Tag: Wimborne Minster

A good week’s singing

Marianne Barton

Everyone appears to have had a good time during our week in Dorset, helped in no small way by good weather, enabling us to leave our umbrellas at home. It’s not much fun running through a churchyard in the pouring rain trying to keep music and evensong clothes dry.

Thirty singers (our absolute maximum) coped with a vast variety of musical styles and difficulties, taking everything in our stride from William Byrd to newly commissioned canticles by Philip Lawson (a wonderful addition to the repertoire). We enjoyed congenial accommodation at Bryanston School, pub meals, parties and each other’s company. We also had to contend with sharp organs, stuffy chancels, pews designed for small children and non-appearing clerics – all in the ‘service’ of Choral Evensong. Congregations were large and appreciative, and the teas provide by parish volunteers were sometimes so lavishly supplied with cake that we wondered if we would be able to sing afterwards!

Enormous thanks to all the churches that hosted us; to Pete Cook who headed up the Tour Team which knitted the itinerary together; and to our organist Sam Hanson who delivered exemplary service accompaniment as well as closing voluntaries of top recital quality. Above all, we must thank musical director Jeremy Jackman. His superb musicianship, skill, patience and humour, not to mention incredible descants, ensured we really did what we promise to do every year: bring high-quality cathedral-style Evensong to rural Dorset churches. See the 2025 Tour tab for the parishes we visited.

Planning for 2026 has already started.

Evensong tour kicks off

Marianne Barton

With our preliminary rehearsals behind us, singers in Laudemus!, with musical director Jeremy Jackman, are all set to begin the choir’s 2025 choral evensong tour of Dorset churches, starting Tuesday 12 August at the Church of the Holy Rood, Shillingstone at 6 pm.

Choral repertoire for the tour includes not only the introits, canticles and anthems listed on our 2025 tour page but also psalms, responses, final dismissals and hymns (complete with fauxbourdons and descants). Much of this additional music is specially composed for the choir by Jeremy, and we think he writes descants better than anyone else!

This year Laudemus! is proud to be giving the first performance of evening canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) commissioned by the choir from composer Philip Lawson. They will be included in evensong at Wimborne Minster on Saturday 16 August (6 pm).

Choral evensong has rightly been described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Anglican worship. We invite you to experience this for yourself as we offer a spiritual and musical feast to be appreciated by people of any faith or none.

Laudemus 2025 tour

Marianne Barton

Everything is now in place for our 35th tour to sing evensong in churches scattered around Dorset. Between Tuesday 12th and Saturday 16th August we will visit five different churches two of which (Shillingstone and Verwood) are new to us.

The full intinerary, with links to the churches and detail of the main pieces of music to be sung, can be found on the 2025 Tour page. Jeremy Jackman directs, with Sam Hanson coaxing beautiful sounds from organs of all shapes and sizes.

Music highlights for this summer

Marianne Barton

There will be two performances of note at the final evensong of this year’s tour.

In September, Wimborne Minster will mark the 1300th anniversary of the death of St Cuthburga, patron saint of the Minster Church, and Laudemus! will anticipate this commemoration during the final Evensong of the 2025 tour. The anthem on Saturday 16th August will be Jeremy Jackman’s In laudationem Cuthburgae (‘In praise of Cuthburga’), commissioned by Laudemus! in 2005 for the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Minster.

Earlier in the service, the choir will give the première of a new set of evening canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), also commissioned by Laudemus! from composer Philip Lawson (www.philiplawson.net). We hope very much that Philip can be present to hear the first performances of these pieces.

2025 tour details confirmed

Marianne Barton

All details are now in place for our 2025 tour to Dorset.

We will be visiting Shillingstone, Dorchester, Sturminster Marshall, Verwood (a first visit for Laudemus!) and Wimborne Minster. We will present the usual diverse mix of choral music, featuring composers from the 16th century right up to the present day, including a new commission (more about that in the next post).

For details of music and churches, please see the 2025 Tour Page.

Competition winners

Marianne Barton

We are delighted to announce the result of our Composition Competition. After much discussion amongst the adjudicators, it was decided to share the first prize between two contenders: David Harris for Hail, gladdening light and John Sturt for Te lucis ante terminum. Both pieces will have their first performance at Wimborne Minster at Evensong on Saturday 10 August 2024, when we hope to be able to present the winning composers with their prize. Both anthems will subsequently be published by the Royal School of Church Music.

More information here: http://www.laudemus.org.uk/about/composition-competition/

All in place for July!

Marianne Barton

Not only do we now have singers, delighted at the thought of singing again, but we also have places to sing! This year we look forward to a welcome at churches in Sturminster Newton – an old favourite; Milton Abbey – a repeat visit; Cranborne – not visited for some years;  Puddletown – a new experience; and – as ever – Wimborne Minster, dedicated to St Cuthburga who is celebrated in that evening’s anthem. You can find full details on our Tour page. Fervent hopes for no stalling in the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.

Were it not for Covid-19 . . .

Marianne Barton

. . . we would all, at this very moment (8.00pm Sunday) be about to take a break in our first rehearsal of the week at Bryanston School with Jeremy Jackman and Sam Hanson. So sad to think of the old friendships which will very likely not be renewed this year, and the new ones which won’t be forged. And so disappointing (if understandable) that amateur music making is still off limits – even outside – while professionals can now play and sing again, even if they are obliged to scratch their heads and wonder how best to conform with the safety strictures.

Thank you to Wimborne Minster who would have welcomed our al fresco Evensong had they been permitted to do so, and to Lesnes Abbey who were delighted by the suggestion that we might sing there.  Keep safe, everyone; remember all the good times from past Laudemus! weeks; and take care of your voices so that you still have one when we are all allowed to sing again.

Salvaging some singing

Marianne Barton

With fingers firmly crossed, we have come up with a plan to meet in Dorset and sing Evensong this summer, in spite of Covid-19. Just one service, unaccompanied and out of doors (now there’s a challenge!), to be sung in the north-east courtyard outside Wimborne Minster. Date will be between 22 and 25 July, depending on the weather forecast. Regular updates in this slot.