Albert Shaun Hird during his flute solo.
-Winston Sill photoMichael Reckord, Contributor
THE POWER of music was both extolled and demonstrated at the Kingston Parish Church on Sunday. The occasion was the 48th Annual Choral Festival Service in honour of St. Cecelia, the patron saint of music, given by the St Andrew Singers. Rev. Fr. Leon Golding, Rector of the old church (gravestones in and around which date back to the 1700s), spoke about music, while a score of musicians and singers delighted the congregation with varied musical performances.
Providing accompaniment for the performers were St Andrew Singers Musical Director Lloyd Hall, who played both the organ and piano, and organist Dwight McBean. The Festival Service took the form of a regular church service, into which music by the Singers and their guests was partially integrated, and a discreet "musical recital" segment. The processional hymn Praise My Soul the King of Heaven, which opened the service, provided the first of several opportunities for the congregation to join with the St Andrew Singers in song. Other hymns did the same.
Most of the time, though, the congregation became an audience and just listened to beautiful music. Early instances in which that happened were the robust singing by the guest choir of the Beethoven anthem The Heavens Abound and a solo by Deidre Poyser of Mendelssohn's O Rest in the Lord. Before the recital segment, Fr. Golding addressed the congregation on the question "how is the music of today enhancing the cause of Christ?"
From the informative discourse more a talk than a sermon the audience learnt that St Cecelia, a Roman citizen and the patron saint of music and musicians (from the fifteenth century), lived in the second century and risked death by allowing worship at her house. She is believed to have led both her husband and brother into the church. All three later suffered martyrdom for their faith. Fr. Golding challenged his listeners, musical directors, choirmasters and musicians in general to use music to start a revolution in the society, to change it to a community of love. The 40-minute recital segment, entitled 'In Praise of Music', began with the St. Andrew Singers' rendition of two pieces by Bach, Zion Hears Her Watchmen's Voices and Glory Now to Thee Be Given.
Though the singers were in good voice, they were more than a little overpowered by the sonorous and beautifully-played organ. This happened again later, with the solemn, subdued Beethoven work Come to Me and in the gentle, melodious In a Monastery Garden (Ketelby). The other performers did not, happily, suffer that fate. Hall on piano accompanied Jamaica Defence Force trumpeter Thomas Braidy as he played the plaintive solo Una Furtive Lagrima (Bonizeti) and the cheerful, catchy Scorrendo Uniti Remota Via (Verdi). Hall was on a soft organ as he accompanied Albert Shaun Hird with two delightful flute solos.
First was Malacchi's Theme Variations with its fluttery, bird-like notes, then the sublime Bach-Gounod Ave Maria. The third guest instrumentalist, Dennis Laing (who, like Hird and Braidy, is with the JDF), played two coronet solos, one being another equally heavenly Ave Maria (Schubert's) and the other, Handel's earthier Largo.
The second soprano soloist for the evening was Velia Espeut, whose beautiful voice and presence utterly charmed the audience as she sang the spirituals Balm in Gilead and Ride on King Jesus. (There was probably no causal connection between the events, no question of her being "overcome" by Mrs. Espeut's singing, but an elderly member of the audience fainted during the performance. She was soon revived and taken to a waiting car.) The enthusiastic applause the performers received when they all took their bows was well deserved.
