RSCM Hymnfest at St Andrews Cathedral Sydney

On Sunday 15th June 2014 I attended an enjoyable RSCM Hymnfest at St Andrews Cathedral, Sydney (Australia), hosted by organist and music director Ross Cobb, and accompanied by Peter Jewkes on the pipe organ, together with a brilliant brass consort. I was surprised by the overwhelmingly large attendance of men, since Church music gatherings usually attract a preponderance of women. However I shared praising God in womanly song with three great companions, all fine Church musicians: Sister Marie Levy (renowned Church music scholar and foundress of the Sydney Gregorian Schola, now retired), Godelieve Ghavalas, organist and music director of St Patrick's Church Hill, Sydney, and Robin Ruys, organist and music director of Hunters Hill Anglican Church. Ross Cobb rehearsed a selection of traditional and contemporary hymns with us, then presided at the following hymn-laden Evening Service, and was recorded. Can't wait to hear the recording, Ross!

Saturday 19th October 2013 Ballarat Anglican Diocesan Synod approves ordination of women priests

Vespers . . . the Evening Prayer of the Church

Vespers, otherwise known as Evening Prayer, is prayer throughout the world in many Churches. It is one small section of the immense Christian Church prayer system known as the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office. Scratch a Christian prayer and you'll find that it originates or has an echo somewhere in this ancient system. Vespers has a very large Christian musical repertoire, that is greatly underrated, and deserves greater exposure and use in Churches and Christian homes.

Some years ago I made a Powerpoint Presentation on Vespers to explain how it is used today in many forms and in most Churches. Of course this is only an introduction - Benedictine sites in particular contain much more detailed information about how Vespers and the other six prayer offices are planned and performed.

Here's the Vespers Presentation link to copy and paste into your URL -

http://www.slideshare.net/elizabethsheppardstb/the-divine-office-evening-prayer-vespers

If you find my presentation useful, please use it, with acknowledgement.

Village Choirmasters & Cyberchurch Technomusos

In surveying the full spectrum of Church music literature and repertoires, I'm increasingly struck by the glaring disjunct between nostalgic attachment to the comfortable, nostalgic village choir model, versus adventurous pursuit of state of the art Church technomusicianship. Church music leaders seem drawn either to past traditions of various kinds, or alernatively to forward-looking Church music sounds and genres. Contrary to expectations, young musicians are not exclusively drawn to technologized music, and many. techno-obsessed Church musos are well on in years. But the most effective Church music leaders are always those who are prepared to move out of their musical "pleasure and comfort" zone just a little, and strike a compromise between these two extremes.

Consider Johann Sebastian Bach, a solid family man, the most staid of village Kapellmeisters, well versed in traditional hymnody and counterpoint. Yet he was so fascinated by the new hammerklavier and its well tempered tuning, that he composed the series of studies in all keys, still used as the basis of building keyboard technique today. Genius, it seems, is open to new ideas and methods, especially when they can be used to shape old musical forms in new ways relevant to the time.

Benedictine Church Music . . . a brief overview

As part of my Church History studies for the BTh, I bravely tackled the ginormous subject of Medieval Chant Reform.

I managed to produce a general summary, and received a generous assessment . . . but in retrospect I think it may contain some bloopers.

Readers, please let me know of any errors. Here's the link to my essay, on the Scribd publishing site:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25040634/Medieval-Chant-Reform-and-Benedictine-Monasticism

The Growth of women's Church Cantor Ministry in Australia

In 1967, when I first started singing as an Anglican chorister at St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide, the Church Cantor tradition had pretty well died out. Clergy canted with varying quality, choristers sang, and soloists within the choir were just singers. The Decani and Cantoris seats still adorned Anglican Cathedral Churches, but the origin of the Cantoris seat had been largely forgotten. At that time the title of Cantor was reserved for Jewish male synagogue Cantors. Then Jewish women took up the liturgical Cantor baton, and, following the role model of Miriam, revived the art of the Jewish woman Cantor. Their lead was invaluable.

I had been singing in Church choirs all my life, but in 1996 I was called to formal Church Cantor ministry after my parish Church burned down. I looked for contemporary female role models to follow, but I found that no liturgical singers in parishes were familiar with the ancient female Church Cantor tradition still practised in some convents and abbeys. I had learnt about Gregorian chant and polyphonic Church music with Dr. David Swale of Adelaide University, and I was fortunate to find excellent mentors in the Royal School of Church Music and the UK Guild of Church Musicians, who helped me to shape and develop my female Cathedral Cantor ministry. My models were gleaned from historical female Church Cantor traditions, the Australian Conservatorium system and experienced Church musicians supplied my musical training, and a six year theological degree filled me in on the ecclesial skills and understanding I needed. I waded through a varied Church music repertoire, honed my liturgical liaison skills, was surprised and bemused by petty, aggressive competition between Church music factions, took part in a program that established a fair fee structure for accredited Church Cantors, and managed to sort out the musical wheat from the chaff. I discovered that being a Cantor involves not only liturgical singing, but also substantial pastoral liaison, choir section leading, liturgical conflict resolution, keyboard accompaniment, making therapeutic music CDs and singing in hospital chapels to assist chaplains, and arranging and composing Church music and liturgies in collaboration with Church communities and music directors. Oh, and of course, sound system checking / adjustment, liturgical animation of responses and communal singing, and producing computer music scores on demand.

Twenty one years later, the art of the Church Cantor has been revived in Australia, with classes for Cantors of sll ages flourishing in many Churches. Although the quality of Cantor instruction varies, much progress has been made in reviving communal worship through music. Yet although most committed Church Cantors in Australia are female, formal clerical recognition of female Church Cantor ministry has been slow to catch up. In most mainstream Churches there is no reason why female Cantors cannot be liturgically commissioned. After completing my tertiary Cantor training ( 2 years of theory, residential schools, Church music history snd form, liturgy, assignments, viva voce examination, practical examination, and a local Practicum with portfolio) through the UK Guild of Church Musicians, I was commissioned as a professional Church Cantor by Archbishop George Carey and Cardinal Basil Hume in 1998 at Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, and awarded the ACertCM Cantor (UK).

Female Church Cantors in Australia (and worldwide) are a brave, long-suffering and competitive breed. All the Australian women Church Cantors I have met have a genuine desire to serve and honour God rather than themselves. A few are paid, but most are volunteers, who pay for their own tuition. A favoured few, such as June Nixon and Kathlleen Boschetti, have achieved remarkable heights of Church music mjnistry in Australia. So It grieves me (and also God, I think) when ill advised, self-appointed Church music critics accuse all female Church Cantors of impious self-aggrandizement, rail against women in ministry, and declare them unwanted. Their negative criticisms are ridiculously unproductive.

Globalisation in Church music - risks, disasters, and remedies

The effects of globalisation and corporatisation on Church music have apparently been even more dire that its effect on Vegemite (an Aussie in-joke). Fortunately, Australian Church musicians have strongly resisted the initial push to completely flatten our local and inherited Church music culture (for example, through Brett McEwen's Wirripang Music site for Australian composers at http://www.australiancomposers.com.au).

Jeffrey Tucker's 2002 article, targeting a multinational corporate Church music publisher whose policies and business ethics do not accord with Christian doctrine or practice (see link below)

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2009/the-hidden-hand-behind-bad-catholic-music

was recently discussed in depth by a shocked Richard Barrett on the Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy (Orthodox Christian) blog -

http://orthodoxyandheterodoxy.org/2013/01/29/the-hidden-hand-behind-bad-music-could-it-happen-here-american-catholic-worship-and-orthodoxy-in-america/