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We have begun the new school year with a Senior Choir of 90 voices- 33 males and 57 females. It is a large group and the sound is huge. Our first Mass on September 6 at Assumption Church demonstrated both our size and our sound. The opening hymn for the Mass was 'All People that on Earth do Dwell'. The last verse of this hymn has a special arrangement composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams - written specially for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey. The piece called for the Abbey pipe organ, the Abbey choir, the London Symphony Orchestra and "all available trumpets." These last three words were hastily scrawled on the score by Vaughan Williams himself. The result is an awe-inspiring finale to the hymn. Assumption Church is hardly Westminster Abbey, but I think we managed to lift the roof maybe a couple of inches higher. With all of our Schola students present, and a large congregation, the church was full. A great start to the year. Malcolm V. Edwards Comments are closed.
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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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