In the Church of England, a choral service is a service with intoned responses, and the use of music throughout wherever it is authorized. The service is said to be partly choral when only canticles, hymns, etc, are sung and wholly choral, when, in addition to these, the versicles, responses, etc, are also sung. Research Choral Service
A Canon is a church dignitary who possesses a prebend, or revenue allotted for the performance of divine service in a cathedral or collegiate church. Canons were formerly divided into canons regular, or those living a monastic life, and canons secular, those not so living. In England, besides the ordinary canons - who with the dean form the chapter - there are honorary canons and minor canons; the latter assist in the daily choral service of the cathedral. Of course these are all secular. Research Canon
Charles Francois Gounod was a French composer. He was born in 1818 at Paris and died in 1893.
He studied at the Conservatoire under Jacques Halevy, Lesueur, and Pauer, and afterwards in Italy. His first important work was Faust (produced in 1859), which raised him to a high rank among composers. Other operas followed, among which are Mireille (1864), Romeo et Juliette, Cinq Mars (1877), and Polyeucete (1878). He wrote also a Messe Solennelle, a motet Gallia, and other choral works and songs; oratorios Redemption (1882), Mors et Vita (1885), and a Mass for the Jeanne D'Aro festival (1887). Research Charles Gounod
Arthur Goring Thomas was a British composer. He was born in1850 near Eastbourne and died in 1892. He studied music in Paris under Durand between 1874 and 1876, and under Sullivan and Prout at the Royal Academy of Music, between 1877 and 1880. His operas include Esmeralda, produced at Covent Garden in 1883; Nadeshda produced in 1885; and the comic opera. The Golden Web, posthumously produced in 1893. His choralode, The Sun Worshippers, was first performed in 1881, and his lyric gift was well displayed in a number of successful songs. Thomas suffered from melancholia, and committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train in London on March the 20th 1892. A scholarship bearing his name was founded at the Royal Academy of Music in 1892. Research Goring Thomas
Johannes Brahms was a German composer. He was born in 1833 at Hamburg and died in 1897. The son of a musician, he made a position for himself as composer and pianist at an early age, and his musical compositions received the approval of Liszt and Schumann. The greater part of his life was spent at Vienna, and was entirely devoted to composition. His works are very numerous, and belong to several different classes, but include no operas, though two overtures are among them. They comprise three hundred solo songs, a number of sacred and secular choral works, concerted vocal works, orchestral works, chamber music, pianoforte solos, Hungarian dances arranged as duets for the piano, etc. Brahms ranks among musicians as a classicist, and is now admitted to be one of the great musicians of Germany. Research Johannes Brahms
Sir Joseph Barnby was an English musician. He was born in 1838 at York and died in 1896. In 1838 he entered the Minsterchoir and in 1854 went to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is best known for forming the Barnby's Choir in 1867 which evolved into the Royal Choral Society. Research Joseph Barnby
A cathedral is the principal church of a diocese, so called from its possessing the episcopal chair or cathedra. This is really what distinguishes a cathedral from other churches, though most cathedrals are also larger and more elaborate structures than ordinary churches, and have various dignitaries and functionaries connected with them.
The cathedral establishments in England regularly consist of a dean and chapter, presided over by the bishop, the chapter being composed of a certain number of canons. The dean and chapter meet in the chapter-house of the cathedral; in them the property of the cathedral is vested, and they nominally elect the bishop on a conge d'elire from the crown. There are often a certain number of honorary canons, also 'minor canons' who assist in the performance of the choral services, choristers, etc.
As regards architecture cathedrals naturally vary much. Those in England are almost all in the Gothic style, cruciform or cross-shaped in arrangement, and having connected with them a chapter-house, side chapels (varying in number and position), cloisters, crypt, etc. This style and arrangement are also common on the continent of Europe, and in most modern cathedrals; but the Romanesque, Renaissance, and Byzantine styles of architecture are also employed. Many cathedrals furnish the most magnificent examples of the architecture of the middle ages; and as they were intended to accommodate great numbers of people, and to exhibit imposing religious services, they are often of great size. Among the most notable cathedrals are St Peter's, the largest of all, founded in 1450; the cathedral at Milan, founded in 1386, built of white marble; the cathedral at Florence, begun about 1294, one of the finest specimens of the Italian-Gothic style; Cologne Cathedral, commenced in 1248 (and only finished in the 19th century); Notre Dame, at Paris, begun in 1163; and those of Amiens, Chartres, and Rheims. The most noteworthy English cathedrals are St Paul's, London (1675-1711), in the Renaissance style, and those of Canterbury, Ely, Exeter, Lichfield, Lincoln, Norwich, Salisbury, Wells, Westminster, and York. The cathedrals of Glasgow and Kirkwall are the only entire cathedrals in Scotland, exclusive of modern edifices. Research Cathedral
A chant is a short and simple musical melody, divided into two parts by double bars, to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited. It is the most ancient form of choral music. Research Chant
Abbreviations
Research Choral Service
