Members of the Choir, 2008
Members of the Choir, 2008
Director: Noel James Debien
Organist: Edward Theodore
Liturgical Music Scholars: Daniel Canaris, Elizabeth Williams
Soprano: Margaret Beirne, Rebecca Davies (Cantoris voice Leader), Wendy James, Sharon Johnson, Emma Johnston (Decani voice Leader), Helen Lee, Jola Masojade, Claire Pate, Jane Rawlings, Patricia Veness
Alto/Counter: Simone Degeling, Marie Freyne, Cecile Meehan, Simone Degeling (Decani voice Leader), Maggie Perrins (Decani voice Leader), Marie Upton, Rose-Anne Spaccavento, Francesca Urek (Cantoris voice Leader), Anna Marie White, Ann Ainslie-Wallace, Elizabeth Williams (liturgical music scholar 2008)
Tenor: Fran Boyle (A.M.), James Dixon, John Kinnear, Brendan McMullen (Decani voice Leader), Edmond Park (Cantoris voice Leader), Murray-Luke Peard (Decani voice Leader)
Bass: Daniel Canaris (liturgical music scholar 2008), Michael Dignan, Paul Dyer, Ben Lee, Denis Lee (Decani voice Leader, manager of Sitzproben), Michael Payne-Mulcahy, Rodney Smith (Cantoris voice Leader), Richard White
About St. Francis Choir
The Choir of St. Francis of Assisi, Paddington, is an active liturgical choir of men and women (SATB), with full membership of 40 voices.
The Choir sings at the 10.00 am Sung Mass on Sundays as well as major feasts and parish events e.g. weddings & funerals.
The choir's ministry is to assist our parish's worship by leading the congregation in the singing of responses, acclamations and hymns of the liturgy,
enhancing congregational music by way of harmonising, providing descants and singing choral music from the treasury of sacred music.
At St. Francis, we aim to make our liturgy the most beautiful expression of what we can offer in music and ceremony engaging our community
to lift their hearts and minds to God.
The choir exists very much in the context of a parish whose major outreach is the Come-in Centre for marginalised youth, and its offering in worship and prayer is united with the corporal works of mercy so fundamental to the Christian and Franciscan ethos.
Repertoire
The choral repertoire includes music from Gregorian Chant (including congregational
Gregorian Masses e.g. de Angelis, Orbis factor and Cum jubilo), polyphonic Mass parts and Motets by composers of the 16th and 17th Centuries
(e.g. Palestrina, Victoria, Tallis, Byrd), and later
composers such as Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Duruflé, and Fauré through to contemporary composers.
From time to time, the choir presents an orchestral Mass for such feasts as Easter Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King, Christmas Day. The following orchestral masses have been performed at St. Francis: