The St. Andrew's Church Choir

The St. Andrew's Church Choir is small but flexible, having got used to the comings and goings of members and organists and accommodating to different musical traditions, from other denominations and other countries. This cheerful little group is important to church life, since it is responsible for leading the congregation every Sunday in Sung Eucharist. The choir is affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music, and this is a reminder that we have a wonderful tradition to uphold.

St. Andrew’s is fortunate in having a lovely Marcussen organ, restored by the organ-builder Herwin Troje to its original state in 1988-9, and the composer Peter Hansen, with his great knowledge of our musical heritage and experience of teaching, as organist.

In the autumn the choir joins forces with the German choir to practise for the annual ecumenical service in Christina Kyrka at the end of October, and immediately after that carol practices begin. We continue to have the two highly popular Services of Nine Lessons and Carols the proceeds of which go to well-deserving charities. The choir also sings at the Dubliner and collects money for Save the Children. In December 2001 we were pleased to be asked to sing for the Anglo-Swedish Society during their usual pre-Christmas get-together, and our various other talents were called upon in the Fantasia organised by our chaplain, also for charity.

Another new venture in the past year has been singing together with one of the choirs at Haga both for Evensong and the Iona service, part of the services for university students. This will continue and we are looking forward to it.

PSALMS, HYMNS, CANTICLES, ANTHEMS, CHANTS, CAROLS AND SONGS
What do we want to sing at our church of St. Andrew’s today? In keeping with the Anglican tradition, we seem to be trying to please at least somebody now and then by offering a little bit of everything! It would be of great help to the Worship Committee- our Chaplain, Gillian the choir leader, Ric and Ann the Churchwardens, and Roger, aspiring to the ministry- if we could obtain some views from the congregation - both regulars and irregulars.

The position at the moment is that we have at least one "modern" hymn every Sunday, generally the last of the four. At the Family Service, now firmly established on the first Sunday of the month, we might get only songs if they fit into a certain obvious theme, Africa or Candlemas for instance, and a move has already been made to find ones that children can learn easily.

One big change that people might already have forgotten is that we no longer have Matins and Evensong with their special canticles and psalms. Sung Eucharist is the rule except on the first Sunday, when you can celebrate Communion at 10 a.m. according to the Book of Common Prayer. The monthly Evensong was dropped when hardly anyone but the choir attended. Another change was that we started saying the psalms instead of singing them. An effort has been made to relearn the pointing required, but the Worship Committee decided about a year ago that we should alternate between singing and chanting psalms. Now how do people feel about that?

At the moment the congregation has access to Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised from 1981, and it’s supplement 100 Hymns for Today. Of the 636 hymns in the first, we sang less than one third in the period that I have been choir mistress. Some get trotted out once a year at the correct season, for example, Lent: "Christian, dost thou see them on the holy ground, how the troops of Midian prowl and prowl around?" and "Forty days and forty nights"; Good Friday "O sacred head surrounded by crown of piercing thorn"; Easter: "The strife is o’er, the battle done"; and so on till Christmas.

It’s not surprising that some old hymns have become unfamiliar, though we sang them heartily enough in school assembly years ago! How about "Rock of Ages cleft for me", "Eternal Father, strong to save" and "Let all the world in every corner sing"? An attempt has been made to give some fine old tunes a new lease of life by fitting new words to them. However, words have to be really outstanding to erase the old ones in the back of one’s mind.

For some time 100 Hymns for Today has given us new material, and we have taken especially to Patrick Appleford’s hymn "Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us, you are one with us, Mary’s Son," "Lord of all hopefulness"to the tune Slane, "We have a gospel to proclaim", and "Tell out my soul", to mention a few. Other material has been duplicated from various sources. Some came directly from members of the music group that existed in Father Graeme’s day. Some such as "Abba Father", "A new commandment", and "Make me a channel of your peace" are to be found in many recent collections that have been brought to our notice.

We began to pick up the chants from the Taizé community about ten years ago and still use them every year at the Ecumenical Service in October. Their advantage has been their simplicity and lovely harmony, but over-use leads to boredom for some! After one chaplain left and we had sung "O lord hear our prayer" before and after intercessions for a year or more, one elderly member of the congregation said: "Thank goodness. Now we can stop that dirge!"

After a recent inspiring seminar led by John Bell of the Iona Community, we hope to introduce more songs that the congregation can take to. This probably means more duplicated sheets for a start. That is until we decide whether to produce our own Hymns for St. Andrew’s in the Third Millennium. That would be one alternative to buying a thick new book to hold on Sundays, which would contain some admittedly exciting new sounds and rhythms, but also much of the material we already have.

In the meanwhile, it would be very useful if all of you in the congregation could make a list of your 10 favourite hymns. Then give them to the Chaplain or to me (preferably if possible, e-mail me: gilliant@thycon.se).

OR SIMPLY LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Gillian Thylander, Choir Mistress.

Enquiries about joining (qualifications: just a love of singing) to the choir leader:
Note: More men are required!
Musicians of any sort may also like to contact us:

Gillian Thylander
Tel: 031- 27 72 90
e-mail: gilliant@thycon.se

Last update N.F., 15th March, 2003.
E-mail: nancyf@lib.chalmers.se