Everything's Up To Date In Stondon Massey ...

“Everything’s up to date in Stondon Massey

They gone about as far as they can go”

In 2008 Stondon Church hosted a local history and music production called ‘Through Changing Scenes’. One of the items sung was a parody on lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein called ‘Everything’s up to date in Kansas City’. So it seems an irony that the William Byrd Festival should receive recognition from a church in Kansas City.

In drawing the inaugural William Byrd Festival to a close it seems appropriate to say ‘Everything’s up to date at Stondon Massey’ but to suggest that ‘They gone about as far as they can go’ may not be the case.

The Festival has shown that whilst William Byrd’s music is something of a niche market, and ambitious for a small church to host two weekends of fund raising based almost exclusively on his life and music, there is sufficient interest to fill a church three times over for concerts and secure a web readership around the world, particularly in America.

Many people commented during the Festival that insufficient prominence has been given to Byrd and that Stondon Massey in Essex should make more of its connections. The William Byrd Festival has helped the process but also highlighted to a wider public that the village where he lived is still alive and well though welcomes support to maintain its church and immediate surroundings.

Financially the William Byrd Festival has been successful too in that it has secured enough money for the Garden of Remembrance to be built in St Peter & St Paul’s churchyard.

... and we were pleased to learn that the Choir of Westminster Abbey sung Byrd's 'Justorum Animae' when Barack Obama, the President of America, laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown warrior (yesterday, Tuesday 24 May 2011) as part of his state visit to the United Kingdom.

Our small Committee meets tonight to decide where to go from here.

This site will remain open to bring news of future Byrd related events and to receive your comments.

For our small village where the great composer lived for about thirty years until his death in 1623, we can “claim Byrd for our own”.

Festival Highlighted in Exeter

Luch Càise-Dearg has been following with interest the William Byrd Festival here in Essex. The Exeter community station, Phonic FM, broadcasts a programme of classical music, moving from early to modern, almost every Tuesday morning from 10.00am to noon. It called appropriately ‘Classical Journey’. At the top of both shows 10 & 17 May our great composer has been featured with the playlist on the show’s blog. For more see http://classicaljourneyphonic.blogspot.com/2011/05/classical-journey-tuesday-10-may.html and http://classicaljourneyphonic.blogspot.com/2011/05/classical-journey-tuesday-17-may.html

For more about Phonic FM visit http://www.phonic.fm/2009/03/16/classical-journey/

We love the cute picture!

William Byrd Festival Comments

The Festival itself

“I just wanted to say many congratulations on The William Byrd Festival. Had no idea what to expect last Saturday evening having not heard any of his music - well, at least not recognising it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Regards J.”

Stondon Singers & Richard Turbet

“Excellent concert last Saturday!! Not only was the music very good but the organization was faultless. The format was relaxed and the lecturer seemed much at home. We cannot remember hearing the Stondon Singers before but we would be very happy to hear again. Altogether a very enjoyable local evening. R.”

“You and your team have done a first class job of organising and managing the festival. Congratulations! I know that I am not the only one who has very much enjoyed it. I found Richard's talk very interesting, and I had the pleasure of chatting to him. I feel confident that next week end will be as good as this one has been. M.”

Writtle Singers

“We really enjoyed the Byrd Concert last night - the Writtle Singers were excellent in every way and a delight to listen to. It showed just how uplifting people in the 17th C found singing in Church. The reader was also very clear and informative and it was good to connect the events of Byrd's life with the music.” L & P

"William Byrd: Every Man Should Learne To Sing" in Pictures

Bells at St Peter and St Paul summon those to church to a celebration of favourite hymn-singing.

Once again the church is candlelit.

The congregation sing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'

Anthea Gray, our Reader, leads the Service.

The Service was repeated at the Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore at 11.00am (15 May). John Hatt plays 'Monsieurs Alman' by William Byrd on the organ.

"William Byrd: Loyal Heart or Traitor?" in Pictures

The Writtle Singers with Christine Gwynn (left) just before their production 'William Byrd: Loyal Heart or Traitor?' (14 May 2011).

The audience arrive

Candlelit church provides a lovely atmosphere for music by Stondon's composer, William Byrd (c.1540 - 1623)

The event was a narrative interspersed with Byrd song.

Interval refreshments. Many of the audience enjoy their wine and nibbles in the churchyard.

Festival Organiser and Master of Ceremonies Andrew Smith at the end of the production quotes from William Byrd's Will: "... that I may live and die a true and perfect member of His holy Catholic Church without which I believe there is no salvation for me. My body to be honestly buried in that parish and place where it shall please God to take me out of this life which I humbly desire if it shall please God may be in the parish of Stondon where my dwelling is ... "

William Byrd Festival Gains International Reputation: Press Release

Stondon Massey’s tribute to the Elizabethan composer, William Byrd, culminated last weekend with a concert by the Writtle Singers (photographed) at St Peter and St Paul Church (Saturday) and service of favourite hymns (Sunday).

The William Byrd Festival was organised by members of the congregation in order to raise money in support of the building of a new Garden of Remembrance in the churchyard where Byrd is believed to have been buried in an unmarked grave in 1623.

Last week one of the congregation visited the church in order to set up the space for a choir rehearsal to find affixed to the door a bunch of flowers with a request to place them on the grave of the ‘English composer’. The flowers were sent by well-wishers from ‘Tom Garrison and the Trinity Choir’ which following a little Internet research turned out to be the Episcopal Cathedral in Kansas City over in the United States of America.

Festival Organiser, Andrew Smith, said, “This was a lovely surprise. We were not able to place the flowers on an unmarked grave so instead decided to arrange them on the Memorial Tablet to the great composer inside the church. Our Festival website (www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com) shows that William Byrd is very popular in America with over a third of the hits coming from that country. We have received goodwill messages from many and some lovely comments on the singers who appeared at the Festival”.

“The William Byrd Festival has been a tremendous success, both in raising Byrd’s profile and financially. We have raised £2200 toward the Garden of Remembrance project”.

Mission Impossible

Last Thursday (12 May) a church member called at the church to set things up for Writtle Singers rehearsal. Affixed to the church door was a bunch of flowers with the following note -

"Please place these flowers on the grave of William Byrd, English composer. From Tom Garrison and Trinity Choir".

William Byrd was buried, to the best of our knowledge, in Stondon Massey churchyard in an unmarked grave.

The unexpected gift came from, it turns out, the Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Kansas City, Missouri, United States.

We found their website and sent the Priest in Charge a note of thanks saying that the flowers would be placed near to the memorial tablet on the south wall of the church. Reference was made to the gift at the beginning of the Writtle Singers concert on Saturday (14 May).

The flowers are lisianthus - perhaps a pun on Elizabeth: 'O Lord Make Thy Servant Elizabeth' being one of Byrd's anthems.

"William Byrd BCP Matins Service" in Pictures

John Hatt conducts our church music group, Jubilate, in the singing of

Thomas Tallis's 'If Ye Love Me'

"William Byrd: His Essex Years" in Pictures

Stondon Singers with Richard Turbet (centre) photographed at St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, Essex, just before the matinee performance of 'William Byrd: His Essex Years'

Lord Petre was in the audience at 4.00pm

Atmospheric candlelit scene during the evening performance.

Appreciative audience hear The Stondon Singers under their conductor Christopher Tinker

First Performance of Byrd's Jubilate

Stondon Massey’s inaugural William Byrd Festival claimed a first last week with a performance of the Byrd piece not heard for over 200 years. At the lecture / recital entitled ‘William Byrd: His Essex Years’, the Stondon Singers performed ‘Jubilate’, thanks to the research of speaker and early music expert Richard Turbet (photographed), who co-presented the event.

Byrd enthusiasts may know that nowhere in his repertoire is there a piece called ‘Jubilate’, which is the shorter canticle to the Benedictus in the Book of Common Prayer Matins service.

Richard Turbet said, “Jubilate is an arrangement, or musically an abridgment, of the Benedictus from Byrd's Short Service, made by Robert Shenton (1730-98), dean's vicar in the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, from 1757.

“The sole source for this arrangement is a manuscript in Durham Cathedral Library, copied by John Matthews while a stipendiary of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Matthews sent the manuscript to Durham Cathedral in 1777. The following year he was appointed a vicar choral there.

This version must have shared a place with the ‘Great Service’ discovered at the Cathedral by Edmund Fellowes, “Byrd’s cheer leader” in the early 1920s.

Richard added, “I am confident that the performance of Byrd's so-called Jubilate was a coup for the Festival, especially for those at the matinee [4pm performance on 7 May 2011], and the first in over two centuries. The publisher told me that the Stondon Singers were the first choir to purchase a job lot since he had published it.”