CELEBRATING ROCHESTER MUSICIANS : 25-26 July 2009

Traditions come and go, and sometimes change. So it is with this weekend.
The Cathedral Voluntary (formerly Special) Choir has always been on duty for the last weekend of July. Eight years ago, to celebrate the 90th birthday of former Cathedral Organist the late Dr Robert Ashfield, all the anthems and canticle settings were sung to his music. This idea then grew into a more general celebration of Rochester’s own composers, singers and organists.

Dr Robert Ashfield died just after Christmas 2006. He would have celebrated his 98th birthday next Tuesday (28 July). He was Organist & Master of the Choristers here from 1956 to 1977, having previously been Organist & Rector Chori at Southwell Minster for ten years. Before the war he had been Ernest Bullock’s Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey, Organist of St John’s Smith Square and a Music Master at Tonbridge School. His first musical experience was pumping the organ while his mother played at the village church in Eynsford (they later exchanged roles!). The text of the Te Deum can be found in the Prayer Book in the order for Mattins. This setting in E flat was written in 1995, though we have so far been unable to ascertain for whom it was written, or whether it has ever been performed outside of Rochester. His challenging anthem “Heralds of Christ” was written for the St Cecilia’s Day Festival Service at St Sepulchre’s Church, Holborn, in 1980. His short anthem “There is a stream” was written for the choir of St John’s, Smith Square. It sets part of a hymn text by John Mason (better-known nowadays for “How shall I sing that majesty”) and is remarkable for containing not a single musical accidental (a sharp or flat sign) other than those of the E flat key-signature.

Barry Ferguson (b. 1942) was a boy Chorister (eventually Head Chorister) at Exeter (and accomplished enough, by then, to play for choir practice), and later a music scholar at Clifton College in Bristol under the famous one-armed organist Douglas Fox. He read music at Cambridge, where he was organ scholar of its oldest college, Peterhouse. From there he went to be Stanley Vann’s Assistant Organist at Peterborough Cathedral, then Organist of Wimborne Minster in 1971, and from 1977 Organist & Master of the Choristers here at Rochester. In 1994 he "retired" to Dorset, where he is now active as a freelance musician and composer. His faux-bourdon setting of the Jubilate (see Prayer Book for text), based on the plainsong Tone 5, was written “in loving memory of Michael McCree” in June 1992 (three weeks after Mike’s death). The Communion motet “May we who share Christ’s body” (text from the ASB Communion Service) was written in July 1986 for the Confirmation of Barry’s daughter Rachel, and includes a musical quote from an earlier composition, his “Lullaby for R.M.F.”

Charles Hylton Stewart (1884-1932) was Cathedral Organist here from 1916 to 1930, having begun his musical life as a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Assistant Organist at King's College, Cambridge. From Rochester he returned briefly to Chester (his birthplace - his father having been Precentor there) as Cathedral Organist before being appointed to St George's Chapel, Windsor in 1932, where he died after only one week in the job. The Evening Canticles in C major were written in 1925 for the “Festival of the Rochester Diocesan Church Choirs Association”. His “Missa Brevis” (sub-titled “A short and easy Communion Service intended for Parish Church Choirs” was published in 1929.

Michael McCree (1933-1992) was a devoted Tenor Lay Clerk here for 33 years, and a much-loved local dentist, before retiring from both positions in 1991. He was tragically killed in a road accident whilst on holiday in France the following spring. This weekend we sing the setting of the Preces & Responses which Mike wrote for the Cathedral Choir. His Introit “Almighty God, though we forget thee” is one of three which he wrote for the choir – this one being to a text of his own and in memory of his former tenor colleague, the late Ted Triggs. It is inscribed “For all busy people, and in memory of Edward Triggs”.  [Ted used to work in the far western reaches of Surrey, driving back to Rochester in time for Evensong long before the M25 existed.]
“Almighty God, though we forget thee in the haste of living today, yet for thy loving-kindness’ sake, forget not us, O Lord, we pray. Amen.”

Simon Mold was a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral during Barry Ferguson’s time as Assistant Organist there, and was an Alto Lay Clerk here in the 1980s-90s. His anthem The strain upraise of  joy and praise (setting a text by JM Neale, based on his translation of a hymn by Balbulus Notker) was commissioned by the Henn-Macrae family for the 10th anniversary of Exeter Cathedral’s Girls Choir, of which Ruth H-M was a founder-member (before transferring to the “home team”).

Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) was a boy chorister here during the First World War and Assistant Organist (at the age of 18) to Hylton Stewart from 1921 to 1930, as well as holding church organist's posts in Borstal and Chatham. From 1932 until his death he was Organist at St Stephen's Church and Borough Organist in Bournemouth. “Come, let us join our cheerful songs is a typical “Hymn-Anthem”, published in the year of his death. The Evening Canticles in D major were written in 1930, while he was still at Rochester.

[Home] [Heinz Schwartz RIP] [Our new CD] [The New Regime] [Management] [Join the Choir] [Contact Us] [Who are we?] [What we do] [CHOIR TOURS] [Repertoire] [Calendar & Music] [Archive] [Autumn 2010] [Spring 2011] [Summer 2011] [Autumn 2011] [Summer 2012] [Autumn 2012] [Spring 2013] [Summer 2013] [Untitled111] [Plaudits] [Choir Humour] [Dr Robert Ashfield RIP]