Music and Liturgy at the Sacred Heart Parish.

There is generally some singing at all parish masses even if it is only the Alleluia. Accompanied singing takes place at the 11.00 am Sunday mass and at most masses at Christmas and Easter.

Accompaniment is generally by organ played by our organist Peter Miller. When the organist is not available accompaniment is either by one or two guitars and sometimes a flute. New musicians are always welcome.

We have no formal choir as several years ago the parish decided to follow a route of working to involve the whole congregation rather than concentrating on a small group. However there are some talented singers in the congregation who come together to practise new music generally at Easter and Christmas.

We use the Celebration Hymnal for Everyone at the 11.00 am mass supplemented by other resources for which we have obtained copyright. The hymnbook has over 850 hymns and mass parts and although we have expanded our repertoire greatly over the years there are still many new hymns to be learned.

Selection of hymns for mass is made with the help of Stephen Dean's excellent Liturgy Planner. We also try to reach all age ranges by a variety of both traditional and modern hymns and several of the new sheets we have introduced reflect contemporary church music.

We try to learn several new hymns and/or mass parts in the year ,generally from September to June. Our current project is to learn the New Raemoir mass which has an integrated set of hymns and mass parts in the same musical style. The motivation behind this is not only to learn some relevant and easy to sing songs for gathering, offertory, holy communion and recession but also to demonstrate the additional musical and spiritual depth which can be gained from a complete musical setting.

Anyone, who is in any way musical, and would like to be involved should contact Hugh Davies on 01525 403102 or speak to Canon Denis

Singing in Rome

In 2005 Tim Davies one of the younger members of our congregation sung outside St Peter's Basilica in Rome. This is his story.

Here I am standing outside St Peter's Basilica having just sung Saturday evening mass. This was the high point of Bedford Schools Chapel Choir tour of Rome . We had previously sung mass in Maria Maggiore and a concert in Sant'Ignazio. We sung music by Palestrina who had been an organist in Maria Maggiore in the 17th Century, as well as some contemporary music by Bruckner. In between rehearsal and concerts we found time to go site seeing and eat some wonderful Italian food.

Every other year the choir sings in a European Capital city and in alternate years we have residencies in English Cathedrals I have sung in Paris, Exeter and Hereford and my brother, who was also in the same choir, sung in Prague, Oslo and Durham. Next August we will be going to Salisbury .