The Church Music Society
Registered Charity No. 290309
Welcome
Founded in 1906 to publish and encourage the performance of good, but unavailable, church music, the CMS affirms the importance of music in worship, supports the use of music appropriate to liturgical use, and strives to sustain the Church’s wonderful musical heritage. In its publishing activities it works closely with the music department of Oxford University Press, through which all its new editions are published. Recent publications range from modern editions of well-known (but sometimes neglected) items to music by living composers designed specifically for small congregations to sing and value; the Society also recognises and seeks to meet the constant demand for fine congregational music in a modern idiom.
In the second year of its foundation the Society published Bach’s now universally loved chorale Jesu, Joy of man’s desiring. CMS milestones have been marked by notable commissioned works – Herbert Howells’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B minor for the Golden Jubilee in 1956, Jonathan Harvey’s The Tree for the 75th Anniversary in 1981, and Judith Bingham's Touch’d by heavenly fire, first performed on the occasion of the Society's centenary in 2006.
This website features the whole range of the Society's activities, including the current catalogue of published works, details of membership, and other events and publications.
Patrick Russill
Chairman of the Church Music Society
