The choir of Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, supplemented with musical talents of students, alumni, and faculty of Southern Virginia University and Washington and Lee, will commemorate one of early England’s great monarchs, Alfred the Great, at Choral Evensong this Sunday, Oct. 26, at 5 p.m.
Dr. Benjamin Gaughran, newly arrived director of choral activities at SVU, will share duties as organist and choir director with Martha Jones Burford, Grace Church’s minister of music. Officiating at the service will be the Rev. David Cox who serves at Grace Church and is a professor of history at SVU.
Music of the service will span centuries and oceans, from a Renaissance era hymn by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis, two other hymns from the Victorian era, and an anthem from an 1888 oratorio by C.H.H. Parry, to contemporary works including responses by the English composer Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, canticles by Arlen Clarke who lives in South Carolina, and a psalm setting by Grace Church’s Martha Burford.
Gaughran came to SVU this autumn having completed his doctoral studies in choral conducting at the University of Michigan earlier this year. These followed degrees from the Universities of London and Nottingham, and the Royal Schools of Music. A native of Britain, his ancestry is Trinidadian, and his particular scholarship has focused on the choral music of Trinidad and Tobago.
Grace Church’s choir spans generations ranging from students at W&L and SVU to longtime parishioners.
King Alfred, who reigned at the close of the ninth century, was not only a successful military leader in England but also one who sought to promote education and religion. He is the only native-born Englis monarch to bear the title, “the Great.”
Morning services at Grace Church include Holy Eucharist, Rite I at 8 a.m., and at 10:30, Holy Eucharist, Rite II. Grace Church’s rector, the Rev. Tuck Bowerfind, will preach at both; Dr. Cox will celebrate at the 10:30 Eucharist.
