March 2007
Celebrating St Brigid in Dublin and Kildare	Show Menu

The following two accounts describe the services held in St Brigid’s Church, Stillorgan and in the Cathedral Church of St Brigid, Kildare, when their choirs collaborated to celebrate St Brigid’s Day in February 2007. From St Brigid’s Stillorgan, Frank Guter writes, and from Kildare Cathedral, Derek Verso gives the account.

Frank Guter

A desire and hope grew to undertake the collaboration of two choirs, that of St Brigid’s, Stillorgan and the choir of St Brigid’s Cathedral Kildare, in order to celebrate the Feast Day of St Brigid in a special way. The directors, Hilary Guter of Stillorgan and Derek Verso of Kildare, agreed to join their choirs together so that the gifts and resources of both could become one greater whole. Their plan was to do a joint service on Thursday night, 1 February in St Brigid’s of Stillorgan and then a second service on Sunday, 4 February in Kildare Cathedral.

As it turned out, this was a bigger challenge than anticipated. First there was the distance to overcome. Secondly, there was a time factor as this would occur very soon after the Christmas holidays. This was further complicated due to a heavy commitment by many of the choir members of Stillorgan and their director, Hilary, to a pantomime running for nine shows until mid-January!

However, with the willing and dedicated practice of both choirs separately, the prospect of successfully presenting the chosen music began to take shape. This included William Byrd’s Ave Verum, Pitoni’s Cantate Domino, Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré, the St Patrick’s Setting of the Communion Service by Colin Mawby, a psalm and hymns. The real test came when we travelled to the cathedral in Kildare to join both choirs together for the first time on the Tuesday just before St Brigid’s Day. Even though the temperature was very cold the practice went very well and the warmth of the hospitality of the hosts was great. With our processional practice done, the blend of forty or so voices and the adjustment to the acoustics all having gone very well, we all started to really look forward to our first worship service. Both choirs felt a rapport from which we hoped would come a worthy result.

In the interest of fairness, we agreed to follow the practice of wearing robes in Kildare and smart casual dress in Stillorgan.

On St Brigid’s Day, our service was in Stillorgan and was very well attended and felt very meaningful. The response by the choir and the congregation was remarkable and we felt it was worth all of the effort. A cosy atmosphere and a well-attended communion service supported a very worshipful interaction of choir and congregation.

Then our service on Sunday afternoon in the cathedral unfolded in the historic and special setting of this 13th century building. In our second experience together, we sensed a real confidence in each other. We were grateful to have had the opportunity to work together in the interest of worship. Even a heavy fog over the Curragh could not prevent a glorifying worship experience. Many felt that such endeavours are extremely worthwhile and deserve to be repeated.

Derek Verso

“I enjoyed working and singing with another choir. A lovely idea to sing in both the churches. Hope we do it again.”

It all began last summer when Kildare Cathedral choir sang at a summer concert series in Christ Church Cathedral Waterford and we asked Hilary Dickinson-Guter to play the organ, as our usual organist Dr Kerry Heuston was on holidays. Hilary also performed three major Bach organ works magnificently on the wonderfully restored Elliott/Jones pipe organ as part of the programme. After that concert she suggested that the choirs of the two St Brigid churches should do something together for St Brigid’s Day. And that’s exactly what happened ... well we didn’t really have a choice, did we!!

We chose a fairly challenging programme for the group and set about learning it, coming together only for a final combined rehearsal a few days before the first service. While we set out to share conducting and accompanying, in the end Hilary did all the accompanying and I the conducting, as the practicalities of swapping roles during the service might have been disconcerting for everyone, including ourselves.

Singing exactly the same music at both services gave great confidence to the combined choirs (as well as reducing the workload). By singing the same music in two totally different buildings – one a tiny homely early 19th century rural style building, with carpet, no acoustic, yet warm as toast, with a small Jones pipe organ and a piano; the other, a large 13th medieval structure with a reasonable acoustic, loads of open space, a large three- manual Conacher pipe organ and a constant force 5 gale blowing indoors in very cold temperatures! — they began to appreciate how the space and its layout can influence so tellingly not only the sound we make but the ambience, and how this has an influence on the act of worship, whether we like it or not.

Another real benefit of singing in each other’s churches that we hadn’t considered, was that both choirs got to be host and guest to each other which created a great rapport. Both services were very well attended — 168 according to church records in Stillorgan and a full nave in Kildare. More particularly, all present felt an uplifting sense of spiritual and corporate worship together. Perhaps it was the rector of Stillorgan, the Revd Ian Gallagher who best summed it up, “this evening we have experienced a touch of heaven through our worship."

There were many interesting coincidences about this get together that cannot be ignored. For instance, Bishop Roy Warke, who preached in Stillorgan on the life of Brigid, was himself consecrated as bishop on St Brigid’s Day nineteen years ago, and he also sings tenor in the St Brigid’s cathedral choir! For Hilary and myself, we both started in our “new” churches on St Brigid’s Day exactly one year ago. She has achieved more in one year there than most would in a lifetime. Kildare Cathedral choir had launched its new CD on St Brigid’s Day just a year ago! It was the first time that Stillorgan had celebrated their patron saint in many years and it was the first time for some choir members to sing in latin, french and in a cathedral!

“A good co-operative exercise well worth doing, highlighting the life of one of the Church of Ireland's forgotten saints."

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