All Saints, Margaret Street
editMusic
editIn 1841, the vicar of Margaret Street Chapel Frederick Oakeley translated the Latin hymn "Adeste Fideles" into English as "Ye Faithful, Approach Ye" for his congregation. Although Oakeley did not publish his translation, his hymn became notable due to its use at the chapel, and was included in several hymnals in the 19th century. One of its popular arrangements is "O Come All Ye Faithful".[1]
A choir school was established at the church in 1843, which provided music for daily choral services. The choir was widely recognised for its excellence and choristers sang at the Coronations of Edward VII (1902), George V (1911), George VI (1937) and Elizabeth II (1953) as well as at Victoria's Jubilees (1887 and 1897).
Amongst its alumni is Laurence Olivier.[2]
The school closed in 1968,[3] at which point the boys' voices were replaced by adult sopranos. The survival of the choir school had been discussed many years earlier. Writing to parishioners in 1894, the vicar lamented that the changing demography of the area meant that there were now few children left in the parish, and that the number of wealthy patrons in the congregation had decreased as they moved further west.[4]
The present-day choir maintains the exacting standards of its predecessors.
The repertoire for choir and organ stretches from before the Renaissance to the 21st century and includes several pieces commissioned for the church, most famously Walter Vale's arrangement of Rachmaninoff's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and All-Night Vigil for Western-Rite Mass and Evensong respectively. Rachmaninoff heard Vale's adaptations during his two visits to the church, in 1915 and 1923, and pronounced his approval of them. They are still sung on Palm Sunday.
All Saints' organ is a superb four-manual Harrison and Harrison instrument with 65 speaking stops, built in 1910 to a specification drawn up by Walter Vale. It retains the best of the pipework of its predecessor, the original and considerably smaller Hill organ. Though as big as those found in most cathedrals, it is perfectly tailored to All Saints' smaller dimensions – powerful, but not excessively so, sounding intimate when played quietly, and monumental when loud. Harrison rebuilt it in 1957, replacing the tubular pneumatic action with electro-pneumatic. Electrical blowers replaced the hydraulic blowing plant.
The tonal changes made to 10 stops in 1957 – like those made to many other organs at that time – altered the tone of the instrument, to a very limited extent, to a more 'classical' sound. Therefore, when the organ next required major restoration work, the decision was taken to try to restore the sound nearer to that of 1910: to return it to an 'Edwardian Romantic' organ. The completed restoration was celebrated with two inauguration concerts in March 2003.
Organists have included Richard Redhead, the first organist and remembered today as the composer of Rock of Ages and Bright the Vision, Walter Vale (1907–1939), William Lloyd Webber (1939–1948), John Birch (1953–58), Michael Fleming (1958–68) and Harry Bramma (1989–2004), many of whom wrote music for use at All Saints and beyond.
- Directors of Music (selected)
- 1839–1864 Richard Redhead[5]
See also
editNotes
editCitations
edit- ^ Julian 1915, pp. 20–21.
- ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 102.
- ^ Crutchley, Leigh (5 November 1968). "Death of a Choir School: All Saints Margaret Street London 1968". BBC Radio. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
- ^ "All Saints', Margaret Street choir school". The Guardian. 24 October 1894. p. 1650 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Love, James (1841) Scottish Church Music: its Composers and Sources. Edinburgh: Blackwood; p. 233
Sources
editMiscellaneous
edit- Harrison & Harrison (2021), All Saints' Church, Margaret Street (PDF), www.harrisonorgans.com, retrieved 3 April 2024
- Mullally, Sarah; Baker, Jonathan (2020), Pastoral Letter to All Saints Margaret Street (PDF), retrieved 4 April 2024
- ALL SAINTS CHURCH AND NUMBERS 7 AND 8: ALL SAINTS CHURCH HOUSE AND VESTRY, INCLUDING RAILINGS TO BASEMENT AREA AND ATTACHED PAIR OF LAMP STANDARDS, Historic England, retrieved 4 April 2024
Periodicals
edit- Curl, James Stevens (20 June 1990). "All Saints', Margaret Street". The Architects' Journal. pp. 36–55.
- Paflin, Glyn (6 November 2020). "The lost painting of All Saints'". Church Times.
Journal articles
edit- Kerr, Colin (2012). Glass, Alasdair (ed.). "Conformity or Revolution: Two Model Churches, St George Hanover Square and All Saints Margaret Street, London" (PDF). Transactions of the Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings. 35: 55–65. ISSN 0142-5803.
- Pfaff, Richard W. (July 1973). "The Library of the Fathers: The Tractarians as Patristic Translators". Studies in Philology. 70 (3): 329–344. JSTOR 4173813.
- Thompson, Paul (1965). "All Saints' Church, Margaret Street, Reconsidered". Architectural History. 8: 73–94. doi:10.2307/1568272.
Book chapters and sections
edit- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (20 Aug 2020). "Oxford movement". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2 Nov 2021). "Anglo-Catholicism". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
- Brown, Stewart J.; Nockles, Peter B.; Pereiro, James, eds. (8 June 2017). The Oxford Handbook of the Oxford Movement. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199580187.001.0001. ISBN 9780191750014.
- Brown, Nockles & Pereiro. Introduction. In Brown, Nockles & Pereiro (2017), pp. 1–6.
- Carter, Grayson. "Chapter 3: The Evangelical Background". In Brown, Nockles & Pereiro (2017), pp. 38–50.
- Gilley, Sheridan. "Chapter 7: Keble, Froude, Newman, and Pusey". In Brown, Nockles & Pereiro (2017), pp. 97–110.
- Pereiro, James. "Chapter 8 'A Cloud of Witnesses': Tractarians and Tractarian Ventures". In Brown, Nockles & Pereiro (2017), pp. 111–122.
- Cooper, Austin. "Chapter 10: The Tracts for the Times". In Brown, Nockles & Pereiro (2017), pp. 137–150.
- Curl, James Stevens (1995). "The Search for the Ideal". Book of Victorian Churches. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd/English Heritage. pp. 61–69. ISBN 0-7134-7490-4.
- Julian, John, ed. (1915). A Dictionary of Hymnology: Setting Forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of All Ages and Nations. Vol. 1 (2 ed.). London: John Murray.
- Love, James (1891). "Redheard, Richard". Scottish Church Music: Its Composer and Sources. William Blackwood and Sons. pp. 232–233.
- Saint, Andrew (2017). "The 1895 Restoration of All Saints', Margaret Street". In Howell, Peter; Saint, Andrew (eds.). Butterfield Revisited. Studies in Victorian Architecture and Design. Vol. 6. London: The Victorian Society. pp. 113–141. ISBN 978-0901657558.
- Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 15. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Ruskin, John. "Conclusion". The Stones of Venice. Vol. III: The Fall. National Library Association. pp. 166–198.
- Temple, Philip; Thom, Colin, eds. (2017). "All Saints Church". South-East Marylebone: Part 2. Survey of London. Vol. 52. Yale University Press. pp. 731–747.
Books
edit- Eastlake, C. L. (1872). A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans & Co.
- Galloway, Peter; Rawll, Christopher (1988). Good & Faithful Servants: The Vicars of All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London W1. Worthing, West Sussex: Churchman Publishing Limited. ISBN 1-85093-104-6.
- Nockles, Peter B. (September 2009). The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship, 1760–1857. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511520570. ISBN 9780511520570.
- Thompson, Paul (1971). William Butterfield. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 0710069308.
- Whitworth, William Allen (1891). Quam Dilecta: A Description of All Saints' Church, Margaret Street, with Historical Notes of Margaret Chapel and All Saints' Church. London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co.
Minor sources
edit- Mayhew, Peter (1987). "Margaret Street". All Saints: Birth and Growth of a Community. Oxford. ISBN 9780951276402.
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Further reading
edit- Hayes, Alan L. (2004). "Modeling Liturgical Integrity in the Anglo-Catholic Tradition: All Saints, Margaret Street, London, England, Easter Vigil, 19 April 2003". Anglican and Episcopal History. 73 (3): 390–397. – A description of the Easter Vigil at All Saints with some historical context.
External links
edit- Media related to All Saints, Margaret Street at Wikimedia Commons
- All Saints' official website