New Mass Setting Premieres at St Etheldreda’s

At midday on Saturday, 27 June, parishioners of St Etheldreda’s in Ely were filing into the pews with a new piece of music in hand.

They had arrived early for the Votive Mass of St Etheldreda to learn a new musical setting of the Mass. As the composer, Matthew JC Ward, stood up to lead the rehearsal, he first acknowledged the relic of St Etheldreda, her hand raised in blessing from its shrine behind the baptismal font.

Accompanied by organist Martin Baker and assisted by the choir, Ward skilfully led the congregation through his new melodies for the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, ambitiously teaching the two-part harmony in which the men’s voices echo the women’s to create a beautiful effect. The Kyrie was sung in the original Greek – Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison – and the other parts of the Mass were all sung in English. One parishioner described the music as ‘a perfect contemporary celebration of our medieval musical heritage’.

The choir of 14 experienced singers had come together earlier in the day to rehearse the rest of the music for the Mass, especially Ward’s new four-part motet Aspice Nupta Deo. It was thrilling to hear this challenging and complex piece come together for the first time with human voices. Baker worked miracles on the parish’s humble organ, making the virtuosic accompaniment ring out richly and triumphantly in praise of the parish’s patron saint.

After the Mass, celebrated by Rev. Canon David Finegan, parishioners gathered in the parish rooms for lunch and fellowship. “It was a great event with a really good atmosphere, and a real milestone for Ely as a parish”, Baker said later. Another parishioner remarked that the new musical setting and premier was “a gift to the parish and the church building itself that it can take forward in its history here at Ely.”

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