Southwark: St George's Cathedral Choirs release much-loved hymns

Image: Archdiocese of Southwark

Source: Archdiocese of Southwark

St George's Cathedral in Southwark, has released a series of video recordings of much loved hymns, performed by the various Cathedral choirs, together with two organ pieces.

Among the St George's Cathedral choirs - led by Jonathan Schranz, who has been Director of Music since 2019, is the Southwark Singing Programme. This choir is made up of children from primary schools across south London and Kent and aims to develop a passion for music in Catholic Schools, part of the National Schools Singing Programme.

Children from the Southwark Singing Programme sang a range of hymns, including The Power of the Cross and In Christ Alone.

The main Cathedral Choir is made up of boys and girl choristers aged 7 to 12 along with nine professional singers known as Lay Clerks. The choir performed hymns such as Ave Verum Corpus, Tantum Ergo and Forty Days and Forty Nights.

The Cathedral Lay Clerks also recorded Gregorian chants including Veni Creator Spiritus and In Splendoribus Sanctorum, as well as Allegri's famous Miserere mei, Deus.

Jonathan Schranz said: "The Church's musical tradition is a treasure of inestimable value, and musicians have a duty to preserve this great tradition. In our own way, in Southwark, we are privileged to be able to use our voices to direct hearts and minds upwards on a weekly basis through liturgical singing.

"We are delighted to release these recordings and hope people enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoyed performing. While we've included many beloved hymns, we've also added some which may be less known but are wonderful pieces of divine worship.

"It was a particular joy to work with children from our archdiocesan schools on these recordings. The passion the children have for singing and music is one we should not only embrace, but fervently encourage."

The full set of recordings are available on the Archdiocese of Southwark's YouTube channel. As well as being promoted on social media, the performances will be shared with schools and parishes to encourage the use of music as a form of worship and prayer.

The Cathedral Choir sings at the Sunday morning 12noon Solemn Mass, and on major events of the year, such as Advent, Christmas, Holy Week and Easter.

The Cathedral Choir is also actively recruiting new schools to join its Schools Programme. To apply, see link below.

The schools who took part in the recording of In Christ Alone, The Power of the Cross, Soul of my Saviour and 10,000 reasons are:
St Francis RC Primary School, Peckham,
Saint Joseph's Catholic Primary School, the Borough;
St Stephen's Catholic Primary School, Welling
St George's Cathedral Primary School, Southwark
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Rotherhithe
St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, Erith
St Peter and St Paul Catholic Primary Academy, Orpington

LINKS

All the recordings are available on St George's Cathedral YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@RCSouthwark1

The Choirs are always looking for boys and girls aged 7 to 18 to join. To apply, visit their website: www.stgeorgescathedral.org.uk/music/join-the-choir/

The Southwark Singing Programme is also actively recruiting new schools See: www.stgeorgescathedral.org.uk/music/southwark-singing-programme/

National Schools Singing Programme: www.nssp.org.uk/