I Historical Overview

Until the English Reformation provision was made by the Church for the musical rendering of all her chief services, either through the use of specific musical formulae or of melodies identified with the texts whose introduction into the Liturgy they had usually accompanied.

In 1544 the English Litany was published, together with an adaptation to the accustomed musical formulae made by Archbishop Cranmer himself.  The first Prayer Book of Edward VI was issued in 1549 as a book of words only, unaccompanied by the musical setting of any text.  Its rubrics, however, directed that certain parts of the Communion Service should be sung by the clerkes; that the Epistle and Gospel (as well as the lessons in Morning and Evening Prayer) might be sung by the Ministers; and that the Gloria in excelsis and the Creed should continue to be intoned by the Priest, who might also sing the Prayer of Consecration.  Moreover, the recurrent use of the word "say" obviously continued the accepted contemporary sense of the Latin dicere, signifying monotonic recitation with or without inflections.  These facts all bear witness to the intention of making the continued choral rendering of the services at least permissible.  This is further supported by the appearance, less than a year after the first Prayer Book, of John Merbecke's The Book of Common Prayer Noted.

This book provided, in melodic form and in the contemporary Gregorian modes "so much of the order of Common Prayer as is to be songe in churches" Matins, Evensong, the Holy Communion, and the Burial Office, with special music for the Holy Communion at a burial.  As an historical "snapshot", Merbecke's volume offers insight into the general practice of the church as at the time of the first Prayer Book.

The gradual decline in ceremonial observance following the Reformation affected the perpetuation of the traditional musical rendering of the services.  By the time of the Restoration this tradition had become lost to a large extent; partly through the banishment of the Prayer Book offices during the Puritan ascendancy, and partly through the destruction of Cathedral libraries and music.  Although the singing of the services was resumed after the Restoration, at least in Cathedrals and Colleges, it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that anything like real progress was made toward restoring to general use the traditional formulae and melodies of the ancient service.  As practiced in many English Cathedrals, a simple monotone had been employed for the greater part, if not for the whole of the services; this was in fact usually done simply that the Ministers would be heard clearly throughout the church rather than to embellish the office, or to perpetuate ancient tradition.

The Anglican school of Church music is essentially a harmonic system, evolved largely under the influence of the Cathedral Choir.  The very general substitution of the Anglican Chant for its prototype, the Gregorian, was accompanied by the use of harmonized choral responses, especially at Morning and Evening Prayer; the services rendered daily with a Choir.  Anglican Chant settings of canticles for congregational participation also became a hallmark of the Anglican Church during the first half of the twentieth century.

II The Anglican Musical tradition at S. John's

It is critical to note that the liturgy should be essentially a people's service, in which their general participation should be encouraged and assured.  At S. John's, this participation is lead by the Schola Cantorum at the principal services on Sundays and Feast Days, and on Wednesday evenings at Choral Evensong.  Mass settings on Sundays rotate seasonally between works of Merbecke, Willan, Callaway and Oldroyd, among others.  The propers of the day and antiphons as appointed are chanted by the Schola and congregation responsively, and the Creed and Lord's Prayer are sung to traditional and ancient melodies.  The Schola also offers two anthems or motets at each Mass, each chosen to reflect a particular aspect of the Gospel, feast or season.

The Wednesday evening service of Choral Evensong takes advantage of the wealth of glorious writing for the idiom.  The psalms of the day are chanted in either Gregorian or Anglican manner; the Creed, Lord's Prayer and prayers are intoned; the Preces and Responses are sung to settings by composers ranging from Palestrina (1525 - 1594) to the contemporary Andrew Carter (b. 1939).  The Schola also offers an anthem at this service.

As faithful Anglican we are inheritors of a vast, glorious and powerful body of liturgical music that sadly has been abandoned - at least in it's appropriate context - by many other traditions.  S. John's continues to fulfill it's responsibility to our tradition by maintaining this corpus, and by encouraging the hearty, spontaneous participation of the people in the sung liturgy which is directly enjoined upon us both by rubric and by every consideration of the principles of common worship.

Soli Deo Gloria.