|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This Church was performed on Saturday 15th February 2003 at 7.30 pm in St Mary's
This Church is essentially about people.
The piece is not liturgical, nor is it an architectural
guidebook set to music. It's more like a TV-documentary.
Significantly it opens with Saint Hildegard's 12th century words about the Virgin Mary as mother, praising her as healer and pacifier, in a manner hovering between ornate Arabic folksong (where was Christ born?) and plainsong (what does Church music sound like in 1103?). Saint Mary (harbour-guardian) also re-appears as Christ's servant, searching her own soul for deeper meanings to life, in music derived from J.S. Bach (what does religious music generally sound like?). Philip de Braose and the agents of both the Reformation and Civil War cross this canvas before we find ourselves in the present building, pondering the great storm of 1703 (was it this or previous events that robbed us of the nave of this church?).
St Mary's in 1782, from a watercolour by S.H. Grimm, showing collapsed nave
Photograph in Marlipins Museum; original watercolour in British Library
Significantly it opens with Saint Hildegard's 12th century words about the Virgin Mary as mother, praising her as healer and pacifier, in a manner hovering between ornate Arabic folksong (where was Christ born?) and plainsong (what does Church music sound like in 1103?). Saint Mary (harbour-guardian) also re-appears as Christ's servant, searching her own soul for deeper meanings to life, in music derived from J.S. Bach (what does religious music generally sound like?). Philip de Braose and the agents of both the Reformation and Civil War cross this canvas before we find ourselves in the present building, pondering the great storm of 1703 (was it this or previous events that robbed us of the nave of this church?).
St Mary's in 1782, from a watercolour by S.H. Grimm, showing collapsed nave
Photograph in Marlipins Museum; original watercolour in British Library
A church school is proposed, the vicar is accused
of misdemeanours, and threatened with prosecution, John Wesley confesses
his own crisis of faith. We enter a more archeologically curious
age, and during the 1850s fellows of the Royal Institute probe about
and make grand pronouncements. Poets visit the South Coast and wax
lyrical. A Melanesian mission is set up, and letters are sent from exotic
climes. Two world wars follow in quick succession, raising some disquieting
questions about God's will and mankind's future.
Present parishioners and visitors to the church tell us of their responses to it: marriages, peaceful lunch-breaks, flower arranging, a link to the past, a symbol of something sacred and special.
Present parishioners and visitors to the church tell us of their responses to it: marriages, peaceful lunch-breaks, flower arranging, a link to the past, a symbol of something sacred and special.
Michael Finnissy
Composer of This Church
Composer of This Church