Fifty years ago today Dame Gillian Weir gave the inaugural recital on the Downes/Walker organ at the Carmelite Priory. In celebration of this anniversary, we’re pleased to add a page dedicated to the organ to our website, including the specification and some recordings by Organist & Director of Music Simon Lloyd.
Alleluia, alleluia
Eastertide is a time of great joy in the church, and the exuberance expressed in much of the music is infectious, with motets being appended at every opportunity with catchy Alleluia refrains. The propers of the Mass are likewise peppered, and Alleluia takes over entirely after the first reading. Here, in the Graduale Romanum, the Gradual is replaced by a second Alleluia.
Read moreOn pilgrimage to Walsingham
Today we are privileged to be travelling to Walsingham, site of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1061. The great priory church and shrine were demolished during the Reformation, but popular devotion, unlike buildings, was impossible to destroy, and Walsingham is once again a place of pilgrimage.
Read moreHic est discipulus ille
Using a Motet as a basis for a Mass is a long-established technique used by the majority of composers in the Renaissance, taking either a Motet of their own or of another composer as a model, the latter being a mark of respect, an indication of the high esteem in which the first composer held the second. This Sunday offers the first opportunity in the Cardoso450 series of hearing this technique in action.
Read more2016 Q2 music list published
The latest music list is available here.
Our Cardoso450 series continues, but, after the concentrated period of Lent and Easter, now features once or twice a month as far as Advent. The wonderful Sheppard Libera nos settings feature on Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi has a French flavour this year with the exuberance of Widor’s Messe and the quiet contemplation of Messiaen’s colourful O sacrum convivium.