Video recordings of popular church music have been released by St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, performed by the various cathedral choirs, together with two organ pieces.
The St George’s Cathedral choirs, led by Jonathan Schranz, who has been director of music since 2019, include the main cathedral choir, made up of boys and girl choristers aged seven to 12 along with nine professional singers known as lay clerks.
The choir performs works 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 Miserere mei, Deus. The cathedral choir sings at the Sunday morning Solemn Mass at noon.
Another choir is from the Southwark singing programme, part of the National Schools Singing Programme. This choir is made up of children from primary schools across south London and Kent who it is hoped will develop a love of music in Catholic schools.
Children from Southwark sing a range of hymns, including The Power of the Cross, In Christ Alone and 10,000 Reasons. Catholic primary schools in Peckham, Borough, Welling, Southwark, Rotherhithe, Erith and Orpington were among those involved.
“The Church's musical tradition is a treasure of inestimable value, and musicians have a duty to preserve this great tradition,” said Jonathan Schranz. “We are delighted to release these recordings and hope people enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoyed performing.” He added: “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 recordings are available on the Archdiocese of Southwark’s YouTube channel and are being shared with schools and parishes to encourage the use of music as a form of worship and prayer.
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