Royal Hospital Chelsea, Chapel Choir


Chelsea Choir PictureThe Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea has built an enviable reputation as one of the finest church and chapel choirs in London. Consisting of twelve singers (five sopranos, two altos, two tenors and three basses), this reputation has been gained through a combination of a wide repertoire of music and through the quality of singing and musicianship, the latter ensured by a stringent audition for entry, at which singers are required to demonstrate a sound vocal technique, flexibility of tone (to assist with good blending), excellent sight-reading skills and a good sense of pitch and rhythm. The choir's success has also been maintained through its emphasis on friendliness and co-operation - qualities essential for good team-work.

The choir's wide and varied repertoire reflects all musical periods and styles. Renaissance polyphony plays an important role and includes motets by a range of European composers. The music of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis is a speciality and is of particular interest as they wrote for both the Roman Catholic and Protestant liturgies. The English Renaissance school is also represented regularly at the Royal Hospital by music from Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Weelkes; the Italian school by Palestrina and Lotti; Spain by Victoria and Esquivel; and the Flemish school by Lassus and Peter Philips.

Verse anthems by Maurice Greene and Henry Purcell and works by Handel and J S Bach represent the baroque period. The choir also regularly sings music from the nineteenth century, including Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorak and Samuel Sebastian Wesley. The twentieth century is well represented: music by Maurice Duruflé, Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Hubert Parry, Charles Stanford, William Harris, Edward Bairstow, William Walton, Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams is sung regularly at Chapel services.

Recent concerts include Handel's Messiah, accompanied by a small baroque orchestra and with each singer contributing at least two solo movements. The choir has sung in broadcasts of the popular BBC Television programme Songs of Praise and BBC Radio's Choral Evensong. It also undertakes tours to cathedrals during the summer months, combining a holiday with the opportunity to sing in different surroundings.

Soldiers at the Royal Hospital were originally obliged to attend two services every day. Now there are services only on Sundays and Feast-Days, at which the Chapel Choir sings for Parade Service, a shortened form of Matins.

The Chapel Choir has sung under its present Director, Ian Curror since 1974

Royal Hospital Chelsea, Chapel Choir on Guild Music

Page revised 03.09.2000