Refreshing lives, transforming faith, at the heart of the community Haere Mai, Piki Mai
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A Sermon by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO
Nelson Cathedral
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Music is an essential component of my life. Since I was a child I have had this feeling of connectedness to the music of many composers, especially those of the Baroque like Bach and Handel and
Vivaldi. In fact I remember very vividly a time when I was very poorly with asthma and the rhythm of my breathing was in tune with masterpieces like the Water Music and the Suite for the
Royal Fireworks! It was always a pleasure and a relief when the andante sections were played and my poor old chest could have some respite. Since then I have always recognised the therapeutic
aspects of music.
My own musical abilities were limited but I was pleased to use what I had for the glory of God and for the pleasure of his people. Starting in a church choir when I was about 7 years of age, my life
in the church has been punctuated with music of all sorts. I started to learn the piano when I was ten and within a couple of years could not resist the temptation to learn the King of Instruments,
the pipe organ. When I was a teenager we moved home to a suburb of Liverpool and lo and behold, the new vicar David Wills, a former choral scholar of St John’s College Cambridge,
sought me out and appointed me as Organist and Choirmaster. Thank God he was there to guide and mould me into the role or ministry as he would have called it. They were good years,
especially as it was there I met Elaine who eventually sang in the choir. Mind you, if you were to ask her, Elaine might talk about this bossy upstart who used to shout at her for talking or
singing incorrectly! I think/hope she has forgiven me!
Three years in theological college in London meant I was regularly playing the chapel organ for our services, the first one of the day being at 7.20am! We had a good team of musicians during
my time there, including a former assistant organist from York Minster and a former music teacher and organist. I learned a lot from them.
My first parish as a curate was at Halewood in the south of Liverpool. There we had a choir of some thirty robed boys and an enthusiastic Director of Music. Still I was called on to play the
organ from time to time, especially for the annual Carol Service, so that Brian had the total freedom to conduct. It was in this parish of St Nicholas that Elaine and I were married and music
was a vital part of that momentous day. I’ll never forget the first hymn with trumpet soloist,
All people that on earth do dwell,
sing to the Lord with cheerful voice:
him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell,
come ye before him and rejoice.
Let’s move things on a bit here. After two more parishes where music and organ playing played a major part Elaine, Elisabeth, Stephanie and I moved to Wellington cathedral where
for almost 6 years I revelled in a choral tradition that was wonderful. It was there I was taught to sing the services and I was so honoured to be there when Philip Walsh was directing the music.
I’ll never forget the Advent Sunday when he and I swopped jobs and Philip preached the Advent sermon and I played the last hymn and voluntary at the main morning service. It was the
most nerve-wracking moment of my life!
Philip exemplified to me the essence of a deeply spiritual person who used his many musical gifts for the glory of God. The year I left Wellington to come here as Dean in 1994, I returned to
fulfil an engagement on Good Friday, giving the addresses at the three hour meditation. Philip and I came up with a formula that obviously meant so much to those who were present. There
were several readings based on the Passion of Jesus, a meditation from me and then Philip extemporised on the organ, inspired by what he had heard. It brought each section to life and was
so powerful. I will never ever forget the last meditation on the death of Christ, when Philip starting with themes and chords that expressed Christ’s pain, moved on to concentrate on his
laboured breathing, getting slower and slower until it stopped altogether. Jesus declared “It is finished” and gave up his Spirit. We were in tears because a friend had just died
and the music helped to reinforce that pathos.
Here we are now in beautiful Nelson, and the music goes on. We don’t have the resources of the big cities but we have faithful souls, young people and adults, who maintain the ministry
of music here as either singers or organists. I am proud and very grateful for them all. As you may know our previous Director of Music, John Wesley Barker, died suddenly last year and since
then we have been helped and assisted by several people. Alan Gray from London is planning to arrive here in January to take up the position of Organist and Minister of Music. Please pray for him and us as we finalise the arrangements.
But why does the Church like her music so much? Go to the Bible and you will get your answer. King David of Israel was an expert on the lyre and used it to soothe the mind of his predecessor
King Saul. It was David whom it is believed went on to write many of the psalms, the hymn book of the Old Testament. Where would we be without Psalm 23 for example, ‘The Lord’s
my Shepherd and I shall lack nothing?’ Or let us never forget the fantastically musical Psalm 150 which the Mayor read to us a little earlier.
And this week I was reminded again of the start of the 33rd Psalm, which goes -
1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.
Praise befits the upright.
2 Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
In an article in the current
Church Times newspaper from England, the composer James MacMillan wrote about the
centrality and importance of music in worship. This is how he began:
FAR FROM being a spent force, religion has proved to be a vibrant, animating principle in modern music, and continues to promise much for the future. It could even be said that any discussion
of modernity’s mainstream in music would be incomplete without a serious reflection on the spiritual values, belief, and practice at work in composers’ minds.
I agree. And to illustrate his point MacMillan related this story.
I was sharing a pre-concert talk platform with another composer and a well-known presenter, who was asking us questions about our music. The other composer had set a Latin liturgical text,
but had interlaced it with Jewish and Islamic texts. When asked about this, he was very keen to make clear that he was not religious, and quite hostile to what he termed “organised
religion”. He wanted to show, in this work, that in spite of the divisiveness that religion brings to society, we are all essentially the same, bound together by our common humanity, and
that if we could only ditch all this outmoded, reactionary, spiteful mumbo-jumbo, what a wonderful peaceful world it would be. . .
And then, with no sense of irony at all, our interlocutor turned to me and said: “And, James, when you write your music, do you consciously set out to convert people to your point
of view?”
James MacMillan didn’t name the other composer but going on the clues I guess it might have been Karl Jenkins who composed The Armed Man, a fantastic piece which was
performed here by the Civic Choir last year. Well, I wonder if some composers do set out to convert people to their point of view. I don’t know because I have never asked them.
However, the production of music which addresses the questions of the heart is an inspired work and I am sure most composers offer up these as one way of transporting us to the heights
of heaven or to interpret the realities of earth. Music has this ability to speak to the senses and transport us in wonder, love and praise.
MacMillan concluded by saying this:
Without the sacred, our lives will become meaningless. I believe it is God’s divine spark which kindles the musical imagination now, as it has always done, and reminds us, in an
increasingly dehumanised world, of what it means to be human.
One of the negatives I experienced in 2005 after suffering a brain haemorrhage and a subsequent stroke, was not being able to play the piano to the standard I could before. Yes, I have tried
but the inability to rattle off my Bach preludes and fugues for example is frustrating in the extreme. I do not let it get me down though, as I listen to others performing music and take pleasure from their skills in a deeper way than before. I try to listen with a keener ear and joy of joys my musical tastes have even been widened. Disability is not a prevention to musical performance, it is a challenge.
I want to conclude by returning to the voice. I love this tradition of the Church, this Cathedral tradition, with its robed choirs and accompanying organ music. Emotionally and culturally that
is where I come from and is where I am very much at home. I could not conceive of life without it. When I was speaking about this Service to a house guest recently who had been staying
with Elaine and me, she immediately quoted some words of Rabindranath Tagore:
God respects me when I work and loves me when I sing.
Let us work hard, especially as we care for others, as we strive for peace and justice for all and as we bring joy to the downtrodden and despised BUT let us do so with a song in our hearts
knowing that God not only respects us but actually loves us. For, as St Augustine knew, “Qui cantat, bis orat – Whoever sings, prays twice over.”
Amen.
This sermon was written and delivered by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO at Nelson Cathedral on Sunday, 19 October 2008
