Battle leads ecclesiastical troupe to Ennis

St Mary's Cathedral Choir

St Columba's Ennis

Sing We Merrily onto God our strength
make a cheerful noise unto the God of Jacob
Take the psalm, bring hither the tabret;
the merry harp with the lute  Psalm 81 Exultate Deo  

Hymn

Love Divine , all loves excelling 

Let all the World in every corner sing

Organ Recessional :Le Febure-Wely Bolero de Concert

The following  article in a recent Clare Champion alerted me to a rare and  significant musical event in Clare.

Thursday, 26 April 2012 11:01

The Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, comes to Ennis this weekend as part of a new policy of sharing their Anglican music.
Under choirmaster and organist Daniel Battle, the choir will lead Evensong at St Columba’s Parish Church, Bindon Street, at 5.30pm. Ennis rector, Canon Bob Hanna, a member of the Chapter of St Mary’s, will act as precentor and sing the responses.
Canon Hanna said, “This is the first time in living memory that St Mary’s Choir have come into Clare. It should have happened long before, because they have built up over the years a very fine reputation for choral singing. Their Advent lessons and carols are a key feature on the Limerick City calendar.
“Our own organist, Nigel Bridge, is a member of the Friends of St Mary’s Society. It was he who asked them to share their talents.  We invite all Clare people to what should be an enriching moment of devotion, using the ancient Book of Common Prayer service.”
The permanent organist and choirmaster, Peter Barley, is on study leave and has been replaced by Mr Battle, an accomplished organist in his own right from Surrey, who was born into the Roman Catholic tradition and who had Irish roots.
St Mary’s Cathedral has still to announce the appointment of their new dean to succeed the Very Rev Maurice Sirr, who was 25 years in the post.

I enjoyed this service. The singing of the psalms of the  Office from the dozen or so choristers was very fine . The congregation were clearly  invited to participate at points. There was a thoughtful sermon on the place of music in worship from Canon Bob Hanna who demonstrated a rather good baritone voice himself. Both Canon Bob Hanna in this service and Rev Tom Hogan in a recent Easter address referred to Ita O'Shea, Cahercalla resident ( who I met on St Patrick's Day in Cahercalla) and who has contributed so much to music in Ennis in sacred and secular veins.  Today's musical director Daniel Battle showed himself to be a highly skillful organist particularly in the closing voluntary and no verse of the congregational hymns were given the same organ treatment with a variety of modulations adding interest to the chorale tunes. There was time for tea and cakes before the visitors climbed into their minibus for the journey back to the Shannonside city.  Among the choristers I met Paul Ryan and Peggy Carey who talked to me about their busy  rehearsal schedule. Also in attendance were father and son Michael and Harry Howes  well known in choral music circles in Limerick. 
Paintings by Frieda Bailey on an Easter theme were displayed and  added a further dimension to the occasion.
A perfect meditative end to the weekend.




Postcsript
 **With its emphasis on singing of the Psalms of the Divine Office, Evensong  or Vespers is a  welcome addition to the liturgies  Sunday evening strikes me as a good time for a complement to the main services of Mass and Eucharist. A number of monthly Vespers services were conducted at EnnisCathedral in 2010 including an ecumenical service at St Columba's but regrettably, these services did not become an established as a regular feature in Ennis..  As I understand it, there is  little theological difference to divide the two traditions of Vespers and Evensong, they  would seem to lend  themselves to an ecumenical approach. I hope this visit from St Mary's Choir will  refocus on the merit  and value of this type of liturgy in my own parish and put the inclusion of such services back on the local ecclesiastical agenda. 


Related Posts Enchanted Evening of Major and Minor Choristors  at St Columba's 

                     Cornets by Candlelight  Ennis Brass Band at St Columba's

Abbey Cluster Choirs gather with composer Bernard Sexton

 

Whatever views one might have on the amendments to the Roman Missal, one of the positive outcomes has been the commissioning of  new settings of the ordinary of the Mass and the reprinting of older versions by the National Centre for Liturgy.  An anthology of these commissioned settings both old and new was launched at the 2011 Irish Church Summer School.  I was present at the summer school when one of these commissions, Bernard Sexton's Mass of Renewal was heard as part of the daily liturgies  at the annual gathering. I thought then that it served the purpose well and  it struck me as being very suitable for Irish congregations . Some of Bernard's settings have found a regular place in the liturgies at Ennis Cathedral with The Shepherd Song and Beauty of the Earth both heard frequently in recent years and his setting of Laudates Omnes Gentes is a rousing recessional hymn.

Currently enjoying the liturgical limelight for his setting of the  Eucharistic Congress Hymn ‘Though We Are Many’  the composer,  conducted a choral workshop in St. Flannan’s College on Sat Feb 25th to teach his new Mass setting, ‘Mass of Renewal’. Choirs of the
Abbey Cluster  were invited to attend and a group of about sixty choristers from  Clarecastle, Ballyea, DooraBarefield, Ennis, Quin-Maghera-Clooney were assembled with Michael Hennessy, Music Director at Ennis Cathedral acting as accompanist.


The work has resonances with traditional Irish idioms and plainchant and is strong enough to stand up to simple unison singing treatment accompanied or accapella but the part  writing is accomplished and the  parts are agreeable and pleasant to sing. As a  bass himself, one  can rely on singable parts for the lowest voice .

Bernard Sexton, Michael Hennessy, Fr. Fergal O Neill

At the workshop, Bernard also presented a selection of new worksincluding a communion hymn, This is the Bread,  a  minor key melody with a descant part for an instrumentalist which I enjoyed playing on the day. There was also a jaunty Alleluiah with an unusual 7/8 time signature and a modal settting of a  wonderfully lyrical text by Timothy Dudley Smith , Christ is the Shining Sun.  The last one, a unison setting, would make a very suitable congregational hymn. Talking to some of the delegates after the workshop, my sense was that they enjoyed the repertoire and  the conviviality of singing with a larger group. Several of the directors I spoke to expressed the  hope the settings will become a regular feature of liturgies in their parishes and will encourage more congregational singing.

Cathedral Choristers

My review of a day spent at the annual Irish Church Music Summer School at the link below.

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/2011/08/irish-church-music-summer-school-2011.html

Cathedral Christmas Choral Endeavours

The rising of the sun and the running of the deer

              The playing of the merry organ, Sweet singing in the choir

 Cathedral Choir October 2011 Presentation of award to member Anna Monahan

Christmas Vigil 2011 
Duo      Hush be Still                 Austrian Carol
             In a Manger                   Polish Carol
             Lo How a Rose               Praetorius
Choir  Silent Night,                   Gruber
            The Holy  City                 Weatherly /Stepehen Adams   soloist Tony Murray
            Carol of the Bells            Leontovich 
Duo    Ave Maria                     Caccini
           Don Oiche Ud i mBeithil  trad


Gathering Hymn  Adeste Fidelis
                               Away in a Manger         Andrea
                                Once In Royal David's City Duo +organ 
                                Mass parts Joncas, Lecot, Deiss, O' Carroll
                                Psalm: Tonight a Saviour has been born to us Ronan McDonagh cantor Helen Minogue
                                Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring Duo
                                Oh Holy Night    Cappeau/Adolphe Adam
                                 For Unto Us A Child is Born  Handel
                                 Hark the Herald
                                 Diadem

Cathedral delegation at ClareFM studio 23rd Dec

Quavers and semiquavers Helen, Gertrude

Christmas is inevitably a busy time for church choristers.  The Ennis Cathedral Choir has been associated with liturgy in St Peter and Paul's Cathedral for over a century beginning under the direction of Belgian musician, Charles, 'Mons' Nono who arrived in Ennis in 1859  and today is a 40 strong adult mixed voice choir, roughly of the proportions of 3:1 women to men. The choir is currently directed by Michael Hennessy with Leon Walsh as principal organist. The growth of the choir continued under the direction of Ernest de Regge who came to Ireland from Belgium after World War 1 and was choir director for about 35 years until his death in tragic circumstances in 1958 . The cathedral choir is a  welcoming ensemble for liturgically inclined  singers and musicians and  members are drawn from a range of nationalities, including French, German, Slovakian and Chilean .

Michael Grogan

I joined a delegation from Ennis Cathedral at  ClareFM studios to talk about the choir's seasonal  liturgical activities to John Cooke of Morning Focus the station's flagship current affairs magazine programme. My favourite moment in the interviews(links below) was  hearing Michael Cullinan talk about his experience of being in the choir from  the age of 9 years under Ernest de Regge.  No doubt, he could fill a whole programme with the changes within the cathedral milieu alone  that he has seen in the five decades  since.  Following the broadcast the delegation adjourned to the Food Emporium where we enjoyed coffee and buns compliments of  our host and gave an impromptu recital of seasonal repertoire. We were joined by Michael Grogan from Scariff who played some tunes on my viola. It was all -well very Christmassy with whatever inhibitions we might have had suspended by the buzz of goodwill and the oxygen of publicity following our radio encounter.

Coffee time carols at the Food Emporium

 Morning Focus studio secs to airtime

Gallery  Quartet: Roisin, Me, Michael, Leon

On Christmas Eve, I was joined in the gallery by violinist Roisin McMullin to play some duet arrangements of a carol selection as a prelude to the choral aspects of the evening vigil Mass .  With the invited guest soloist  indisposed, tenor Tony Murray stepped in to sing the solo parts of the traditional choral favourites. The Holy City is a great sing for the choir, the melody composed by Stephen Adams to words by Frederic Weatherly, best known for the  lyrics of the WW1 sentimental ballad, Roses of Pickardy.  Coincidentally, I note that  his near namesake Frenchman,  Adolphe Adam, wrote the melody for another big item on the programme, Cantique de Noel aka Oh Holy Night , a perennial favourite in Clare and the world over .

Tremendous Tenors Sean Ruane, and Tony Murray 

St Peter and Paul's Cathedral is a very elegant ecclesiastical space at any time but illuminated by candlelight and  adorned with the the symbols of Advent and Christmastide, it is a beautiful  seductive interior for all  to gather and encounter the concepts of friendship, community, gratitude and transcendence through the rituals of  liturgy and choral singing.


Clare Noel Canticles  For more on Clare's Oh Holy Nights

'From Heav'n on High' - Wylde brings de Regge back home to Ennis




Donagh Wylde and Éanna McKenna

  Oliver Plunkett Mass:  Kyrie ,  Gloria, Credo, Sanctus ,Agnus Dei

Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer  (Bread of Heaven) Hughs/Williams
S'é mo Tiarna m'Aire , Alleluiah    Fintan O Carroll
Thine be The Glory      Handel

One wonders how the European musicians who came to Ireland in the latter decades of the 19th century and the early 20th century, viewed their new home.  It must have been a huge change from the continental milieus they left behind and how different the musical landscape would be without the input of the knowledge and skills of musicians like Ernest de Regge in Clare, Aloys Fleischmann Snr and Jnr in Cork and  Heinrich Bewerunge in Maynooth .  Ernest de Regge was organist and choir director at Ennis Cathedral from 1923 to his untimely death in tragic circumstances in 1958 in the Carmody Hotel disaster. On Saturday night, Ennis native Donagh Wylde whose late father was a student of De Regge brought his choir, Enniscorthy Choral Society to the cathedral in his home town to sing the de Regge, Plunkett Mass at the 6.30 Mass. The church was full with many present specially for the occasion including Professor de Regge's daughter, Marie Louise and members of the Wylde extended family . Following the service, there was a launch of a CD recording of the work at the Old Ground Hotel with addresses by retired Bishop Willie Walsh, Donagh Wilde and Mayor of Ennis, Michael Guilfoyle . Bishop Walsh in  self deprecating manner recalled his days as a student of Prof. de Regge  at Flannan's College and his days also as a teacher in the same college when Donagh Wylde was one of his physics students. 

There were many prominent members of the local musical and business circles at the launch. Carmel Griffin, director of  Colaiste Muire Choir and herself a former organist and director of the Cathedral Choir was among those attending and  was  she said 'very pleased with Colaiste Muire's contribution of some Irish song settings on the recording'. I spoke to choir director Donagh Wylde , clearly relieved and delighted to have arrived at the close of a long process of editing , rehearsing and performing. Donagh commented that de Regge's  composition style was very influenced by plainchant and also Romantic composers such as Weber and most importantly, the choir loved singing the work. Certainly the music is  elaborate in places with difficult four part singing that would not suit for regular worship  but made for a wonderful sense of occasion and resonance with the past. Other former cathedral choir directors present were Kieran O Gorman, Mary Curley and the present director Michael Hennessy.  Nigel Bridge, organist at St Columba's in Bindon Street was also in attendance and Doireann Wylde represented the younger generation in a flurry of organists (a collective noun for organists?) present for the occasion. 

Enniscorthy Choral Society were last in Ennis on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death in 2008 when they sang parts of the Plukett Mass at the Cathedral followed by a commemorative event at Colaiste Muire  Congratulations to Donagh Wylde, Enniscorthy Choral Society on the culmination  of  a long project.

I enjoyed the other hymns chosen for the Feast of Christ the King. The gathering  and recessional hymns were stirring, the first a familiar Welsh rugby anthem.  My own music teacher, Fintan O Carroll, director of music at Waterford Cathedral was represented in the psalm setting and Alleluiah and organist Éanna McKenna at the console coaxed a wonderful variety of sounds from what surely must be one of the secret treasures of Ennis, the Cathedral organ. Speaking to Éanna following the event, he said that the Ennis  organ was a historic instrument and was in fact designed by the man commemorated this evening Ernest de Regge.  May he rest in peace.

Organist Éanna McKenna at the console

Displayed on altar 19th Nov 2011

Sunday Independent  12 July 1947 'Ennis Choir will broadcast Mass Oliver Plunket'.

Irish Church Music Summer School 2011

Wednesday Eucharist
Entrance      Lauda Sion Salvatorum Joncas
Psalm 33     May Your Love be upon us   Bernard Sexton
Communion Come Receive Christ  Phyllis Wayne
                   
Recession     Let All Creation Sing  David Ogden


Mass of Renewal by Bernard Sexton
contributions from dedicated choir  director Orla Barry

Thurs
We Must Glory in the Cross Joncas
Words of Everlasting Life     Chris de Silva
Draw Near in Faith                  Walker
Lord Jesus, Give Us the Bread of Life  John Jones Sr Maeliosa Byrne
Jubilate Deo Omnis Terra   Stephen Dean
Mass of St Paul  by Ephram Feeley


While trad  musicians made their annual pilgrimage  to Clare for Willie Clancy Week. I travelled East  to the gathering of  Irish Church Music Association Summer School in Maynooth held in July and attended afternoon and evening events on Wednesday and Thursday. There was a good buzz with numbers appearing to be up on last year.  I enjoyed the programme of liturgical music accompanying Wednesday's service. The rousing Joncas gathering hymn with a Latin refrain  would suit most choirs and the upbeat syncopated closing number should fit well into schools' and gospel choir repertoire.  While I liked Bernard Sexton's  Mass settings, in general  I found the psalms on both days not quite stringent enough. I believe  'ooh... '  has no place in the lexicon of a psalm setting and  my toes curl in sympathy with the embouchure if I have to sing such a lyric in a liturgical context. In Thursday's liturgy, Chris de Silva's setting of psalm 19, Words of Everlasting Life  while very melodious also included the dreaded syllable with florid  piano interlude  and the number was a bit 'Tin Pan Alley' for my taste. This is definitely one for choir only with echoing of phrases between vocal parts.  Christoper Walker's short hymn 'Draw Near in Faith' was very tranquil lovely  four part setting  of a Communion text. There was an organic feel to the proceedings with the inclusion of Lord Jesus Give Us the Bread of Life featuring an attractive anthem like  refrain by participant John Jones from 2010 Composition seminars.   The special choir contributed some beautiful numbers under director Orla Barry. Splendid organ voluntaries by David Connolly and Eoin Tierney rounded off the proceedings.









There was much focus on change in the missal and the adaption of  musical settings in accordance. As I was not present at any of dedicated familiarisation sessions,  I can't comment on the formal pronouncements Informally  there was some concern expressed at a further divergence from the Anglican wording which  seems to counteract any ecumenical movement to common  settings of liturgies . There was a sense that while modest in the scale of changes in our lifetime, there was little enthusiasm for them  and  it is not as if there are not more pressing matters in ecclesiastical matters generally. However church musicians are a stoic band and applied themselves to absorbing the changes and making adjustments over the week. One fortunate consequence  is the publication of  a compilation of popular Mass settings 'Sing the Mass' including revisions and this should be a very useful resource particularly as some of the Mass settings have been out of print.


Cantando under director Orla Barry gave a concert in the St Patrick's Church .  This is a very long space and problematic  for a performance  particularly of chamber groups. I felt they would have had more impact  positioning themselves in the centre in the pews as they seemed very far away from their audience.

Fiona Walsh of Ennis Gospel Choir had an interesting proposition regarding pop up liturgical choir. It was good to meet familiar faces and also to make new contacts. I enjoyed talking to  Betty Fitzgerald from Cork about her school projects  and Aine Mohoric about her music therapy work in Crumlin. Fr. Brian Power from Waterford had some interesting observations about congregational singing in rural Deise parishes.   I joined Olive O Brien,  Caitlin Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh from Tulla and  Limerick liturgist Joe O Connor for dinner in the magnificent Pugin refectory. I made some enquiries among delegates about progress in initiating vespers in their churches, a practice promoted at 2009 summer school  particularly for cathedral parishes but it would appear not to have become established practice in Irish Catholic churches. While the gathering continues to be useful for familiarising liturgical musicians with lots of repertoire, I believe there is scope to include more in the way of  discusssion and advice on the practical side of running choirs like

*PR ;  using local media to promote choir endeavours;
*atttracting a gender balance in new recruits (usually means more tenors and basses ),
*maybe some consideration of  aspects of philosophy in relation to sacred music ,
*Encouraging the congregation to participate . Is it  important?  Some congregations seem to participate more than others . What constitutes good practice in this regard?

You can read my report from the 2010 Summer School on    this link.
Chairman Paul Kenny presided over the proceedings  and kept things moving along in genial fashion .  I stayed in St Patrick's College building itself which where my comfortable  room looked out on the carefully tended quadrangle greens and was good value for a tranquil and  historic location.

Ecumenical Advent Carol Service at Ennis Cathedral

Everything went off smoothly at the annual Ecumenical Advent Carol Service held this year in Ennis Cathedral    The church  was full  to hear the combined Abbey  Cluster choirs and orchestra, conducted by Michael Hennessy and all numbers went without a hitch. I always enjoy the band in this accoustic and the Ennis Brass Band added a festive air to the occasion and sounded splendid.particularly the shimmering percusion provided by father and son team Kieran and Gary McAllister.

Personally I would like to see an emphasis specifically on Advent material during the week before Christmas and it would be nice to see an Irish input in the carol selection next year to balance the Germanic chorale strand , maybe  one from  excellent liturgical Irish composers, Colin Mawby or Ronan McDonagh would be nice for a change  .  Mind you, having been at four services/ concerts this week where Christmas material has featured , I probably am more ready for alternatives than most and it is specially a time for old favourites.

It was good to see a squad of organists in the loft ready for duty including  brothers Leon and Dylan Walsh, Nigel Bridge and Megan Byrt. There was a pleasant buzz in the Cathedral as peopled lingered to meet and greet following the event , no one seeming in any particular hurry out into the cold night air.

Given the proximity of several sacred  spaces  in Ennis of both traditions,  it would be good to see the ecumenical spirit  ongoing at a regular  monthly  Sunday evening liturgy when  the festive season  is over.

Michael Hennessy Director Cathedral Choir

 
 

Violin Section