Music

St. Mary's Anglican Church has a fine tradition of music. Choral music of all genres is an integral part of our worship. "Mass for a Country Parish" written by Rosemary Webber is a new musical setting of the Eucharist and is used at St. Mary's.

[Director of Music] [St. Mary's choir] [St. Mary's organ]

Director of Music

Beverley Phillips

Contact through the Parish Office

Beverly has a Masters Degree in Church Music from the Australian Catholic University, Mercy Campus , Ascot Vale. In addition to supervising the music at St Marys, Beverley plays regularly as Assistant Organist at St Francis Catholic Church in Lonsdale St in the city. Somehow Beverley also finds time to be the Church Verger!

St Mary's Choir

St Marys has a small but enthusiastic choir which practises each Tuesday evening in the Church from 6.30 pm to 8.00pm and sings at the 10 am Parish Mass on Sunday mornings.

St. Mary's Choir welcomes new members.

Choir Commitment

• Tuseday evening practice 6.30 - 8pm
• Sunday morning 9.20am practice, liturgy 10am until 11.15am
• Passiontide and Easter/Advent and Christmas seasons involve the choir in some extra rehearsals and liturgies

Repertoire

• responsorial psalmody from gregorian chant to C20th
• Palestrina motets to contemporary Australian
• unision to 5 part a capella

St Mary's Organ

The original mechanical action organ in St. Mary's was installed by Roberts of Adelaide in 1880 but was converted to electrical action in 1930 By the end of the 1970s its workings were just a tangled mass of rusting wire and the instrument was falling through the floor. It could only play basic hymn melodies, over 200 of its original pipes having been removed in a regrouping of its usable parts around 1970.

In 1983 the parish purchased from the Uniting Church in Queensland the organ which had been in the former Methodist Church at Toowong, Brisbane. This organ had been built in Germany in the 1950s by Werner Bosch Cassel and shipped out to New Zealand. From there it went to Toowong and in 1983 came south to Melbourne and St Marys to undergo apotheosis into its present form.

Danish organ builder Knud Smenge who had just opened his business in Melbourne was engaged by the Parish to rebuild the organ for its new location in St Marys.

This most successful rebuild has given to St Marys a fine fully mechanical action classical instrument which has been described as the gem of Melbournes smaller organs. It has been a great asset to the parish and has been highly comended by many visiting organists from overseas who have performed on it.

[Director of Music] [St. Mary's choir] [St. Mary's organ]

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email info@stmarys.org.au
last updated : 16-Sep-2006
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