Parish Church music from the 1980s and early 1990s
Cirencester Parish Church was one of many in the 1980s and 1990s, which kept a choral tradition of men and boys’ voices to a high standard. It so happens that much of the music from the 1980s and 1990s period was recorded, and later digitised and compiled into a collection that anyone visiting the church can access and listen to.
The collection includes a lot of well-loved anthems and settings for the Eucharist and Evensong, organ voluntaries, plus a fair sprinkling of concerts both sacred and secular. To sample it, find your way to the desk under the tower, and use the computer there to select and listen to whatever you fancy.
There are over 4000 music tracks in the collection, the vast majority of them recordings of the choir run by the late Revd John, and Mrs Susan Beck from the 1980s and early 1990s, both here in the Parish Church and on visits to major churches elsewhere. Other tracks bring the total up to about 5000.
When John and Susan arrived in 1977 they began producing detailed service lists for every Sunday and major Festival. These details are also in the database, so that you can look up any of those days in the period and see what was sung at Eucharist, Matins and Evensong (whether or not a recording was made). After John retired in September 1993, his successor David Ponsford’s notes were less detailed and not all have survived, so the database is less complete from then on.
Concerts in the Parish Church are also included: a total of over 3000 events in all for the period 1977 – 1996.
The recordings, which begin in 1980, were made by a local man, Brian Carter. Brian was steeped in church life, had been a chorister in his youth, and was a member of the server team. It’s amazing that most of the recordings are as good as they are, considering that Brian used a portable tape-recorder placed on the pew seat beside him, the last row at the back on the north side, next to the tower step. Brian died in July 1996. His last recording is followed by just two more: of his own funeral, and of that of the Revd John Beck in April 2016
Some downloads performed by the Parish Church Choir at the time. Just click the title to listen or download the whole piece.
Eric Roberts 01285 657231 feric.roberts@tiscali.co.uk