ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET
Music
Introduction | The organ | An introduction to the music at All Saints
Introduction
Music
plays an integral part in worship at All Saints, just as it has done within
worship since the earliest centuries of the Christian church. The principal
musical services are High Mass, on Sundays at 11am, and on Holy Days during
the week at 6.30pm, while Evensong and Benediction are sung every Sunday
evening at 6pm. The following pages introduce music at All Saints, and
provide a background to some of its uses.
Click here for the All Saints Music Diary.
Music at All Saints
Organists have included Richard Redhead, the first organist and remembered today as the composer of Rock of Ages and Bright the Vision, Walter Vale (1907-1939), William Lloyd Webber (1939-1948), John Birch (1953-58) and Michael Fleming (1958-68), many of whom wrote music for use at All Saints and beyond. All Saints also has an important link to Rachmaninov: Vale arranged Rachmaninov's Mass with English words, which the composer came to hear twice, in 1915 and 1923, declaring himself pleased with the result. It is still sung on Palm Sunday.
A
choir school was established at the church in 1843, which provided music
for daily choral services. The choir was widely recognised for its excellence,
and choristers sang at the coronations of Edward VII, George V and VI,
and Elisabeth II, as well as at Victoria's Jubilees. Among its alumni
was Laurence Olivier. The school closed in 1968, at which point the boy's
voices were replaced by sopranos. The present-day choir maintains the
exacting standards of its predecessors, and is now led by the Organist
and Director of Music Paul Brough.
Please visit the online shop for CD's recorded by All Saints Margaret Street choir, and to listen to some sound samples
Click here for details of the Choir & Music Trust