I Was Glad: Cathedral Choirs Converge at St Canice's

Combined Choirs:I Was Glad ; Parry
Limerck: Teach Me Lord   Settings by Attwood, Byrd and John Hilton the Younger 
Kilkenny:O Vos Omnes Gesualdo
               Unser lieben Frauen Traum Reger
               O Thou the central orb: Charles Wood
Waterford: Massof St Patrick: Eric Sweeney
Combined Choirs  Schubert Missa in G major 

Organists Malcolm Proud and Cecilia Kehoe

While the Deise Hurlers  were thrashing Cork at Semple Stadium, Waterford fielded another team in a less combative but no less arduous inter-county endeavour. On this occasion, all teams lined out in  red as Christchurch Cathedral Choir joined choirs of St Mary's, Limerick and the home team of St Canice's Cathedral for an afternoon of  sacred music from the Anglican Choral Tradition.

The celebratory mood was set from the start with Parry's coronation anthem, which Kate Middleton walked up the aisle to in 2011. Limerick offered  three settings of psalm 119. Teach Me Lord. Kilkenny. St Canice's with the largest group approaching 30 voices produced the fullest sound, equally at  ease in the complexity of Gesualdo's 5 part motet as Reger's chorale like Marian hymn.

Christchurch, Waterford added a contemporary edge with a Fauréesque flourish. Composer Eric Sweeney directed the choir in his own work. The Mass of St Patrick was commissioned by St Patrick's Cathedral  and premiered in Dublin as recently as 2007. It  was conducted on that occasion by Peter Barley who was at the helm of the Limerick contingent yesterday.

The concert closed with a performance by the combined choirs of a teenage Schubert Mass. The work featured some impressive emerging talent. A voluntary membership of adults is supplemented at St Canice's by Choral Scholars of school and college music students introduced as part of the revival of the choir in recent years under director David Forde.  (Names are noted below. Watch out for them. They are good.)  You can hear a brief interview with David below and a snatch of a Schubertian Sanctus.

Any endeavour is always enhanced by the addition of cake. I am happy to report that the audience enjoyed a superior array of home baked goodies following the performance.

St Canice Choral Scholars:  Aliyah Knox Khan, Sophie Knox Khan,   Hannah Traynor, Ciaran Fennelly, John Kennedy
                                             Aoife McKiernan

The programme will be repeated in Waterford and Limerick. I will post dates when I have them to hand.

listen to ‘Sanctus Combined Choirs’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘David Forde Choral Director at St Canice's Cathedral’ on audioBoom

ICMA Sacred Music Workshop Waterford

ICMA Workshop at St John's Waterford

 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 150

Today, I attended a choral workshop in Waterford organised by the Irish Church Music Association, a resource organisation supporting liturgical music in parishes.  Fr Turlough Baxter, chairman of the ICMA  with Derek Mahady, choral director  addressed  a gathering drawn from parish choirs around the Waterford and Lismore dioceses. Setting a brisk pace, Mahady put the assembly through some lively vocal warm ups before introducing  a varied  selection of work by contemporary Irish composers,  Even though we got through a lot of material, there was time too for detailed technical stuff like phrasing, breath control and diction.   Baxter gave context for how the material might best be used and  spoke eloquently about the role of ritual and music in liturgy. A Matins Service was an integral part of the day's proceedings. It would be good to see Matins and Vespers introduced into regular parish services.

The combination a skilfull choral workout with thoughtful insights into the role of music in a liturgical context made for a stimulating and rewarding experience well directed by the duo  and coordinated  by Mary Dee.

More details of the Irish Church Music Association and their summer school can be found on their website http://www.irishchurchmusicassociation.com/uploads/7/4/1/3/7413445/icma_newsletter_feb_2015_(4).pdf

Save the date! #ICMA Summer School 2015 - St. Patrick's College Maynooth, 2nd - 5th July. Guest director Andrew Reid: http://t.co/0sO3UEtp56
— Irish Church Music (@ICMAMusic) January 28, 2015

listen to ‘Chair of ICMA Turlough Baxter ’ on audioBoom

 Ephram Feeley         Here in Christ We Gather

                             Lord You are my Shepherd

                             Psalm 122  I Rejoiced 

                             God of Gentleness

                             I Am the Breadof Life 

                              In the Shadow of Your Wings Lord 

                             My New Commandment

Marie Dunne           Lúireach Phadraig 

Mary McDonnell      A Bhríd, a Muire na nGael

Bernard Sexton       Credo in Unam Deum

                               Sanctus 

                               Memorial Acclamation

                               Shepherd Song

                               Laudate Omnes Gentes 

Peter O Kane  

    arr John O Keeffe   Search Me, On God 

O Keeffe                    The Apostles Creed 

Paul Flynn                 A Uain Dé

Lawton                      Holy Ground 

Joncas                        Draw Near 

Walsh arr Mackriell   I Will Bless Your Name Forever

John McCann           God's Holy People 

Ronan McDonagh    A Íosa Mhic Muire  Instrumental 

Related Posts
Credo Amen: A Day at ICMA Summer School 2013 http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2013/07/credo-amen-day-at-irish-church-music.html

Sunday Roundup from Sodden SE http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2014/02/sunday-roundup-from-sodden-south-east.html 

Abbey Cluster Choirs Gather with Bernard Sexton  http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2012/02/whatever-views-one-might-have-on.html

Exter Cathedral Choir at Christchurch
http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/07/exeter-cathedral-choir-at-christchurch.html

Cantate Domino: Sacred Music Week at the Crescent, Limerick

'If that's what heaven is going to be like, I want to there' declared one satisfied listener following the opening concert of a week of  concerts at the Sacred Heart Church in the Crescent, Limerick. Stepping inside the recently reopened church,  I wondered at first if I had stepped into a dress rehearsal for the Sound of Music  given the presence  of nuns in old fashioned habits complete with starched wimples . The church was purchased last August by an Italian religious community  dedicated to traditional forms of liturgy who have taken on the task of restoring the former Jesuit church which is back in use after seven years . Further details from the Irish Times here .

Local award winning* chamber choir An Cór  under conductor Cecilia Madden presented a programme of sacred music from Renaissance to Romantic periods. Cecilia Madden and Chloe Heslin offered a Purcell chaconne as a instrumental interlude. There was an leaning towards French repertoire with pieces by Duruflé, Guonod and Fauré included in a programme.

The series continues nightly at 8pm concluding with an organ recital on Monday evening by tonight's accompanist, Abbé Matthew Walter who adds further to the considerable pool of organists in the Limerick area between two cathedrals, Glenstal Abbey and the Redemptorist church to name just a few venues. Organ fans may like to note the next concerts from the Irish Chamber Orchestra are titled Steeplechase and will feature the instrument in various churches. The Limerick concert takes place in St Mary's Cathedral on Thursday 16th May and features organist of St Mary's Cathedral, Peter Barley 

*An Cór were awarded Best Sacred Music Choir and Best Limerick at the 2013 Limerick Choral Festival.

An Cor Chamber Choir

Remembering Clare's War Victims



 Armistice Day at Ennis Cathedral

                                                   

Killaloe March                                                  Ennis Brass Band  
Green Fields Of France Eric Bogle                 Sung by Bernie McNelis
Lament on uilleann pipes                                 Frank Whelan
Reading Micah 4
All People That on Earth Do Dwell               Organ  Cormac McGuinness
My Youngest Son Came Home Today             Billy Bragg  sung by                                                 
                                                                                Paula McNamara
Last Post                                                              Clodagh Power                                                     
Amazing Grace


Cure of Troy    Seamus Heaney                        read by Eleanor Feely

Wearing of the Geen                                        Ennis Brass Band     



Limerick Legion member

   Of all the stages of life, it is in leaving it that we most need the comfort of  rituals. Following on from  All Soul's Day when the  deceased of the parish were remembered*, there was a special Armistice Day service at Ennis Cathedral  remembering Clare's War Victims on 11 the November 2011.  There is no  tradition of formally commemorating  this occasion in the dioceses and this is only the 4th year of this service at Ennis Cathedral.
In our relatively peaceful age, war and it's effects  are far outside the range of experience of my generation. MC Dr. Joe Power  deputising for (Peadar McNamara) spoke about the effect of the war on family members and gave a  sense of perspective of  the impact of the war on the county.  While giving the number of war victims as circa 4000, Joe also made the chilling point that for every dead soldier, there were four who returned transformed by their injuries.  The rolling register of the war dead was displayed on a screen to uilleann pipe accompaniment and included an Arthur Considine from Clarecastle and Nurse Delia Davoreen  from Clare. 
 

Distinguished author and broadcaster, John Quinn evoked very vivid images of  a homesick poet and war victim, Francis Ledwidge both as an ordinary young boy and man but also an extraordinary one. Extraordinary indeed to think of the young poet receiving  a package containing his first published book of poetry amid the chaos of the war front. John quoted from the poet's work and letters home and also Seamus Heaney' Elegy to Ledwidge. He  drew a parallel with another broadcaster the late Cathal O Shannon who went to join the RAF at a young age .
Quinn’s acclaimed documentary on Francis Ledwidge, ‘The Helpless Child of Circumstance’, was broadcast in 1987 to mark the centenary of the poet’s birth.

The service was presided  over by Fr.Tom Hogan of Ennis  Cathedral and Rev. Bob Hanna of St Columba's Anglican Church with members of the Limerick branch of the British Legion present wearing their medals.  Clodagh Power's playing of the Last Post on cornet  perhaps best evoked the zeitgeist  of the day.
I caught up with John following the service and you can hear one of the most distinctive voices in  Irish  broadcasting in this recording.
The service was a fitting memorial for the thousands of Clare volunteers who perished or who were damaged  on European battlefields.

Broadcaster and author John Quinn comments on  Remembrance Day

HE shall not hear the bittern cry

In the wild sky, where he is lain,                                                                    

Nor voices of the sweeter birds,                                                                        

Above the wailing of the rain. 

            ************************************************************

    

 * I joined tenor Tony Murray and Nell Hanley in the organ loft on All Souls Day November 2nd.

Hymns included Abide With Me , Be not Afraid, Christ Be Beside Me. My selection on solo viola to accompany the litany of the dead was Airdi Cuain, Taimse im Chodladh, Be Still My Soul, Ag Chriost an Siol and Sliabh na mban. Always a privilige to add something to such an occasion

Carole Rumen's  Guardian article on Ledwidge   with reference to Heaney.

More photos of the event on www.ennisparish.com/gallery