St Joseph's, Stokesley

Music in the Parish: Making a Joyful Noise.

“To sing is praise God twice”: these words attributed to St Augustine lie at the heart of our parish’s approach to the celebration of Mass on Sundays, major Festivals and Holy Days. The answers to two simple questions point to the reason for this: What is Music? What is Prayer?  In its rawest sense music has two elements; sound and silence, and in its most basic sense prayer also has two elements; sound when we talk to God, and silence when we await God’s answer.  Music can be thought of as the ultimate prayer, a natural response to God which is the motive for all our worship. Music also provides a framework for the liturgical year, noting as it does, the changes in season; for example the singing of Veni Emmanuel in Advent or Jesus Christ is Risen Today on Easter day. Week by week it helps focus our attention on the Gospel message and awakens deep emotional responses such as joy and sadness.

The three Sunday Masses all provide music in different forms although sharing a common hymn list (with rare exceptions) taken from Laudate.

6pm Saturday Vigil Mass is normally unaccompanied hymns

10.30am Mass at St Margaret Clitherow has hymns with organ accompaniment,

9am Mass at St Joseph is a sung Mass with organ and a group of Cantors to help lead the singing. The Cantors normally have a short practice before Mass between 8.30 and 8.45am and a longer evening practice about every 5-6 weeks arranged to mutual convenience.  We always welcome new singers, please just come and introduce yourself –you do not have  be able to read music, but enthusiasm is necessary. 

Three times a year the 9am Mass is accompanied by a group that focuses especially on the talents of instrumental players both young and old.  Practices for this are advertised on the weekly news bulletin, and again we are always keen to recruit new people.

For more details on any of the above please contact the Music Coordinator: Margaret Turnham (01642 710239) or the Organist Julie Dowson (01642 710807)

Statistics for the hymns.

For the period July to November there are 84 hymns and 61% are modern.