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Over the last couple of months the Senior Choir has learned and performed a short motet called 'Laudate Nomen'(Praise the Name). The work is by Christpher Tye (1505-1571). Tye attained a music degree from Cambridge University in 1537 -again, astonishing to realize that universities such as Oxford and Cambridge were fully functioning that long ago. He then became the choir master at Ely Cathedral -a beautiful church in the county of Norfolk. It is more than likely that his choir in Ely sung 'Laudate Nomen' a number of times during his tenure at the church. However, Tye soon relinquished his musical role and turned to the priesthood -and he was ordained as a priest in 1561. Very little of his music remains.
I mention this only to draw attention to the miracle of musical notation. We are only able to sing Tye's piece in 2024 because he wrote it down. In other words, our students in Calgary were able to gain access to what, originally, was a product of Tye's brain from five hundred years ago. This is the power of musical literacy. It provides a gateway to the past, and an awareness and a link to that past. This is an extremely important part of any education in music - and one that SJCS does its best to uphold and to teach. Malcolm V. Edwards
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Malcolm EdwardsMalcolm Edwards was born in Halifax, England and emigrated to Canada in 1967. He is a graduate of Sheffield College of Education (UK), Trinity College of Music, London, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Montana and has done further graduate work at the University of Northern Colorado. He taught music in junior and senior high school for twelve years in southern Alberta before joining the University of Calgary as a Professor of Music Education in 1980. He retired from the university after thirty-one years of service in 2011. In the community he was affiliated with the Youth Singers of Calgary for 21 years directing the Act Three and Senior divisions. In his retirement, he is now employed as an Adjunct Professor of Music at St Mary’s University, as the Artistic Director of the Calgary Men’s Chorus and as the Senior Choir Director at St John’s Choir Schola. He has held leadership positions within the Alberta Choral Federation, the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, served on the Board of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is active as a choral adjudicator and workshop leader in schools and churches. He is the recipient of two awards from the Provincial Federation – one in recognition of advocacy in arts education and the second in recognition of exemplary service to choral music within the Province of Alberta. In 2004 he received recognition from the national body (ACCC) for twenty-five years of service to the Canadian choral community. Archives
November 2024
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