Choral Festival In Cathedral Thursday

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30541, 9 September 1964, Page 10

Choral Festival In Cathedral Thursday

Three hundred and fifty choristers from 21 choirs in the Christchurch diocese will take part in the first Royal School of Church Music festival service in the Cathedral at 7.30 on Thursday evening. The festival is being held to encourage choirs and to stimulate interest in church music. The festival choir will be conducted by Mr S. Jackson, of Wellington, and Mr C. F. Browne will preside at. the organ. The Rev. P. N. Wright will act as precentor and other local clergy will also take part. The preacher will be the Rev. L. Jones, of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church. The music will be taken from a Royal School of Church Music service book and will include a setting of the Evening Canticles by the Canadian organist. Dr. H. William, and an anthem composed by Dr. J. V. Peters, formerly of Christchurch. The .Christchurch branch of the school was formed in May, 1962, shortly after the second New Zealand visit of the school’s director, Dr. G. H. Knight, organist at Canterbury Cathedral. It is now well established and has 46 choirs on its roll.

The Royal School of Church Music, which received its Roval charter in 1945, was founded in 1927 by Str Sydney Nicholson, then organist at Westminster Abbey, to promote the study, practice and improvement of music and singing in worship and in the church. Since 1954 the school has had its headquarters at Addington Palace, an eighteenthcentury mansion at Croydon, some 12 miles from the centre of London. There are two main streams of work—the educational side at its headquarters and the services its provides to affiliated churches throughout the world, such, as the publication of music and service books.