Music
O Praise God in His holiness
Our church choir is a mixed four-part, robed choir singing music ranging from ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway’ (an anonymous Tudor anthem, setting the words of Philippians 4v4-7) and William Byrd (Ave Verum) through Stanford, Tchaikovsky and Elgar to choral music written by our own Director of Music David Pimm ‘We have come to the Holy Mount Zion’ (based on Hebrews 12:18-24). We typically have around 18 singers.
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The primary role of the choir is to lead the worship of the church at St James, through congregational hymns, psalms and canticles, service settings and anthems from the rich Anglican choral tradition and beyond. Choral evensong each Sunday evening is one of the gems of choral artistry, praising God using the liturgy from Cranmer’s prayer book (originally from 1549) and music from the treasure trove of Anglican chant, church anthems settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and hymnody, to praise God together in ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’.
Choir practices are usually from 7:30 to 8:45pm on Friday evenings in the church (access via the vestry door in Bodley Road near the junction with Malden Road). Most of our choir sing regularly on both Sunday mornings (9:30am rehearsal for 10:00am service) and Sunday evenings (6:00pm rehearsal for 6:30pm service).
Christmas, Easter and other festivals and our expanded choir
Around five or six times per year, our choir at evening service is expanded to around 30 singers. This is typically for our:
- Advent Carol Service
- Christmas Carol Service
- Passion Service just before Easter
- Special Summer choral evensong
- Harvest festival
If you would like to be added to our list of occasional singers to hear of upcoming opportunities, please contact our Director of Music, David Pimm at music@stjamesmalden.org.
The regular choir is always busy across the Christmas and Holy Week/Easter periods leading and enriching our worship across the programme of services.
[Insert Picture of Advent choir by candle-light here]
The organ
The organ supports much of our singing, although the choir also often sings unaccompanied. It was rebuilt by Peter Wood in 1994 using pipes dating back to Bryceson (1894) and Speechly & Son (1933). It is in good working order and has a versatile and colourful range of pipework.
It is used for voluntaries before and after most services, with music ranging from William Byrd to Handel and, of course JS Bach, through the Romantic repertoire (Widor, Mendelssohn, Gigout etc) to the occasional more modern item (Kenneth Leighton, Philip Moore etc)
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Joining the choir
Membership of the choir is open to singers aged 8 or over who have the ability to sing and the enthusiasm to learn to sing better. Because of the large range of varied repertoire that we sing week by week, a short audition is required for those wishing to join. This is designed to see that you can sing differing pitches and to check out which part will suit the range of your voice best. For Altos, Tenors and Basses some ability to read music is required to keep up with the range of music we sing. Training can be provided to help develop your skills.
Training is provided for the ‘Voice for Life’ graded medals of the Royal School of Church Music, especially targeted for our youngsters.
If you would like to join the choir, please contact our Director of Music David Pimm, ARCO via music@stjamesmalden.org or say hello at after a service or just come along to a Friday choir practice at around 7:25pm and introduce yourself.
The choir does not meet or sing at services during August.
[Insert Picture of choir at Remembrance Sunday service at War memorial]