St John's Parish Church, New Alresford, Hampshire

Repertoire for Services

The congregation of St John the Baptist Church in New Alresford is extremely fortunate to have a choir of more than twenty five experienced and enthusiastic singers who are committed to their leadership of worship. For Festivals, ‘special’ services, and especially at Advent, Christmas and Easter, the choir is augmented by other local singers who wish to sing at the level provided by this choir. The repertoire is extensive, and continually expanding, and includes sacred music of all types. We use the best in church choral music, available to us, ranging from the sixteenth century to the present.

Hymns are chosen either from Hymns Ancient & Modern revised or from Mission Praise. In addition, we use anthems for Introits and have a regular anthem, sung towards the end of the administration of the communion. The choir is now using a newly-commissioned setting of the Eucharist, by Guy Scott Turner, for our Sunday Morning Communion. Psalms, sacred songs, traditional chants, and Taizé chants, are also used on appropriate occasions. At Choral Evensong services, we enjoy the challenge of longer anthems, sung responses, and more complex service settings. Simple choruses, well supported by the Church Band, are quite often used at second Sunday services and the choir is not used for these services.

During special times during the year the choir offers special musical events and performances of sacred music. For Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Eve, Easter Day, Ascension Day and also to celebrate particular festivals and to mark special days in the church’s calendar, we offer special music to match.

Sometimes, opportunities arise to offer solos to individuals in the choir, or other singers from the local area are used as ‘guest’ soloists. Also, from time to time, the choir seeks to work on larger scale works and then joins with other choirs. Our recent ventures have enabled us to sing with William Kendall in a moving performance of Britten′s St Nicholas, as well as performances of the Durruflé and Fauré Requiem Masses with guest soloists from Schola Cantorum of Oxford.

Since 2007, we have sung:

•	P. da Palestrina:	Missa brevis
•	J.S. Bach:	Passion According to St. Luke
•	G. Fauré:	Requiem Mass
•	M. Duruflé:	Requiem Mass
•	J.S. Bach:	Wachet Auf
•	B. Britten:	St. Nicholas
•	J. Rutter:	Magnificat
•	J. Stainer:	The Crucifixion
•	G.S. Turner:	Requiem Mass

Anthems sung at recent services have included:

•	Ives	O For A Closer Walk With God
•	Rachmaninoff	Bogoroditsye Dyevo
•	Stainer	How Beautiful Upon The Mountains
•	Fanshawe	The Lord’s Prayer
•	Bruckner	Christus Factus Est
•	Morley	Nolo Mortem
•	Byrd	Ave Verum Corpus
•	Monteverdi	Christe Adoramus Te
•	Chilcott	God So Loved the World and Be Thou My Vision
•	Shephard	Angel Voices, Arise, Shine and Out of the Stillness
•	Purcell	Remember, Remember Not Lord

We have a wide range of single-sheet anthems in our library, make good use of the “Sunday By Sunday” Collections, and we have full sets of the following anthologies:

•	Oxford Easy Anthem Book
•	New Oxford Church Anthem Book
•	Oxford Tudor Anthem Book
•	European Sacred Music
•	Bob Chilcott Anthems
•	Advent Sequence – Veni Emmanuel
•	A Passiontide Sequence - The Way Of The Cross

At Christmas, the choir presents a traditional Festival of Carols and Lessons, and at Christmas Eve sings a wide range of carols for the Midnight Mass. At Advent, we might offer an Advent Choral Service of Light or a musical work such as Rutter’s Magnificat or Britten’s St Nicholas.

For Lent and Easter, we select a wide variety of anthems for weekly worship. For the Good Friday Vigil, we have used the RSCM Passiontide Sequence, “The Way of the Cross”, provided a series of appropriate anthems, or presented a complete work such as a Mass or Passion.

Weddings are an important part of the choir's work and we are particularly keen to ensure that those couples who are seeking a musical wedding are able to approach their preparation for their service in partnership with the choir, if they so wish. Couples are encouraged to choose the music that they want to hear and that their families and friends will want to sing.

It is also helpful if the music that couples choose for their wedding is challenging and satisfying to the choir as they will present it to the highest standard possible. When necessary, the choir can be augmented with additional singers, and accomplished soloists if required, so that quite demanding music can be requested. Couples are strongly recommended to seek the advice of the Music Director in order that their requirements can be discussed fully.

Of course, it is always easier to provide a full choir for Saturday weddings but we have provided excellent ensembles for mid-week weddings and couples should ask if this is helpful to them.

The aim of the choir is to “be with God through music”, and to make music to the glory of God. We aim to inspire others through the medium of music, to lead the congregation in the singing of hymns and sacred songs, and also to support the said parts of the services - always working to the highest standards.