RSCM to be welcomed by Salisbury Cathedral on 5th October

The RSCM administrative centre is to be officially welcomed to its new home in Salisbury by the Bishop, Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral at their service of choral evensong on Thursday 5th October, at 5.30pm.

The service also includes the installation of four new Canons to the College of Canons at the Cathedral, one of whom is the new Bishop of Ramsbury, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway.

Professor John Harper, Director General of the RSCM, has composed an anthem especially for the occasion, to be sung by the Cathedral choir. A Song of Redemption is a new interpretation of the text Salve Regina, which has a particular resonance with Salisbury Cathedral.

John Harper writes: “Salve regina is first found in the liturgy of the newly founded Order of Preachers, the Dominican friars, in the thirteenth century. The original text and melody served as an antiphon to the Magnificat; but throughout the later Middle Ages, Salve regina was used as an anthem sung at the end of the day in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In some places in Britain it was sung by the boy choristers alone; it also received elaborate polyphonic treatment for skilled singers on special feast days. In Salisbury Cathedral it was sung in the evening each day throughout the year.

“Although the text is addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is very much a Song of Redemption. The angel has greeted Mary, and she has to decide whether to take on the challenge. It is as though we are pleading with her to accept God’s will, so that she may become the channel through which the Word may be made flesh. In this song we relive that moment when Mary accepted the power of the Holy Spirit, a vital moment in our redemption through the incarnation of Jesus the Christ – the turning point when the suffering of the fallen children of Eve is transformed into the joy of the saved children of God.

“The Latin text used here follows the variant form found in the pre-Reformation Sarum books (though it omits the troped texts interpolated before each of the invocations in the last line). The music quotes the plainsong directly on two occasions, and the original mode dominates the setting.”

28/09/2006