"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES:
Foundation Day - October 7, 2001
Last Sunday's observance of St. Michael and All Angels was celebrated with music by Darke and Bairstow, representing the early period of what is often called the Second Renaissance of Anglican church music (the First being the Tudor/Elizabethan period). Today's service, the annual commemoration of the foundation of our parish church, draws upon music from a later, more contemporary phase of the Second Renaissance, compositions of Philip Stopford and Richard Shephard. It is fitting that as we mark 153 years of our life as a parish, we should celebrate the event with music that looks forward to the future, even as we at this church embark upon a renaissance of our own.
Philip Stopford (b.1977) began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. By the age of 18, he was Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral, and later at Keble College, Oxford. He has recently completed a one-year appointment as Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral. The Keble Missa Brevis was composed in 1997 During Stopford's time at Keble College. It was written for a biannual college event which draws together members of parish churches from all across England, and thus it is conceived for use as either a parish or a collegiate Mass setting. As might be expected of a 20-year-old composer, the work is energetic and brimming with life. In sharp contrast to the even flow of Darke and Bairstow, this music is highly angular in its melodic contours, as is immediately apparent from the remarkable motif upon which the Kyrie is built. Stopford's use of harmony is rich and inventive, with highly dissonant passages propelling the music forward. The qualities of Stopford's music are telescoped in the Sanctus, which alternates between a static melodic line with much harmonic tension and passages that call to mind a peal of tower bells.
Richard Shephard (b.1949) is presently the Headmaster of the Minster School at York and the Sub-Chamberlain of York Minster. Beginning his career as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, he went on to study music at Cambridge, and spent 15 years at Salisbury as a music teacher, composer and a member of the cathedral choir. Many of his compositions were written specifically for Salisbury Cathedral. In 1998, he accepted a commission to compose an anthem for this parish church, to mark our 150th jubilee year. The text is drawn from the account of the transfiguration as recorded in the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew's gospel. Like the text itself, the music is deceptively straightforward, cloaking a multi-layered event that upon examination, demands much more of the imagination and intellect than is first apparent. Very few churches in the world are dedicated to the Transfiguration, and even fewer musical compositions exist that are based on this biblical event, making Shephard's piece a unique composition for a unique parish church.
Philip Stopford (b.1977) began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. By the age of 18, he was Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral, and later at Keble College, Oxford. He has recently completed a one-year appointment as Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral. The Keble Missa Brevis was composed in 1997 During Stopford's time at Keble College. It was written for a biannual college event which draws together members of parish churches from all across England, and thus it is conceived for use as either a parish or a collegiate Mass setting. As might be expected of a 20-year-old composer, the work is energetic and brimming with life. In sharp contrast to the even flow of Darke and Bairstow, this music is highly angular in its melodic contours, as is immediately apparent from the remarkable motif upon which the Kyrie is built. Stopford's use of harmony is rich and inventive, with highly dissonant passages propelling the music forward. The qualities of Stopford's music are telescoped in the Sanctus, which alternates between a static melodic line with much harmonic tension and passages that call to mind a peal of tower bells.
Richard Shephard (b.1949) is presently the Headmaster of the Minster School at York and the Sub-Chamberlain of York Minster. Beginning his career as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, he went on to study music at Cambridge, and spent 15 years at Salisbury as a music teacher, composer and a member of the cathedral choir. Many of his compositions were written specifically for Salisbury Cathedral. In 1998, he accepted a commission to compose an anthem for this parish church, to mark our 150th jubilee year. The text is drawn from the account of the transfiguration as recorded in the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew's gospel. Like the text itself, the music is deceptively straightforward, cloaking a multi-layered event that upon examination, demands much more of the imagination and intellect than is first apparent. Very few churches in the world are dedicated to the Transfiguration, and even fewer musical compositions exist that are based on this biblical event, making Shephard's piece a unique composition for a unique parish church.
