• A moving performance of Bach's St John Passion at Easter 2004, an extremely memorable Verdi Requiem School Foundation Concert, a Widor Messe with a glorious baritone chorus of massed ex-choristers in July and a farewell lunch hosted by the Guild were just some of the extraordinary highlights of John Scott’s final year at St Paul’s. His final CD recording in The English Anthem series for Hyperion Records has just been released. Geoff Brown, writing in The Times in a review of the Verdi, noted that the choir had been '…polished during his (John's) tenure into easily the country’s best cathedral choir’ and suggested that John's autobiography (vol 2) might be entitled Life After the Echo! The Guild wishes John the very best at St Thomas, Fifth Avenue in New York.
• In September 2004, St Paul's welcomed a new Organist and Director of Music, Malcolm Archer. He has already made his mark by arranging Oranges and Lemons for a combined Choristers and Bread Street (Probationers and school day boys/girls) Choir to sing to the new Lord Mayor when greeted by the Dean on the steps of the Cathedral during the annual Lord Mayor’s Show. In addition, a new anthem from Malcolm, entwining Reveille and the Last Post with the choir's voices, was composed for the service to install and dedicate the Winston Churchill Memorial Screen in the Crypt on November 30, the 130th anniversary of Churchill's birthday. Malcolm Archer set Sir Winston Churchill's own words to music:
In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance.
In victory: magnanimity. In peace goodwill.
The Reverend Canon Charles Taylor (of Lichfield Cathedral) and Nigel Edmund-Jones represented those choristers who sang at Sir Winston Churchill’s State Funeral 40 years ago, in 1965.
• The 350th Festival of the Sons of the Clergy was celebrated in May with St Paul's and Wells Cathedral Choirs plus representatives from 38 other Cathedrals around the country, amounting to the magnificent sound of some 300 voices. The anthem, Would you know your Lord’s meaning in this? was specially composed (and conducted) for the service by … Malcolm Archer. The St Paul's Choir also joined the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales plus the Bach Choir in performing Gustav Holst’s The Hymn of Jesus at Prom 4 in the Royal Albert Hall in July. According to Richard Morrison of The Times, the performance was 'capped by the mesmerisingly plangent amens of the boy choristers'.
• The following choristers left the choir in 2004: Joshua Allen, Gregory Childs, Guy Edmund-Jones, Luke Fowler, Lewis Owen, Fineas Selby, Jonathan Smith and Howard Thompson. The Guild wishes them all well in their senior schools and future careers.
Photo: Richard Love
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• There is an elegant plaque in the South Choir Aisle of Truro Cathedral that reads: 'In grateful remembrance of happy comradeship in work and worship with St Paul’s Cathedral Choir 1939-1945'. This was recently restored and replaced by the Guild, on the initiative of former Guild chairman Brigadier Bernard Fullerton, who spent some of the years 1937 to 1942 as a St Paul's chorister evacuated to Truro. Both he and many of his contemporaries fondly recall their time in evacuation and treasure the memories of the time that they spent there together.
• The Guild was delighted to host the FCOCA AGM in May 2004, as part of the Cathedral's many anniversary celebrations. Visitors to the Cathedral will now find a sparkling clean frontage and the Temple Bar stone gateway (installed where Fleet Street joins Strand until the late 19th Century) now in situ on the walk through to the completely redeveloped Paternoster Square.
