posted on January 1, 2010 in In Song | Be the First to Comment | Print

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When the tour is over, or the concert season wraps for another year, a church choir can have more than happy memories. CDs preserve the musical moments. Well-edited CDs can show a choir at its best, after sending less-than-memorable moments to blissful oblivion. As I described in an earlier In Song entry, a church’s recording project can invite a wider public to listen to what is going on musically in a congregation, opening a window, and sometimes an inviting door, into its life.

Two such CDs from the Oakridge Presbyterian Church Choir of London, Ont. have been occupying my heavily-laden desk. Song for Canada offers a live concert from June 22, 2003 in the U.K. This was an singing trip with many dates and venues, according to the liner notes of their next CD, Lift High the Cross. Both CDs show the choir, directed by Janet Fischer, in full concert mode.

Song for Canada features not only Fischer but also Ian Sadler at the organ, as well as the piano of Mary Ellen Ferguson and the flute of Anita Evans. It combines well-traveled favourites such as Scotland the Brave and Danny Boy (the better to connect with its intended audiences in the UK) with music by Canadians Paul Halley, Eleanor Daley, Allister MacGillivray and Mark Sirett.

Lift High the Cross leans a little more toward the sacred side of choral song, in particular settings of well-known hymns. Crown Him with Many Crowns, Fairest Lord Jesus and Enter His Gates with Songs of Thanksgiving open the CD, and Lift High the Cross, a Nunc Dimittis and Handel’s Halleluia (which in some church circles almost qualifies as a congregational song), followed by J.S. Bach’s Chorale Prelude on Our Faith is Set in Christ. This CD has the same instrumental leadership as Oakridge’s earlier effort with the addition of violinist Paul Earle.

Both CDs might be considered a thorough and rich sampling of classic Canadian church choir repertoire supported by instrumental music that has long invited congregations to meditate and reflect.

Andrew Donaldson is a hymnwriter, guitarist, and leader of congregational song. He conducts Hilariter, an ensemble dedicated to songs of the world church. In Song is published online on the first and 15th each month.