St Matthew's Church, Northampton

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St Matthew's Church
The parish church of St. Matthew, Northampton.jpg
St Matthew's Church, Northampton
St Matthew's Church, Northampton
CountryUnited Kingdom
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Anglo Catholic
Website www.stmatthews-northampton.org.uk
History
Dedication St Matthew
Administration
Province Canterbury
Diocese Peterborough
Clergy
Vicar(s) Fr Nicholas Setterfield
Laity
Organist/Director of music Tom Moore
Organist(s) Jonathan Starmer
Churchwarden(s) Dave Wilson & Gary Drinkwater
The East end St Matthew's Church Northampton.jpg
The East end
Foundation stone, laid on St Matthew's Day 1891 St Matthews Foundation Stone.jpg
Foundation stone, laid on St Matthew's Day 1891
Memorial plaque commemorating the 39 years that Charles John King was organist and choirmaster. He had been a chorister and organ scholar at St George's Chapel, Windsor Charles John King 39 years as organist and choir master St. Matthews Northampton 1895 - 1934.jpg
Memorial plaque commemorating the 39 years that Charles John King was organist and choirmaster. He had been a chorister and organ scholar at St George's Chapel, Windsor

St Matthew's Church, Northampton is a Church of England parish church in Northampton, within the Diocese of Peterborough.

Contents

The church is a Grade II* listed building. [1] It was erected (1891–4) in memory of brewer and MP, Pickering Phipps, beside the Kettering Road. The architect was Matthew Holding.

Canon John Rowden Hussey was vicar from its consecration in 1893 to 1937. Walter Hussey, vicar from 1937 to 1955 succeeding his father, was a patron of the arts. He celebrated the church's 50th anniversary with a sequence of events and commissions: the commission of the anthem Rejoice in the Lamb from Benjamin Britten; a performance from the BBC Symphony Orchestra (2 October 1943); an organ recital by George Thalben-Ball, and the commission of Henry Moore's sculpture "Madonna and Child". [2]

Buoyed by the success of the 194344 commissions, Hussey continued to commission new works of art. Other musical commissions included The Revival by Edmund Rubbra (1944); Festival Anthem by Lennox Berkeley (1945), Lo, the full, final sacrifice from Gerald Finzi (1946), and works by Christopher Headington, Malcolm Arnold and others. [3] There were commissions of poetry: a Litany and Anthem for St Matthew's Day from W. H. Auden and The Outer Planet from Norman Nicholson. [4] [5] The recitals continued throughout this time, most notably with two concerts by the singer Kirsten Flagstad

In the north transept is Henry Moore's stone sculpture, "Madonna and Child" (1944) [6] and in the south transept a painting of the Crucifixion (1946) by Graham Sutherland. The triptych in the Lady Chapel is by C. E. Buckeridge. [7] A 2009 addition is a bronze statue of St Matthew by Ian Rank-Broadley. [8] [9]

A 1956 oil and watercolour painting of St Matthew's Church by John Piper is in the collection of the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. [10]

Liturgy

The triptych in the Lady Chapel by C. E. Buckeridge Northampton St Matthew HDR I.jpg
The triptych in the Lady Chapel by C. E. Buckeridge

St Matthew's follows an Anglican service with Catholic traits. The church celebrates one Eucharistic service on a Sunday, a Parish Mass at 10.15am which is often Choral. The Parish Mass is pro populo on the nave altar and the lectern has recently been moved from the chancel step to the high altar to make way for a traditional statue of St Matthew. Sunday Evening service is Choral Evensong twice a month with Benediction following the service on the third Sunday and Congregational Evensong on the second. The church maintains a daily Eucharist service and has done since its founding in 1893. The Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer are also said publicly every day of the year.

Music

For many years St Matthew's had an all-male choir which was disbanded in the early 2000s.[ citation needed ] The choir now consists of girl and boy choristers aged 8–18 and adult Altos, Tenors and Basses who sing two services each Sunday. The church choir is supported by The St Matthew's Singers, a choir of local amateur singers, who sing Choral Mass on mid-week Feast Days. The whole music department is overseen by a Director of Music, Parish Organist and Organ Scholar.

The choir has undertaken a tour each year since 2012. These have included week-long trips to sing at St Davids (2012), Portsmouth (2013), Carlisle (2014), Exeter (2015) and Chester (2016), Ely (2017) and Germany (2018). The choir has released two CDs in recent years; in 2013 a disc of music for Advent and Christmas, and in 2014 a recording including recent commissions from David Bednall, David Halls and Philip Stopford.[ citation needed ]

St Matthew's is also a concert venue for Northampton. The church is home to the Northampton Bach Choir, founded by Denys Pouncey in 1935, which for many years had St Matthew's director of music as its director. The church also has links with the Northampton Music and Performing Arts Trust, the Northampton Philharmonic Choir, the Northampton Chamber Choir and many other groups. St Matthew's also houses a four-manual and pedal organ built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1895. [11] Regular organ recitals take place.

List of organists

Many of the previous St Matthew's Directors of Music have gone on to hold important positions in Church Music. These have included King's College, Cambridge, Wells Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral, Blackburn Cathedral, Llandaff Cathedral, York Minster, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York City.

Musical commissions

A list of musical commissions of St Matthew's Church is here below:[ citation needed ]

See also

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References

  1. Historic England. "Church of St Matthew (Grade II*) (1039661)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  2. Webster, Peter (2017). Church and patronage in 20th century Britain : Walter Hussey and the arts. London. pp. 54–84. ISBN   9781137369093. OCLC   1012344270.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Webster, Peter (2017). Church and patronage in 20th century Britain : Walter Hussey and the arts. London. pp. 85–97. ISBN   9781137369093. OCLC   1012344270.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Webster, Peter (2017). Church and patronage in 20th century Britain: Walter Hussey and the arts. London. pp. 108–118. ISBN   9781137369093. OCLC   1012344270.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Webster, Peter (2017). Church and patronage in 20th century Britain : Walter Hussey and the arts. London. pp. 100–108. ISBN   9781137369093. OCLC   1012344270.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. Henry Moore: Sculptural Process and Public Identity. The Tate. March 2015. ISBN   9781849763912 . Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  7. Wright, Christopher; May Gordon, Catherine (2006). British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Yale University Press. pp. 215–216.
  8. "St Matthew's Church - Northampton : Art and History - St Matthew". www.stmatthewsnorthampton.org.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  9. "St Matthew". Ian Rank-Broadley. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  10. "St Matthew's Church Northampton" . Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  11. "The National Pipe Organ Register - NPOR". npor.org.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  12. Dictionary of Organs and Organists. Frederick W. Thornsby
  13. The Hymnal 1982 companion, Volume 2. Raymond F. Glover
  14. Norwich Cathedral: church, city, and diocese, 1096–1996. Ian Atherton
  15. Alan Macfarlane (interviewer) (4 July 2008). "Stephen Cleobury interviewed". Alan D.J.Macfarlane (online). Retrieved 25 December 2014.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)

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