St Paul's Anglican Church in Manuka ACT
Photo By Bidgee (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Concerts » St Paul's Organ Fund Recitals
SCUNA's participation | Origin of the recitals | More background
Monteverdi Mass for Four Voices; Purcell Te Deum
St Paul's Anglican Church in Manuka ACT
Photo By Bidgee (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
AMONG THE CHURCHES
Monthly series of recitals
Sunday, April 7 (Palm Sunday), will see the first in a monthly series of choral and instrumental recitals at St Paul's Anglican Church, Manuka.
This first recital will be presented by the Canberra Society of Singers under Hans Westerman, and will consist of two very different but very interesting works: Malcolm Williamson's 'Procession of Palms', and Haydn's 'Seven Last Words'.
The 'Procession of Palms' was published in 1962. It tells the story of Palm Sunday in a series of well-known hymns whose words are set in modern dance rhythm style.
Haydn's 'Seven Last Words' or, to give it its full title, the 'Seven Words of our Saviour on the Cross', was originally a set of seven instrumental sonatas, written in 1785 for the Cathedral of Cadiz in Spain.
In 1796 Haydn added choruses and vocal solos and a Largo for wind instruments.
The work is often given without the instrumental passages, and it is in this form that the Society of Singers will present it. The organ accompaniment for both works will be played by Canon L. M. Murchison.
Other choirs to give recitals in this series include the ANU Choral Society, the St Paul's Choir and the University Consort, and there will be a programme by solo singers and instrumentalists.
All recitals will be on Sunday afternoons at approximately monthly intervals commencing at 3pm, and admission will be by programme at the door.
The recitals are being given in aid of the St. Paul's Organ Fund.
Source: AMONG THE CHURCHES Monthly series of recitals. (1968, March 30). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 13. Retrieved May 16, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107044295
These recitals coincide with my undergraduate membership of SCUNA, and I sang in all of them. I was also, along with SCUNA members Janet Allan (now Healey) and Susan Barker (now Forster), Judith Clingan, Geoffrey Brennan, John Aitchison, and Julian Brown, a member of the choir of St Paul's in those days.
In a 2002 article for the Organ Historical Trust of Australia, Christopher Erskine, organist at St Paul's, writes:
Above the choir stalls on each side were platforms for the eventual erection of a fine pipe organ.
In the early 1960s John Barrett became organist and choirmaster. He set about putting that pipe organ together. A new organ was far beyond the financial reach of the parish. With the help of organ builder Anthony Welby he scoured the countryside for discarded ranks from organs being rebuilt or demolished. Legend says that one rank was found on a rubbish tip, while another rank in the organ comes from no less than three previous organs.
By 1972 he had enough pipes and the necessary blowers and chests to inaugurate a small three manual pipe organ.
This could explain why SCUNA's participation ceased in 1971.
As it happens, a new 2000-pipe organ "that's been 40 years in the making" was announced in the Canberra Times on 27 November 2012.
