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Musical direction


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Introduction
Getting started
Sacred Music Studies
Arundel Cathedral
Other performance

Introduction

Musical direction is much more than conducting, just as animation is more than being a cantor or precentor.

In a church context it includes the following:

All this has to be underpinned by

Key to all of the above is the ability to handle relationships well: between musicians and clergy, between members of your music group or choir, and with your fellow musicians. Respect and sensitivity are crucial: without them we are building on sand (cf. Luke 6:47-49).

Getting started
Sacred Music Studies

If you are interested in exploring these issues further then you might like to consider applying for the Certificate in Sacred Music Studies (a partnership between the RSCM and The University of Wales, Bangor).

This distance-learning programme, which explores Worship, Ministry and Music (both in itself and as used in worship), leads to a Certificate in Higher Education from the University of Wales.

As a modular course, it can be used as the first-year equivalent for undergraduate degrees at many UK universities.

Other courses specialising in Sacred Music Studies are available at Bangor, including the postgraduate diploma (with corresponding LRSCM), MA and PhD.
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Arundel Cathedral

Alistair Warwick directing the choir in front of the William Hill organ at Arundel Cathedral

Alistair Warwick was Director of Music and Master of the Choristers at Arundel Cathedral from 1992 to 2002, succeeding Philip Taylor, Stephen Dean and Catherine Christmas.

Invited personally to apply for the post by Bishop Cormac Murphy O'Connor (now Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster), he built up both the reputation and the competence of the Cathedral Choir, mainly by the introduction of boy and girl choristers in 1994 – making Arundel one of the first cathedrals in England to have girl choristers.

The reason for introducing girls? "I saw no reason to exclude girls from having the same opportunity as boys. Although in theory the introduction of girls to the top line can have a negative effect on boys' willingness to take part (and this could result in a loss of men to the tenor and bass sections), this need not be so in practice. Carefully managed, a balance of boys and girls can lead to the formation of good adult singers in all voice ranges – and surely this is of greater benefit in the long term for the church – and the wider community."

Part of the key to this success was the use of the Voice for Life scheme, part of the RSCM's innovative training programme for singers of all ages as a gift both to enhance life and to use throughout one's life. Certainly the scheme worked in Arundel, both generally for the choir, and for individuals: two boys were awarded scholarships to Westminster Cathedral Choir; another boy and two girls received music scholarships for other schools.

Balanced with a need to improve the standard of choral singing at the cathedral was a desire to enhance the cathedral liturgy with good congregational song. This was achieved by a development of the assembly's repertoire, a weekly order of service including typeset music parts for the assembly and selective rehearsal of new music to encourage belief in their collective voice.

The balance of singing by the entire assembly – together with the unique input of a cathedral choir – was experienced at its best in diocesan occasions such as the Rite of Election and Chrism Mass, and notably at the episcopal ordination of Arundel and Brighton's new bishop, Kieran Conry, on 9 June 2001. Ruth Gledhill's At Your Service in The Times gave the music a five-star rating – not that a liturgy should ever be judged by newspaper criticism of course! However, it was the weekly liturgy, Sunday by Sunday that was most important with faithful, committed attendance and participation by the whole assembly.
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Other performance
Alistair Warwick directing from the harpsichord

A significant part of Alistair Warwick's freelance work has been in performance, both as conductor and as piano and organ soloist.

Performance

* directed from organ/harpsichord

Rehearsal

^ both choral and orchestral rehearsals

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