St Peter’s Choir
About this week’s music
This week’s Mass setting is the Missa Brevis of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594). The anthem is a setting of Horatius Bonar’s hymn text, Here O My Lord, by Percy Whitlock (1903-1946).
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian church composer who worked in Rome at the heart of the Catholic Counter-Reformation which was a response to the Protestant Reformation which began with Martin Luther in the early 16th century. A concern of the Council of Trent was that polyphonic settings had become so complex that the text was essentially obscured; Palestrina’s style, however, was such that it allowed the text to be easily heard and understood, and became a model for sacred music within the Counter-Reformation. His Missa Brevis is built around a recurring melodic motif which creates a subtle cohesion across all the movements of the Mass, but the frequent tempo and textual changes within each movement demonstrate the priority of the text in his writing.
Percy Whitlock was an English organist and post-Romantic composer whose output was focused church music and also light music for local theatre and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, with whom he worked closely throughout his short career. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 25, in 1928; he died in Bournemouth at the age of only 42. His setting of Bonar’s Here O My Lord was published in 1930, the second of his Three Introits.
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.