In Tuneful Accord. Trevor Beeson

      In Tuneful Accord

      The Church Musicians

      Trevor Beeson

      © Trevor Beeson 2009

      Published in 2009 by SCM Press

      Editorial office

      13–17 Long Lane,

      London, EC1A 9PN, UK

      SCM Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

      St Mary’s Works, St Mary’s Plain,

      Norwich, NR3 3BH, UK

      www.scm-canterburypress.co.uk

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.

      The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      978 0 334 04193 1

      Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London

      Printed and bound by

      CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham SN14 6LH

      Contents

       Preface

       Acknowledgements

       1. The Changing Pattern of Anglican Worship

       2. The Victorian Musical Inheritance

       3. The Last of the Old Wine – John Goss

       4. The Beginnings of Reform – Samuel Sebastian Wesley

       5. Nineteenth-Century Hymn Writers and Composers

       6. Frederick Ouseley and St Michael’s College, Tenbury

       7. The Parish Church Choirs

       8. John Stainer at St Paul’s

       9. The Revival of English Music – Edward Elgar

       10. Glad, Confident Morning

       11. The Abbey Comes Alive – Frederick Bridge

       12. Much-Loved Uncle Ralph Vaughan Williams

       13. Sydney Nicholson and the Royal School of Church Music

       14. The Choristers

       15. The Viennese and Parisian Innovators

       16. Mid-Twentieth-Century Explorers

       17. The Oxbridge Choirs

       18. The Minor Canons and Precentors

       19. The York Succession

       20. Two Post-War Giants

       21. A Contemporary Contrast

       22. Beyond Atonal Modernism

       23. Not Forgetting the Parishes

       24. Revolution in the Cathedral and the Rediscovery of the Counter-Tenor

       25. The Twentieth-Century Renewal of Hymnody

       26. Coda – Three Challenges

       Further Reading

      Preface

      Of the many books for which I have been responsible over the last fifty years, the writing of In Tuneful Accord has given me the greatest pleasure. I entered upon the task with some hesitation but, now completed, I hand it over to my publisher with the sadness that attends parting from a valued friend.

      It might be argued, and I am ready to concede the point, that a survey of the development of church music during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries should have preceded a trilogy on bishops, deans and canons. After all, the musicians have a deeper, wider, and usually longer-lasting influence than all but a handful of church leaders. Music is more attractive to most churchgoers than even the most eloquent of sermons, though both have their place. The personalities of musicians can also be interesting and I have included something about the most important of them in my period.

      During these early years of a new millennium music is everywhere. Never before has so much music, and in such a variety of forms of music, been created, performed and heard by so many people. The development of broadcasting and sound recording is largely responsible for this, and it is difficult to withhold sympathy from the man who sought to have a quiet drink in his local pub and offered to pay for a short period of relief from the rowdy jukebox. But of course the music explosion of the last half-century has also given joy, inspiration, illumination and consolation to millions.

      Music is the most spiritual of the arts. When words fail, music often speaks. When men and women seek closer communion with the Divine, music is most likely to open the door to transcendence. For those in the depths of sadness and despair, music may, more than anything else, offer rays of light and hope.

      This is true of all music wherever it is performed and heard. But the church is bound to have, and indeed has always had from its earliest days, a special concern to link music to its primary task of offering worship to God. It is no accident therefore that some of the greatest advances in the music of the West, and some of the most sublime compositions, have emerged from within the life of Christian communities.

      The Church of England – I have not dared to look far beyond its boundaries – has played a significant part in this great human endeavour, not least in the nurturing and conserving of a distinctive choral tradition. Hence the responsibility of every generation to ensure that this tradition is not broken or compromised.

      It is always hazardous to suggest that a turning point has been reached in any enterprise, but at the conclusion of