Review

Summer 1999 - Easter 2000

The Schola has maintained its schedule of duties, such as providing the music for both the weekly lower school mass and singing frequently for the Vigil Mass at Our Lady of Victories, as well as taking on an increasing number of external engagements – this has been a busy year. In March 1999 the Schola sang for a special Mass at Our Lady of Victories marking a rare visit of the International Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Later in the term the Choir took part in the Easter Concert singing works by Lassus, Dupré and Gounod. The Summer Term was overshadowed by the death of the late Cardinal Basil Hume. A month before he died, the Schola sang at one of his last public appearances – the Confirmation Mass at Our Lady of Victories – the boys were very much aware of the significance of this service and the privilege that it represented. The Schola sang the Vigil Mass at Westminster Cathedral soon afterwards, and was later invited to sing a charity concert at Holy Cross, Parsons Green which raised over £3000 for Kosovo through Cafod.

The Schola’s single biggest project of the year dominated the end of the term – this was the recording of Praise to the Holiest, the sequel to the Schola’s first CD Firmly I believe. The CD has been dedicated to the memory of the Late Cardinal. Many rehearsals took place and much work went into learning harmony and original descants to the hymns. One particular hymn caused problems, because the music could not be found anywhere. So the Headmaster dictated the tune to the Director of the Schola, who wrote it out and harmonised it 24 hours before it was recorded. The recording sessions took place at Our Lady of Victories on three consecutive evenings, each taking 3 hours. The experience for the boys was a very gruelling one, made harder by the unforgiving humid heat. But on the fourth day they were duly rewarded by a trip to Chessington World of Adventure.

The Michaelmas Term’s engagements included events which have become regular, such as the Mass for the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom at Warwick Street and the annual visit to Nazareth House to sing Mass and carols for the sick and retired clergy of the Diocese. An unusual event was the provision of carols at a charity evening hosted by the Richmond Fellowship. The event was held at Peacock House, which is the green and blue-tiled building just a short distance down Addison Road from the Vaughan, and gave us a chance to see the extraordinary architecture inside this eccentric building. Two major services at Our Lady of Victories completed the pre-millennium diary, one being the Foundation Day Mass, and the other, without doubt the climax of the term, was the Carol Service. The service began with a candle-lit procession in darkness, before the Schola joined forces with the Brass Ensemble in some spectacular arrangements of the congregational Carols. A string-quartet provided a less bombastic accompaniment to the beautiful In the bleak midwinter.

At the Easter Concert, the Schola sang two extremely ambitious works – Lotti’s Crucifixus and the famous Allegri Miserere. Both of these works are scored for multiple parts, and the Allegri divides into as many as nine. The success of the performance was a huge achievement, representing a new peak in the expanding repertoire of the choir. The soloists in the Allegri, who sang the celebrated top Cs with such bottle and gumption were a great credit both to themselves and to the Schola.