St Stephen's Uniting ChurchMacquarie St, SydneyHymnFest 2019Hymns of Power and Praise
Sunday 8 September 20192.30pm
Again we would like to invite choristers to join us to form the massed choir for our annual Hymnfest. Over the past few years, several choristers and people in the audience have requested their favourite hymns to sing at future HymnFests. The problem with including requested hymns has always been sourcing organ, brass and timpani arrangements to accompany the choir and audience. After searching online for new brass arrangements, I was able to find some for a number of the requested hymns. Then I needed to find a theme to tie the hymns together and looking at the new hymns there was a common theme running through them all. They were all 'Hymns of Power and Praise' so that has become this year's theme. As usual, we will include two anthems for the massed choir to perform. The first should be well known to everyone, Handel's 'And the Glory' from Messiah while the second anthem will be new to most but will be our tribute to Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris. We will be singing the 'Kyrie' from Louis Vierne's Messe Solennelle. Vierne was a long time organist at the cathedral and wrote a lot of organ repertoire for the instrument there which is still played all over the world today. He actually died at the console while playing a recital there in 1937. For those who have not sung them before, there are rehearsal recordings available online (see links below - you may need to set up an account to login). If you wish to join us, could you please email Mark Quarmby, the Director of Music, so that we have some idea of numbers per part for the day: mark@ssms.org.au Hymnfest will be conducted by our Choral Director, Huw Belling and will be accompanied by the organ and our brass ensemble with timpani. As usual, we will have a combined choir rehearsal the Sunday before on Sunday 1 September at St Stephen's, Macquarie St commencing at 1.30pm. Choristers need to know their parts before the rehearsal as we won't have time to teach parts on that day. We will have a warmup on the Hymnfest day and allocate seating positions at 1pm. The performance will start at 2.30pm and there will be an afternoon tea to follow in the hall downstairs. Dress for the performance will be all black.
To download a copy of the choir's hymn booklet, please click on blue link below: Choir hymn booklet (32 pages, including title page and contents)
All choristers should be familiar with the harmonies for those verses to be sung in harmony and
If you don't have a score of the anthems, please click on the blue links below.
Handel 'And the Glory' (8 pages) Vierne 'Kyrie' (8 pages)
Rehearsal recordingsSome rehearsal recordings can be found below:
Handel 'And the Glory'
John Fletcher's site - login required https://johnfletchermusic.org/handelgf-messiah/
Free Youtube rehearsal videos https://www.stmaryssingers.com/handel-messiah.html
Vierne 'Kyrie'Please note this work was originally written for two organs (one each end in Notre-Dame Cathedral) and we will be using an arrangement for one organ, brass and timpani. This should not affect the choral parts but the accompaniment will be set out differently. John Fletcher's site - login required https://johnfletchermusic.org/viernel-messe-solennelle/
Musicalion - membership required
Choraltracks - membership required https://choraltracks.com/en/messe-solennelle-op-16-satb-louis-vierne
There are a number of Youtube recordings of the Kyrie. Here is one recorded in Notre Dame Cathedral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CyZJdwfik8 Others can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vierne+kyrie
We are looking forward to you joining us again this year.
Mark Quarmby Director of Music
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