Music for 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

 

The lower voices of the choir lead our music this Sunday. The service is the Mass for Three Voices,  written by Stephanie Martin, who serves as musician at the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto. The church, sometimes known as SMM, was for years the home of the Dean of Canadian church music, Healey Willan, and the source of a wealth of Anglo-Catholic church music. Dr Martin has followed in this tradition, offering accessible music to small choirs.

At communion, the men sing a setting by American composer Daniel Pinkham of an 18th-century text, sometimes known as “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree”. The song may be an allusion to both the apple tree in Song of Solomon 2:3 which has been interpreted as a metaphor representing Jesus, and to his description of his life as a “tree of life” in Luke 13:18–19 and elsewhere in the New Testament.

The prelude and postlude come from two organists who made their mark with English church choirs: Christopher Tambling (1964-2015) served in Perth and at Downside Abbey; Richard Lloyd was Organist and Choirmaster at Hereford and then at Durham Cathedral.

Brigid Coult

Solemn Mass takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 10:30 am every Sunday.