The Gloria Singers and St. Jude’s Evensong Choir return this week as we celebrate the belated birthday of a trailblazer in composition and learn more about the the Gaelic Beannacht.

Have you ever heard "May the road rise to meet you" or "May you have love that never ends"? Both are examples of popular Gaelic blessing, or Beannacht, and this Sunday morning we will hear John Rutter's Gaelic Blessing at our 10:30 AM Choral Eucharist. The theme of a Gaelic blessing, or commonly refereed to as Irish blessing, is not uncommon in music. On the contrary, many composers whether folk, classical and other have set a variety of blessings to music. Rutters Gaelic Blessing is in part based on poem from the book The Dominion of Dreams: Under the Dark Star by Celtic Revival writers William Sharp and Fiona Macleod. Blessings have become common text sources for liturgical composition as they combine the Celtic worship of nature, with its rich tradition of oral storytelling and poetry, with Christianity that had spread throughout Ireland.

For our annual Memorial Garden Evensong, we will celebrate those remembered by our parish through an array of favourites such as Stanford's Canticles in C, Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts by Henry Purcell, and Evening Hymn by Henry Balfour Gardiner. Once the congregation has processed to the memorial garden, St. Jude's Evensong Choir will sing Amy Beach's Peace I Leave With You. Beach rose to fame in the late 1800s as the first American female composer to gain success for writing large-scale symphonic works. Her Gaelic Symphony (1896) marked the beginning of her prominent career, which emerged at a time when female composers were increasingly being recognized and North America was becoming a center for the arts.

Music
Music Notes