sheffield

and
district
organists and
choirmasters
association

journal
may 2013

£1

SADOCA is affiliated to
the Incorporated
Association of Organists

Registered Charity No
1058118
in this issue members contacts centenary season

richard lamb President Although the Committee is still working on details of programme for the
cover Roy Chamberlin
We welcome Richard Lamb as member of the Association. Richard and his Centenary season, the dates of events have been fixed. Full details will be
Christopher Gibbons 40 Hallroyd Lane
wife, Ruth, are familiar faces, as they have joined us at the annual dinner for a Silkstone Common
given as soon as places, speakers, artists, etc are confirmed.
number of years. Barnsley S75 4PP
01226 792580 2013
list of members jcmchamberlin@hotmail.com Th 19 September Annual Meeting followed by coffee and dessert evening
members 2 The List of Members is enclosed with the Journal. It is intended that the list be Su 20 October Centenary Service – St Oswald’s, Millhouses afternoon
circulated with the February Journal in future. Vice President Sa 16 November Organ visit – Cawthorne daytime
recent events 2 Dr Simon Lindley
17 Fulneck
programme for the Pudsey
2014
remainder of the recent events Leeds Fr 21 February * evening
season 2 LS28 8NT 0113 2556143 Th 13 March * evening
composite recital 07860 293591 Fr 11 April Annual Dinner at Whirlow Grange evening
centenary season 3 There was a good attendance at Ecclesall Parish Church on 18 April for an simon@simonlindley.org.uk Sa 10 May Sheffield Organ Day daytime
excellent recital by Nigel Gotteri, Ian Hodgkin and Ian Roberts. Sa 7 June Organ trip all day
funding 3 Immediate Past
Sa 12 July President’s Reception at Fulneck afternoon
President
a manifesto on music annual dinner John Robinson
for liturgy 4 The Annual Dinner had to be postponed as a result of the bad weather, and 44 Tylney Road
unfortunately Peter Gould was not able to come speak on the changed date – Sheffield S2 2RY centenary calendar
noted in passing 6 Friday 1 May: we are grateful to Canon Trevor Page for agreeing to speak at 0114 2759620
short notice. wjr6233@hotmail.co.uk We are looking into the practicalities of producing a local Organ Calendar
covering the 15 months October 2013 - December 2014. Decent quality
christopher gibbons 7 Secretary
visit to ashbourne and belper photographs are needed, so if you have any which could be included, please
John Roch
A dozen members and friends joined the visit to Ashbourne and Belper on 39 Pine Croft
have a word with Roy Chamberlin or John Roch.
Thursday 23 May. Chapeltown
Sheffield S35 1EB
0114 2464369 centenary novelties
programme for the remainder of the 2012/13 season mail@jdroch.com
Is it worth pursuing the idea of golf umbrellas, fridge magnets, t-shirts and so
saturday 22 june
Assistant Secretary on? Your brilliant ideas to the Committee, please.
Tony Beck
Bradfield Music Festival Recital
21 Osborne Drive
Gordon Stewart & Tom Osbourne 7.30 Todwick
Sheffield S26 1HW funding
saturday 13 july 01909 770802
President’s Reception Bradfield tony.beck15@btinternet.com donations and gift aid
with recital by Colin Walsh From 11.15 Recital 11.30 The Committee is always concerned that we should have adequate funding for
(note change of artist) Treasurer each season’s events, and is looking closely at the costings for the next year.
Copy for the August Derek Smith
Journal should reach 11 Lismore Road
John Roch by the end of Organ access after lunch Sheffield S8 9JD
The experience of previous years shows that events are often subsidised by
July(preferably before), 0114 2589331 donations, with (sometimes substantial) costs being paid directly by individual
please. dj27smith@gmail.com members and not charged to the Association. As the payments do not pass
through our books, our accounts have not shown the full cost of each season.

2 3 Contributions to the costs of events are always welcomed, but we ask that in
concerts future they be made through the Association. Our accounts will have a new a manifesto on music for liturgy
income line “donations towards events”, separate from the small general
donations we receive when, say, members round up a subscription payment. ---- or some basic beliefs about music and song that motivate and
organrecitals .com Brighouse St Martin
All donations would be treated as being anonymous. There is the added move those of us in the WGRG to do what we do
National listings advantage that any such donations made by taxpayers qualify as Gift Aid Thursday 7.30
www.organrecitals .com receipts and we can reclaim income tax.
July 1 You cannot make music or engage in worship where there is no sense of
Changes to the Gift Aid rules came into effect in April, and 11 John Scott community. God does not give worship to strangers. But increasingly in the
“loose” charity collections can now qualify for inclusion in St Thomas's Western world, churches have become palaces of religious entertainment in
a tax repayment claim. There is a new form of words for Fifth Avenue which no-one in the audience has any connection with anyone else. When St
New York
Gift Aid declarations, and everyone will need to sign a new form. The major Paul spoke about the Church being the ‘body’, he meant a joined-up body.
admission £9 /
difference is to emphasise that the donor understands that Council Tax, VAT, concessions £7
Our latest recitals Stamp Duty and National Insurance Contributions do not count as taxes paid 2 You cannot expect people to sing in a building where the architecture does
information on income by the donor. not encourage their voice. Some church buildings represent a very different
[I always thought that the old wording was quite clear – jdr] Chesterfield Parish theology and social consciousness from today’s, and some people sit as if those
See link at Church around them had an infectious disease.
Parish Office
www.sheffielddistrictorga 01246 206506
subscriptions for 2013/14 3 The principal instrument in worship is the voice of the people . . . not
nists.org.uk
As we look at next season, it may be advisable to increase subscriptions for that No current listings
the voice of the choir or the sound of instruments. Believing in the ‘top down’
year to make sure that our finances are adequate for a worry-free celebration. approach has not worked in either finance or religion. In the life of
The Committee is still working on this. Jesus, God renews the earth from below. When the congregation enjoys its part
Doncaster Minster in worship, other possibilities begin to bubble up.

Friday Recitals 4 Church music is not homogeneous. No hymn or psalm book uses the same
1.10 - 2.00 type of texts or the same type of tunes from beginning to end. We may have
Free, retiring collection
twelve different types of music ranging from Gregorian Chant to Contemporary
Praise Song. Why should they all sound the same? The church is the only
June place on earth where we insist on accompanying a folk tune on a pipe organ.
7 Simon Lumby
St Aidan's 5 The organ is the only instrument not mentioned in the Bible. This does not
New Parks mean that it is inferior, simply that it cannot do everything. It is not a
Leicester percussion instrument nor a chordal instrument. Therefore it should do well
21 Derek Grover
what it can do; the musician should find other instruments or use a capella
Ranmoor
July singing to let other genres of music have their own integrity.
5 Christopher
Beaumont 6 A Pastor and a Church Musician must have three loves: a love for God, a
QR codes King’s College love for God’s people and a love for language. Without any of these, their
Aberdeen work will suffer.
Scan the QR code with Saturday 7.00
your smart phone to 13 Thomas Heywood
7 The Church becomes a theme-park when the mentality of a past age, past
access the information Australia
legal history quiz question 19 Paul Carr theology, past social stratification is taken as the norm for life today.
St Paul’s Theme-parks are for entertainment, not liturgy, and we have constantly to ask
Which religious leader called for all suicides to be hanged in chains in public? Birmingham whether what we are doing has out-lived its usefulness. We might therefore
ask: Do the songs of the church today have the same relevance to the life of the
No prizes, answer next time community as those a hundred years ago?
4 5
 8 If a hymn/song is worth singing to God, it is worth remembering. A appears last to have been uploaded to their website in 2009. Likewise, their
hymnal is a democratic tool . . . everyone has equal access to its contents. A online calendar is bereft of entries. (Had it not been, I would have been
digital projector puts technological power and spiritual influence in one forewarned about today’s service!)
Dronfield Parish Church Halifax Minster
person’s hands. Can we praise our Maker with intelligence if we can see only
Parish Office
01246 412328 some of the text? Thursday 1.00 - 1.45 the date & time
admission free / Trinity Sunday, May 26, 2013, 10.30am.
Recitals on the first 9 To make music today is counter cultural. Twentieth-century Western collection taken
Wednesday of the month society has moved away from seeing music as a participative activity to being a what was the name of the service?
8.00 performance activity which is listened to and rated. More recently, technology June Annual Thanksgiving Service: The Sierra Leone Grammar School Alumni
has privatised music. No composer ever wrote for an iPod. 13 Darren Williams Association of North America, West Coast Chapter.
Refreshments are served Doncaster Minster
afterwards, and there is
a retiring collection 10 Bach knew how to dance. 20 Philip C. Tordoff how full was the building?
Halifax Minster I counted room for about 100. It was half full at the start of the service, but a
July Taken from GOOSEgander — the newsletter of the Wild Goose Resource large number of latecomers made it almost completely full by gospel time.
3 Peter Verity Group, Summer/Autumn 2012 no.33. Used with permission. Copyright © 27 Christopher Cipkin
Sheffield WGRG, Iona Community Birminghamh did anyone welcome you personally?
No. Service leaflets were available on a stand in the narthex. After I had sat
September July
WGRG consists of 3 resource workers: John Bell, Jo Love & Graham Maule. down, a lady entering the pew in front of me wished me a good morning and
4 Andrew Booth Saturday 7.30
Chesterfield 6 admission details unknown asked me if bulletins were available. I told her where I had found mine, and she
Ian Tracey said, "Do we pick up our own, then?" I replied that I was as much a first-time
Liverpool Cathedral visitor as she was.
noted in passing
Saturday 7.30 was your pew comfortable?
from a mystery worshipper report 13 admission £10 Yes — cushioned pew.
Silent movie: The Passion
of Joan of Arc
the church how would you describe the pre-service atmosphere?
Darius Battiwalla
Christ Church Anglican, Carefree, Arizona, USA. Traditional Episcopal Church, Hebden Bridge Very noisy — lots of visiting. I suspect that the majority of the congregation were
Anglican Province of Christ the King, Diocese of the Southwestern States. friends and family of the Sierra Leone Grammar School alumni or of the baptismal
party.
the building Huddersfield Town Hall
It’s in the Spanish Mission style and was consecrated in 1999. The interior is very Monday 1:00 was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what?
simple, with white walls and dark brown ceiling. An eastward-facing altar sits admission £5 / It tried to be stiff-upper-lip but seemed surprisingly informal and unrehearsed. It
concessions £3.50
atop three steps. included a baptism, which was not announced in the service bulletin. There were
No listings bells and genuflections, and bowing at the name of Jesus, but no incense. I was
the church surprised at the number of congregants who didn’t take communion. The service
Quoting from their website: they are "a founding member of the Diocese of the concluded with a Te Deum (listed in the bulletin as "the Tedium", and for good
Southwestern States in the Anglican Province of Christ the King, which began as reason), which was sung and played so badly that it actually had people in the
an outreach from the clergy of Saint Nicholas Anglican Church, Scottsdale, congregation scratching their heads in amazement. This was followed by a
Arizona in July of 1997." They claim to have a strong music program, beginning rousing rendition of the Sierra Leone Grammar School Song and the Sierra Leone
with the Cherub Choir, continuing through Sunday school music classes, and National Anthem — both a cappella, as the organist said (when the rector asked
culminating in Cantus Ensemble, the parish’s primary choral group. (I have her to play them) that she didn’t know them.
reason for doubting the program’s strength, as will be seen.) They also offer
Jubilate, a music class open to persons of all ages who wish to learn more about which part of the service was like being in heaven?
the role of music in worship. They have men’s and women’s groups that meet I had not experienced the 1928 baptismal rite before, and I was struck by its
for breakfast. They are also linked in some way to a grammar school in Sierra beauty. At the offertory, two choir members sang Carl Schalk’s Lord, Keep Us
6 Leone, again as will be seen. Their newsletter, Angelus, comes out regularly but 7 Steadfast in Thy Word as a duet, which came off rather nicely.
 and which part was like being in... er... the other place? christopher gibbons
But the communion anthems — an anonymous 16th century motet and a 1615-1676
Benedictus by Adam Gumpelzhaimer — didn’t fare as well. In fact, the music in
Leeds Minster Leeds Town Hall
general was of a caliber that made me wonder just how strong their music foundation scholar of charterhouse
www.leedsparishchurch
.org.uk program is. The organist seemed unaware that the organ included diapason and Monday 1.05 to 2.00 Free
string stops (she favored flutes even to support the congregational singing), and
Friday 12.30 to 1.05 Free apparently confused the swell pedal for a bellows, so assiduously did she keep All details on ‘. . . a master-composer of great personality and genius’
pumping it. The choir lacked volume and did not blend, and had a propensity for organrecitals .com Richard Eggar
All details on going sour, especially in the Amen at the end of each hymn. Hardly anyone in Director of the Academy of Ancient Music
organrecitals .com the congregation sang — not surprising, given the lack of support from the organ. No listings
As the second and only surviving son of his renowned father Orlando
June
Wednesday 7.30 what happened when you hung around after the service looking lost?
Lincoln Cathedral (1583-1625), Christopher was born into the tradition of Cathedral organist,
12 The service had gone on for almost two hours, and I was in no mood to hang Information Office composer and teacher. This long-standing tradition was exemplified by Orlando,
Annual Organ Gala around looking like anything. I would have run screaming from the place ages 01522 561600 who is regarded nowadays as certainly one of the greatest late-Tudor musicians.
Ian Tracey ago had I not been Mystery Worshipping. I looked around for a side door to slip In his own time he was recognized as one of the ‘three famous Masters: William
Simon Lindley out of without having to shake hands with the clergy, and fortunately I found £5 on the door Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons’ — to quote from the much-reproduced
David Houlder one. July titlepage — who contributed together to the important printed keyboard collection,
Daniel Bishop Sunday
‘Parthenia’ (c1611) . Orlando and his wife Elizabeth lived in the Parish of St
7 5:30 to 6:15
Reger and Rheinberger how would you describe the after-service coffee?
Luca Benedicti
Margaret’s, Westminster. All of their seven children were baptized in the parish
14 Simon Lindley A buffet luncheon had been spread out in honor of the Alumni Association Italy church, just by Westminster Abbey. Christopher’s turn came on 22 August, 1615.
21 Simon Lindley reunion, but as of yet there was no one in the hall when I poked my head in to Since early baptism was usually the rule at this time, it is generally assumed that
28 Simon Lindley look. I wasn’t in the mood to acquaint myself with the cuisine of Sierra Leone, so August he was born a few days previously, there being no record of the precise day. It is
I left. Bank Holiday Monday thought that in due time Christopher became a chorister of the Chapel Royal, his
July 26 7:00 to 7:55 father having been appointed a Gentleman of the Chapel a decade and more
26 Keith Hearnshaw Simon Preston earlier.
how would you feel about making this church your regular?
Concert Organist Concert Organist
(where 10 = ecstatic, 0 = terminal)
0 — No way! I know that today’s service was a special occasion, but this is how
Leeds Cathedral they do their special occasions? What could an ordinary Sunday be like? Surely christopher orphaned as a schoolboy
Monday 1:10 to 2:00 the organist knew beforehand that the service would conclude with the Sierra
admission free / retiring Leone National Anthem, but she couldn't trouble herself to find a copy and learn It is likely that, in 1625, Christopher sang at the funeral of James I, who died on 27
collection it? If I were a Sierra Leonean, I would take it as an insult! March. The King’s successor, the twenty-four-year old Charles, shortly after his
accession married the teenage Henrietta Maria, youngest daughter of King Henry
June
did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian? IV of France. King Charles travelled to Canterbury to meet his new bride on 31
17 Philip Meaden
Leeds No. May, taking with him a large party which included the complete Chapel Royal.
College of Music Amongst all the musicians was Orlando — who by this time was organist of
24 Thomas Leech Westminster Abbey and senior organist of the Chapel Royal — and very probably
St Patrick's the young Christopher. A Charterhouse connection is evident in that one of the
Huddersfield many instrumentalists and singers in the party was a descendent of the Bassano
The Mystery Worshipper, which produced this report, is run by shipoffools.com, family of instrument makers and players, members of which had originally been
the online magazine of Christian unrest. Mystery Worshippers are volunteers brought to England by Henry VIII to swell his musical establishment and had
who visit churches of all denominations worldwide, leaving a calling card in the been housed in monks’ cells at Charterhouse following the Dissolution. Tragedy
collection plate and posting a first-timer's impression of services on Ship of Fools. befell the Gibbons family in that, whilst in Canterbury, Orlando died unexpectedly
on 5 June, not of the plague — which was rife in England that year — but of
For further reports, visit the Mystery Worshipper at: shipoffools.com. apoplexy. Possibly owing to misplaced fear of the plague, Orlando was buried
with some haste, in Canterbury. The following year a memorial bust to him was
8 9 erected in the cathedral at the instigation of his wife Elizabeth. The black marble
 bust which is to be found in the north choir isle of Westminster Abbey is a copy of Prebend of the Cathedral. During the Commonwealth, at a period of great
the Canterbury memorial, erected in 1907 — somewhat belatedly — by the turbulence in the church and in the country, Christopher and Mary were married
Worshipful Company of Musicians. The gilded inscription reads simply, in London, on 23 September 1646, in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less.
Liverpool Cathedral Liverpool Metropolitan
‘ORLANDO GIBBONS ORGANIST 1625’. This, the ancient parish church of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, is in easy walking
Saturday 4.00 to 4.30 Cathedral
Free Saturday 2.15 - 3.15 distance of Charterhouse; it was possibly known to the bridegroom from his
The family suffered a further tragedy in that Elizabeth died in 1626, aged in her admission free schooldays. There were no children of this marriage. Subsequently, there were
June mid-30s, leaving Christopher an orphan and the eldest of seven children. She four children of Christopher’s second marriage in 1655 to a widow, Elizabeth
29 7.30 was buried at St Margaret’s, Westminster, on 2 July. The custody of the children July Filbridge (nee Ball), Mary having died at an unrecorded time before April 1655.
Organ Gala and was made the responsibility of Edward Gibbons (c1568-1650), Succentor of Exeter 20 John Hosking The two sons of five children of this second marriage were named Orlando and
Patrons' Evening Cathedral, Christopher’s uncle, the eldest brother of Orlando. There are St Asaph Cathedral Christopher, leading to some understandable confusion amongst writers of the
admission £15 / 27 Ivan Linford
contemporary references to Edward as a fine organist and he had been master of modern era. There is documentary evidence that Christopher was living in the
patrons £10 Oakham
Olivier Latry the choristers at King’s College, Cambridge. As Succentor at Exeter, Edward was parish of St Giles, Cripplegate in 1655. This, again, is in walking distance of
Notre-Dame charged by the Cathedral authorities to teach the choristers ‘in instrumental August Charterhouse. Christopher and Elizabeth lived together near St Clement, Danes,
Paris musicke’. He would surely have taught his own nephew at some time between 3 Paul Derrett where all the children were baptized in the Church. By 1664 the family was living
1626 and Christopher’s first known appointment to an organist’s post in 1638. Hull in Westminster.
July 17 Colin Porter
27 Jon Barton There is some uncertainty in the detail at this period of Christopher’s Mossley Hill The dramatic story of the outbreak of the Civil War has often been told. Its effect
Our Lady Parish Church
whereabouts. An established fact is that he was nominated for admission as a on church life is a distressing part of the history of so many cathedrals and
Birkenhead 24 Carol Wareing
Foundation Scholar of Charterhouse in 1627. His election was approved on 21 St Oswald
churches. The Royalist churchman Bruno Ryves (1596-1677) – sometime chaplain
August June. There is no subsequent mention of Christopher in the Charterhouse Ashton-in-Makerfield to Charles I — recorded the devastation at several cathedrals. At Exeter and
3 Paul Walton records. However, it is the opinion of the present Archivist, Dr Stephen Porter, 31 Joshua Stephens Chichester, soldiers ‘brake down the organs’. At Wells, in May 1643, ‘souldiers .
Bristol Cathedral that he took up his place. In which case he would surely have been a pupil of the RNCM . . broke down the organs’. And at Winchester, ‘They entered the the Church
10 Matthew Dunn first Organist of Charterhouse, Benjamin Cosyn (c1580-1652), and could have been with colours flying and drums beating’, burning ‘all the Singing books belonging
St Botolph known to Tobias Hume, the violist and composer, Brother of Charterhouse from September to the Quire: they threw down the organs’. The traumatic effect of ‘the
without Aldgate 1629 to his death in 1645. 7 Paul Delany barbarous Outrages’ on organists and choirmasters can only be imagined. As with
17 Peter Morison St Paul
St Mary, Chorley West Derby
other musicians who were put out of their regular employment, Christopher
24 Julian Gunn There is evidence of the possibility that Christopher may have lived for a time moved to London during the Interregnum, where he was to remain for the rest of
Ranmoor with Edward in Exeter, one scholar speculating that ‘Christopher received his life; however, he retained the official position at Winchester Cathedral, if in
instruction from Edward after a schooling at Charterhouse’. An early contact of Mirfield St Mary name only, until after the Restoration, up to June 1661.
Bank Holida Monday some considerable musical importance in later life was made with Matthew Locke Saturday 3.00 - 3.50
26 11.15 admission £5 (1621/2-1677), who is thought to have been born in Exeter and was a Cathedral admission free /
Ian Wells Chorister from 1638-1641. Lasting from this early impressionable period, they are retiring collection life in london: teacher, composer, and ‘a great keyboard master’
Holy Trinity
said to have remained life-long friends. In the 1650s, Christopher and Matthew
Stockport July
collaborated in the composition of James Shirley’s masque, ‘Cupid and 13 Andrew Fletcher By 1651 Christopher was so well-established as a teacher that the influential
Death’(1653). University of London publisher John Playford, in his ‘A Musicall Banquet’, refers to him as a
Birmingham teacher of organ and virginals among those of the ‘many excellent and able
Masters of London’. As a composer there are references to Christopher in the
appointment to winchester cathedral, marriages, contributions he made to Shirley’s, ‘Cupid and Death’. He and Locke provided
and move to london the music for this masque as a joint enterprise. It is now regarded as possibly the
most elaborate work of its kind of the period. Christopher made a contribution to
Such was Christopher’s musical ability and development that, with the support of another stage work, not this time as a composer but as an instrumentalist —
the Lord Chamberlain, he was appointed Organist of Winchester Cathedral in presumed to be keyboard continuo — in a performance of the impresario and
1638. That the dean, John Young, received a letter from the Lord Chamberlain in poet laureate Sir William Davenant’s, ‘The Siege of Rhodes’. Here, Locke wrote
which he issued a ‘command’ — as recorded by the dean in his diary — to the vocal music for the fourth act, and he sang the role of the Admiral of Rhodes.
appoint Christopher is indicative of the regard he enjoyed at a very high level. In This work, commonly claimed to be the earliest English opera, had its first
10 Winchester, Christopher met Mary Kercher, daughter of Dr Robert Kercher, a 11 performance in Rutland House, abutting Charterhouse Chapel, on 23 May 1656;
 ‘great inconveniencyes’ were complained of by the Governors of Charterhouse
concerning the activities at Rutland House. As an organist, Christopher achieved
sufficient renown to be referred to as ‘that famous musitian’ by the diarist John
Pontefract St Giles
Evelyn, after hearing him play the Magdalen College, Oxford, double [ie.
Parish Office
01977 706803 two-manual] organ in July 1654.
Fridays 1.00 to 1.40 By the time of the Restoration in 1660 it can be seen that Christopher had certainly
Free made his mark as a teacher, composer and organist. Charles II recognized his
suggested donation £3 achievements, appointing him his private organist, and also - following in
Orlando Gibbons’ footsteps — Organist of the Chapel Royal and of Westminster
Abbey. Under Christopher’s charge at the Chapel Royal was John Blow, one of
No listings
the first choirboys of the Chapel after 1660, and later, most notably, Henry Purcell;
and so, by chance, Christopher was training up the two leading composers of the
post-Restoration period in England. A further sign of the King’s favour was a
Ranmoor St John letter written to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University in July 1663, urging that
Monday 8.00 Christopher be awarded ‘the degree Doctor of Music’. The conferral was made a
admission free / year later, for which occasion Locke contributed some music.
retiring collection
June
At this period, 1663-1665, Christopher became involved in a controversy over
24 Rufus Brodersen plans for a new organ at Worcester cathedral. Parliamentary forces had
St John's, Ranmoor destroyed the cathedral’s 1613 instrument in 1646. Needing a new organ at the
Restoration, the dean — Thomas Warmestry — sought Christopher’s advice, but
later accused him of corruptly trying to procure the contract for the London organ
Sheffield Cathedral builder William Hathaway. This acrimonious affair, which has engaged the
www.sheffieldcathedral.org
attention of historians at some considerable length, caused little damage to
Tuesday and Friday
Christopher’s reputation in London. But whether or not it damaged his health is
in term time a matter of some speculation. What is well-established is that his health was
1.15 - 2.00 failing from about 1666. It is saddening to read a contemporary comment,
Free - suggested describing Christopher as ‘a person most excellent in his faculty, but a grand
donation £3 debauchee’ who ‘would often sleep at Morning Prayer when he was to play the
organ’. In 1666 he relinquished his post at the Abbey. Be that as it may, he did
continue to take part in London’s musical life into the 1670s. In December 1674
he was appointed organist of St Martin-in-the-fields, only to die in October 1676,
being buried in Westminster Abbey cloisters on 24 October.
In the estimation of enthusiasts of the Early Music Movement nowadays,
Christopher’s musical output is more and more regarded as that produced by a
composer of substance. His surviving compositions encompass music for choir,
organ, and string ensemble. This appraisal may be compared with the
increasingly frequent performances of and the attention given to Tobias Hume’s
life and compositions. Each of the two composers and instrumentalists has
become better known in recent years from public concerts and readily available
recordings. High praise has been accorded Christopher’s musical output by the
present Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Eggar: ‘It is
extraordinary music of great emotional power, and there are real masterpieces’.
12 He came across Christopher’s name in the references to ‘a great keyboard master’
— amongst several others — in Samuel Pepys’ Diary. As is well known
generally, for Pepys, ‘music is all the pleasure that I live for in the world, and the
greatest I can ever expect in the best of my life’. The acclaim given Christopher by
Southwell Minster
Pepys inspired Richard Eggar not only to discover and study the organ pieces, the
Minster Office
M - F 9.00 to 1.00 full and verse-anthems, and instrumental works as well, but to record some of
01636 812649 them in a well-received CD last year, taking part himself on the organ, with
members of the Academy.
Bank Holidays 3.30
Free / collection It should be noted that the present-day Academy, founded by Christopher
Wednesday7.30 Hogwood in 1973, is not to be confused with the eighteenth-century Academy of
£8 / comcessions £5
the same name. Formed ‘for the study and practice of Vocal and Instrumental
July Music’, and originally The Academy of Vocal Music (1710), it was renamed The
17 Robert Munns Academy of Ancient Music in 1726 and had none other than Handel at the
Eastbourne forefront in its formation. The composer, teacher and theorist, Johann Christoph
Pepusch, who had worked alongside his countryman Handel in the service of The
September Duke of Chandos — a Governor of Charterhouse — was another
18 Greg Morris founder-member, and was Director until his death in 1752 at the advanced age of
The Temple Church
85. An impressive wall monument to Dr Pepusch, one of my distinguished
predecessors in the historic post of Organist of Charterhouse from 1737 to his
death, is to be found in Charterhouse Chapel, where it was placed by members of
the Academy in 1767. The Academy survived until 1792.
christopher gibbons’ lifetime, a period of transition
In being compelled to adapt to changes in his personal life and accommodate
himself to upheavals in a nation in a state of flux, Christopher was the
personification of a transitional figure. Even in the relatively few compositions for
organ solo by Christopher which have come down to us it is possible to trace a
progression in style and technique. He was schooled in the tradition of
polyphonic music, being known to have transferred to the keyboard some of the
pieces for viol written by his father. As his own style developed, he
demonstrated harmonic thinking characteristic of the early-Baroque period,
showing himself susceptible to the influence of such composers as Frescobaldi
(1583-1643) and the Italian composer’s German pupil, Froberger (1616-1667). It is
thought that Froberger on his many travels came to England and met Christopher
in not entirely happy circumstances: but that is another story. Greater
chromaticism — albeit in the context of rather rudimentary key-systems — and
controlled dissonance treatment were evident as a result of foreign influences.
These elements were enhanced by the post-Restoration French style so much
appreciated and furthered by Charles II and his Court. Jagged rhythmic figures
and bravura passages are found, necessitating considerable technical command
and manual dexterity. Organ pieces with titles such as ‘Verse’ or ‘Voluntary’
would have been written for church use; it can be assumed that Christopher
extemporized in a similar style in church services.
13
 Use of the organ played a part in Christopher’s vocal compositions, which include
verse-anthems with passages for solo organ. A regrettable loss in his output is a
setting of the Evening Canticles, ‘Dr Gibbons evening Service with verses’. Such
Staveley
works as do survive demonstrate the differing types of anthem of the period,
Information
01246 852034 including verse-anthems which show Italian and French influence in scoring and
treatment of the text.
Wednesday recitals on
the new Phoenix digital In Christopher’s instrumental consort music there is sometimes found a daring
instrument leaping across wide intervals, one Fantasia, for example, with two upper violin
parts and bass, covering as many as two octaves in a short space in all three parts.
8.00 for approx 45 mins
This is accomplished with free imitation and a sense of climax, but also — it has to
Retiring collection. be observed — with a certain roughness at times. One writer of the period,
Tea and coffee served whilst acknowledging Christopher ‘a great master in ye ecclesiastical style’ and
afterwards. also in consort music, characterizes parts of his output as ‘very bold, solid and
strong but Desultory and not without a little of ye Barbaresque’. This barbarity
June may have been the result of attempting to adopt Continental techniques with a
19 Ken Ellis desire to keep up with changing fashion in times of transition, straining after
effects that were not easy for him to achieve.
July
17 Geoff Gratton
A concluding summing-up can be found in Richard Eggar’s response to one of
Christopher’s large-scale anthems, ‘Not unto us’, set for double choir and organ:
‘I knew I had found an extraordinary and unique voice the first time I had the twitter
Tapton Hill pleasure of performing this piece. Christopher Gibbons is a true English musical
Congregational treasure’. As far as Charterhouse is concerned, every person associated with the Follow SADOCA on Twitter @SheffOrganists
Church ancient foundation, a living community from its fourteenth-century monastic
July
establishment, must surely agree that it is indeed ‘peopled with invisible Follow Organists Review on Twitter @organistsreview
6 7.30 presences’. With the availability to all who care to take an interest in the life and
Organ Centenary Recital works of Christopher Gibbons, his presence is now made visible — and audible — journal
John Silverton to an extent that has not previously been possible.
Graham Matthews The SADOCA Journal is published in February, May, August and November.
Articles and suggestions for features are always welcome, preferably well in
advance of the closing date for copy, which is usually the fifteenth of the
preceding month.

Graham Matthews acknowledges gratefully an amendment suggested by Dr Copy may be sent in MS Word format (preferable not in .docx format) or in the
Stephen Porter body of an email. Don’t worry about the formatting, as everything has to be re-
formatted into WordPerfect once received. Pictures in the usual formats — jpg,
etc — are OK. Some PDF files are usable, but they are a nuisance to convert.
Christopher Gibbons is the title of Harmonia Mundi’s CD, HMU 807551:
Motets, anthems, fantasias and voluntaries;
The Journal is available in PDF format by email.
Director and solo organ, Richard Eggar Contact John Roch mail@jdroch.com

This article appeared in The Charterhouse Magazine and is reproduced by The Journal is available in large print on request to
permission John Roch – 0114 2464369.
Body text is 9.6 pt Palisade Condensed
14 15 Headings and left column are set in Clearly Gothic