St Peter’s Choir
About this week’s music
This week’s Mass setting is the Communion Service in A&E, by T. Tertius Noble (1867 – 1953), with the Tantum Ergo of Maurice Duruflé (1982 – 1987) as an anthem. Please come along as our worship continues at Evensong and Benediction, where you will hear canticles by Charles Wood (1866 – 1926) and an anthem by Christopher Willcock (b. 1947), Come to Me.
Thomas Tertius Noble was an English organist and composer. His career in church music began during his youth, although he was initially rejected for formal study because the “market” for organists was “over-stocked”. However, he was appointed to his first organist position at the age of fifteen, and the tutoring he received in that position, primarily from his vicar, was sufficient for him to receive a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. From there, he went on to serve as organist of York Minster, and then organist and choirmaster of St Thomas’ Episcopal Church, New York City, whose current choral tradition owes its existence to him.
Maurice Duruflé was a French composer, musicologist, and organist. Like Noble, he spent his entire career in church music, and he was hugely influenced by the plainsong tradition of the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, which he attended from the ages of 10 – 18. He was musically conservative and known to be a perfectionist, repeatedly revising and editing even already-published works – he is known to have entirely destroyed scores before publication. The Tantum Ergo is from his Four Sacred Motets, written in 1960 and based on Gregorian themes. The text is taken from the last two verses of the Pange Lingua of St Thomas Aquinas: “Therefore, so great a Sacrament, let us venerate with heads bowed…”
About the St Peter’s Choir
Founded in 1847, the choir of St Peter's Eastern Hill is one of the oldest continuing Anglican church choirs in Australia.
Music plays an important part in the liturgical life of St Peter’s, with the choir singing at High Mass on Sundays as well as regular Evensongs. Our repertoire ranges from Plainsong to more recent liturgical settings, with a range of familiar and lesser-known composers. We are particularly enjoying re-discovering English Communion settings of the late 19th and early 20th century, alongside the great Mass settings of the Renaissance.
Membership is made up of volunteers, professional musicians, and a quartet of Foundation Scholars who are studying singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. The Church recently launched the music foundation to support this endeavour and to provide opportunities for young up-and-coming singers to develop their performance experience while contributing to our liturgy; if you would like more information about this, or to support this vital ministry, please contact the Director of Music, Christopher Watson.
Join the choir
The choir rehearses at 9 am for a 10.30 am service, with no mid-week rehearsal or other commitment. We encourage amateur singers who wish to sing regularly or occasionally to get in touch with our Director of Music, Christopher Watson, to arrange an audition.