tantum ergo by Rupert Jeffcoat, is now published! With chant-based vocal lines, either for 2-part choir (upper and lower voices) or SATB, and a lush French-style organ part, this concise and attractive setting is ideal for regular liturgical use. The front cover shows the 'Sursum corda' screen at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where Rupert was Organ Scholar.

Another exciting discovery from the CMS! This delightful anthem attributed to 'Lady Bagot' was first sung at St George's...
26/09/2023

Another exciting discovery from the CMS! This delightful anthem attributed to 'Lady Bagot' was first sung at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in 1808, and remained in the repertoire there till at least 1857. It is thus one of the earliest pieces by a woman composer known to have been performed at a major C. of E. choral foundation, and it was also later sung at Canterbury Cathedral. The composer is almost certainly Louisa Bagot who died aged only 29. The text is suitable for performance at either Advent or Easter, or for funerals and memorials. It contains several contrasting sections including a baritone aria 'And God shall wipe away all tears' and a rousing final chorus for SSATB. An article concerning the piece will be published in the next issue of 'Cathedral Music'. The cover image shows an unusual view of the exterior of St George's Chapel featuring the choristers, dating from around the time the piece was first performed there.

Still planning your Advent Carol service? We are delighted to announce the publication of 'A Golden String' by award-win...
26/09/2023

Still planning your Advent Carol service? We are delighted to announce the publication of 'A Golden String' by award-winning composer Paul Trepte, formerly Organist of Ely Cathedral. The work is ideal for places with two upper-voice choirs: as well as a standard SATB choir another group of upper voices sings independently in free time, creating a superbly atmospheric effect, with organ accompaniment. Composed for the choirs at Portsmouth Cathedral, the text combines words from William Blake with the Advent antiphon 'O Key of David'. The sense of waiting for the coming of Christ is expressed both through the idea of being drawn by a string and by unlocking a gate. Copies available from OUP here:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-golden-string-9780193708037?q=trepte&lang=en&cc=gb
A sample page will be posted on the OUP website soon.

The inspiration behind that wonderful rising scale through a 10th at the start of the famous Gibbons Amen may have been ...
11/05/2023

The inspiration behind that wonderful rising scale through a 10th at the start of the famous Gibbons Amen may have been the text immediately before it in the royal anthem it comes from (composed for James I): “And when he hath outlived the world’s long date, let thy last change translate his living flesh to thy celestial state”...

The new Preces & Responses collection is laid out in a similar manner to the first but with some notable differences suc...
11/05/2023

The new Preces & Responses collection is laid out in a similar manner to the first but with some notable differences such as the placing of the Minister's part in the treble clef (to be sung at either the upper or lower octave). Ayleward's set is given at its original pitch in D major, Reading's is in A flat. A new second alto part has been provided for the Gibbons & Barnard set, plus a new collection of Amens for the collects. Some of the Minister's parts are given in rhythm (though can be sung in free time as well). Long before Bernard Rose decided to avoid the traditional formulas for his set for Magdalen College, Oxford, here's John Barnard c. 1630, adding both melody and rhythm. (These are not in the new volume as they do not continue beyond this point - 2nd alto missing as per usual...)

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