The Church Music Society
Registered Charity No. 1200306
President: The Most Reverend Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham
Welcome
The CMS exists to promote the use of church music of the highest quality for the diverse needs of the Christian Church.
We seek to enable performers and worship leaders, composers and scholars, by publishing church music, new and old, not otherwise commercially available, and by providing a platform for research and educational material.
News and Updates
New Publications include the Preces and Responses by David Trendell (who died ten years ago this year), Three Carol Arrangements ('I Saw Three Ships', 'Stille Nacht/Silent Night' and 'The Holly and the Ivy') by Martindale Sidwell, formerly Director of Music at Hampstead Parish Church and St Clement Dane's in London, and another issue in our series of Great 16th-c. Responds edited by Sally Dunkley, Homo quidam by Thomas Tallis (suitable for use at communion).
Forthcoming Publications
New publications for 2024/5 will include two eight-part madrigals by Robert Pearsall with new texts for use at Communion and Benediction – Tantum ergo and O salutaris hostia – a setting of the Evening Canticles by Daniel Roseingrave, an anthem for Ascensiontide by Charles Wood, and a collection of Restoration-period music for upper voices.
Free Music Downloads
Two settings of the Evening Canticles have recently been added to Music Downloads – a new reconstruction of the The Sixth Service by Thomas Weelkes, and a setting in E Major from 1812 by Exeter-based composer Lucy Moseley – together with a collection of several 16th-century settings of The Lord's Prayer, supplementing those already available in the two printed volumes of early Preces & Responses.
Lectures and Papers
The two most recent additions to Lectures and Papers are a study of 19th-C. liturgical music by women composers sung at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and at Canterbury Cathedral (which ties in with the recent publication of the anthem If we believe that Jesus died by Louisa Bagot), and a paper on the 'royal' anthems of Thomas Weelkes marking the 400th anniversary is his death in 1623, based on the CMS lecture delivered at the Southern Cathedrals Festival in July.
2024 Annual General Meeting
This year's AGM will be on Saturday, 19 October, in St Wilfrid's Hall, The London Oratory, Brompton Road, SW7 2RP at 4.00pm. It will include a presentation to our Vice-President and former Secretary, Dr Simon Lindley, in recognition of his long and outstanding service to the Society. Member Thomas Coxhead will also give a talk on his research into early works of Kenneth Leighton. Following tea, Mass in the Oratory Church at 6.00pm will be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School, director: Charles Cole. Those intending to be present for the meeting are requested to inform the Administrator.
Please read our ‘Membership’ page and consider taking up the benefits of becoming a member of the Society.
Please visit our ‘Catalogue’ through which you can order our titles from our publishers, Oxford University Press, or from Banks Music Publications (with 25% discount from Banks if a Society member).
