Music at St Paul's

The Chaplain’s View

The sole purpose of music in Church is the worship of God and therefore it is a form of prayer. At St Paul’s our Director of Music composes specific arrangements and settings to help us to express this during our services.

Excellence matters and so while we enjoy the wonderful contribution of the Ristretto singers, everyone is invited to engage with music during the service, offering their best to God.

What does that mean? In this context it means you don’t have to be a great singer to be part of a musical triumph that takes us to a higher plane and elevates us all toward the divine.

The Musical Director’s View

I was honoured to asked to take up the position of St Paul’s Director of Music in 2020 as I believe music in church worship is an offering to God, deserving the best resources that are available. Music is also an act of sharing – which includes listening together as well as singing together.

In Monaco we are lucky to have access to a wide range of talented professional performers through the ballet, opera and symphony orchestra, so our offering can range from hymns and simple congregational Mass settings to sacred works by composers from the Renaissance to the present day.

Click here for Errol's professional biography.

The Ristretto Singers

Formed by Errol Girdlestone in 2012 this group of professional and gifted amateur singers from across the region joins us regularly to lead music during worship.

The vocal ensemble is joined by instrumentalists on special occasions in the church’s calendar as well for performances of Masses by Haydn, Schubert and the renowned annual concert presentation of Handel’s Messiah.

Look out for a programme of music that profiles the church’s musical literature including Baroque composers and the resumption of the series of Bach’s cantatas and motets inaugurated prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Music for September

Sunday 6th 10.30am Holy Communion

Setting

Missa in Tempore Alligatum (Girdlestone)

Hymn

609, 628, 763, 739

Motet

Pange lingua (plainchant) 

Tuesday 8th 7pm Holy Communion

Cantiles

Walmisley in d minor

Anthem

Zadok, the Priest (Handel)

Preces and Responses

William Smith of Durham

Psalm

121

Hymns

St. Paul’s Hymn, and National Anthem

Sunday 13th 10.30am Holy Communion

Setting

Batten Short Service

Hymn

584, 386, 464, 641

Motet

If ye love me (Tallis) 

Sunday 20th 10.30am Holy Communion

Setting

Stanford

Hymn

327, 507 421, 619 

Motet

The Lord bless you and keep you (Rutter) 

Sunday 27th 10.30am Holy Communion

Setting

Missa in Tempore Alligatum (Girdlestone)

Hymn

362, 358, 589, 826

Motet

Ave Regina (Gounod) 

Errol Girdlestone BIOGRAPHY

Church music has been important to Errol all his life – you might even say it was in his genes. Errol’s family has strong Oxford theological, academic, musical, and even medical connections that coalesce through music. Starting as a boy chorister, he trained initially as an organist, providing the foundation for a varied international career that has spanned many countries and a variety of genres. Here is a brief summary of the highlights:

Organist – Initially chorister, then assistant organist at Rye Parish Church, Sussex. Student at the Royal School of Church Music, Organist Pusey House Oxford, Organist St. Peter’s Islington.

Academe  – BA (Hons) Keble College Oxford, Professor Trinity College of Music, and London College of Music.

Singer – Monteverdi Choir, Cantores in Ecclesia, John Alldis Singers, founder member Hilliard Ensemble, Vicar Choral St. Paul’s Cathedral London.

Opera – Repetiteur and assistant conductor ENO, notably on the EMI Wagner’s Ring Cycle, staff conductor Cape Town Opera, Norwegian National Opera, Nice Opera, Monte Carlo Opera, Chorus master and conductor Wexford Festival Opera, European Union Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival. Conductor Chicago Opera Theater, Montevideo Opera, Uruguay.

Symphony and oratorio conductor – Leipzig, Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), Vienna (Wiener Concert-Verein), Bregenz Festival, Canterbury Festival, Menuhin Festival, Gstaad (with soloists Giuliano Carmignola and Alison Balsom), Syrinx Concerts (Vence, S. Maximin, Monaco), Nice Philharmonic, Musique Cordiale (Var), Festival Georges Auric (Montpellier), Ristretto vocal and instrumental ensemble.

Commercial Recordings – Hilliard Ensemble (Popular music from the time of Henry VIII), Pink Floyd (Atom heart mother), Bach – Mass in B minor (Abbas records – conductor).

Compositions – Pièce de Concert (concerto for two flutes and orchestra) premiered at the Louvre in Paris. Rivers of Time (scored for solo cello, symphony orchestra, and large chorus) was given at the Cathedral on the Rock in Monaco. Recently composed anthem Peace I leave with you at St. Paul’s Monaco centenary celebrations.

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