Over the last quarter of a century they have gone from strength to strength, adding their voices to an exciting and vibrant community of music-making at the Cathedral and beyond. Their founding director, Sarah Baldock, is now Director of Music at Winchester College, and through her we are developing a strong partnership with the College and girls in their newly co-ed Sixth Form.
For our 25th anniversary celebrations, we will be joined by former choristers for a special Evensong on Sunday 5th May (3.30pm followed by fizz and cake; all are welcome!) at which we will give thanks for our musicians’ talents, diversity and the beauty which they bring to our worship. We will also premiere two newly commissioned pieces of music, composed especially for the occasion by Simon Lole and Kerensa Briggs. Simon Lole’s new work for upper voices weaves the text of Psalm 131 with the Chorister’s Prayer, offering up our musical gifts to God and asking that our words may be reflected in our daily lives.
The other new work, with which we will open the celebration service, is a setting of the prayer O nata lux composed by Kerensa Briggs. Her music has been described as ‘poignant, ambivalent [and] quietly devastating’ by the New York Times. Being the first to perform a new piece is always exciting, but even more so knowing that we are adding to the ever-expanding repertoire of choral music by woman composers.
Amongst the music by woman composers which the girls have explored recently are a dark and sultry setting of Pie Jesu by Lili Boulanger—the first ever female recipient of the coveted composition prize, the Prix de Rome in 1913—and an harmonically challenging but rewarding setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Judith Weir, the current Master of the King’s Music and the first woman to hold the position.
There is also a wealth of organ music written by women to discover. Before Christmas, I enjoyed collaborating with students from the University of Winchester to record a number of organ pieces for use in their coursework. A particular favourite of mine is this ethereal meditation on the plainsong melody Lumen ad revelationem gentium composed in 2021 by Grace Evangeline Mason entitled Light, Revealing*. Grace was named BBC Young Composer of the Year in 2013 and her music was featured at the BBC Proms in 2021.
Though the world of cathedral music has traditionally been dominated by men, the number of girls and women involved in creating this glorious music is higher than ever before. Almost every cathedral in the country now has a girls’ choir or a mixed treble line, and more and more girls are learning the organ and pursuing it as a career. It is a great privilege to part of a musical and spiritual tradition stretching back over 1,000 years. We all have our special part to play in shaping it for the future.
*Recorded in November 2023 by Claudia Grinnell and produced by Samuel Williams.
Images: Jim Pascoe
