The Cornelia Connelly Ensembles will commence their England and Ireland 2010 Performance Tour with a performance at the Farm Street Church of the Immaculate Conception as the featured guest choir for High Mass on Sunday, June 27. The celebration is followed by a concert.
This is a historic church that is an active center of Catholicism in the heart of London. For over a hundred and fifty year, Farm Street Church has held its reputation for spiritual and intellectual vigor, and many have regularly travelled quite a distance to worship and to seek the advice of the succeeding generations of priests who have served here.
There has been a strong musical tradition at Farm Street Church for well over a hundred years. Then the choir consisted of men, and boys drawn from local Roman Catholic schools. The period after the First World War saw the music reach a pinnacle of achievement, when the choir was under the direction of Fr John Driscoll SJ, later succeeded by Fernand Laloux. At this time the organist was Guy Weitz, a Belgian, who had been a pupil of Widor and Guilmant. Weitz was one of the finest organists, and organ composers, of his generation, and Farm Street Church has long been associated with excellence in organ playing. Weitz's most famous student, Nicholas Danby (1935 - 1997) suceeded him as organist in 1967. Danby's main achievement at Farm Street was re-establishing the choir in the early 1970s, follwing a period of change in the late 1960s, as a fully professional ensemble.
From the early 1920s until the 1960s the repertoire consisted of sixteenth century polyphony, as well as a wide variety of modern and contemporary music, much of this collected by Fr Driscoll. He was particularly skilful in setting religious texts to already existing music. Some of this unique repertoire is still heard at the liturgies in Farm Street.
Today, in the twenty-first century, the repertoire is still very varied and ranges from sixteenth-century Polyphony, the Viennese Classical composers, nineteenth century Romanics as well as a wide variety of twentieth century and contemporary music. Gregorian Chant also plays and important role in the worship.
In 1863, on the 26th of May, Mother Cornelia Connelly who found the Society of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ) in 1846 would take a group of girls to picnic from the Holy Child school to St. Leonard's-on-Sea to the ruins of the Old Palace of Mayfield. The peacefulness of the countryside and ruins left their mark on Cornelia. Within in weeks the Duchess of Leads purchased the estate and presented it to the religious order. On the 18th of November, 1863 the first mass was said there since the mid-16th Century. They would subsequently being renovations in 1864 on the Old Palace and the ruins of the 14th century hall would be transformed into a church, this only took 14 months. The school started by teaching orphans and it was not until 1872 when the first group of girls was brought over from St. Leonard's to start their academics. It was not until 1953, when St. Leonard's-on-Sea and Mayfield school merged to be St. Leonard's Mayfield. Students remained at St Leonard's up to the age of 13 and then transferred to Mayfield to continue their education to 18. In 1975 the junior school at St Leonard's closed and Mayfield became the school it is today, educating girls from 11 to 18. The links with Holy Child, however, remain strong: three members of the Governing body are nuns and three nuns live in the school grounds, supporting the pastoral work of the Chaplaincy and boarding houses.
