Priory Singers to hold Memorial Evensong for Harry Grindle
The late Harry Grindle, a former Musical Director at St Anne’s, will be remembered at a special Memorial Evensong in the Cathedral on November 16.
Evensong will be sung by the Priory Singers, the group Harry established in 1986. The preacher will be Bishop Edward Darling, and the service features music Harry wrote and music that he loved.
An eminent choral musician and choirmaster, Dr William Henry Grindle died in July 2013 aged 77. Priory Singers’ Director Robert Thompson said the Memorial Evensong would be a fitting way to acknowledge his immense contribution to church music.
Many members have been involved since Harry first established the ensemble. “This service is our tribute to the founder of the choir, from whom we all, individually and as a group, learned so much and whose legacy permeates everything we continue to strive to achieve,” Robert said.
Born in Bangor and a former pupil of Regent House School in Newtownards, Harry was head chorister with the choir of Bangor Abbey. In 1950 he started organ lessons with Huston Graham, then organist of Bangor Abbey, and in 1953 took up his first post as organist of Shore Street Presbyterian Church, Donaghadee.
He read French at Queen’s University and the University of Strasbourg before moving to London to teach. He studied organ–playing with Flor Peeters in Belgium, and orchestral conducting with Sir Adrian Boult in Kent.
On his return to Northern Ireland in 1962, he was organist of Bangor Parish Church and two years later was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Anne’s, succeeding Capt CJ Brennan who had retired after 60 years at the Cathedral.
He inherited a large choir of more than 50 men and women – some of whom were paid singers – including a treble line of around 20 boy choristers. He maintained a strong roster of talented trebles by regularly visiting local schools with brochures about the choir and the training offered.
In 1965 the boys were invited to sing in two performances of Britten’s War Requiem — the first following its premiere at Coventry Cathedral.
In the 1970s, with the Troubles at their height, Harry rescheduled the weekly full choir rehearsal so choir members could return home safely before dark, ensuring that the high standard of music at services was never compromised.
The cathedral choir was heard live in the BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong series in March 1967. The success of this broadcast ensured regular invitations to summer residencies in England, including St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
Harry left St Anne’s in 1975, when he was appointed to a senior music lectureship at Stranmillis College and was eventually Head of the Music Department.
In 1986 Harry established the Priory Singers. He served as music editor of Sing & Pray, a hymn book issued in 2009, and his hymntune Stranmillis was a prize–winner in the St Paul’s Cathedral millennium hymn competition. His book on Irish cathedral music is widely regarded as a definitive work on the subject.
In 1977 Harry became the first Irish musician to be elected to an Associateship of the Royal School of Church Music. In 2005 he was awarded a Lambeth degree, a Doctorate in Music, by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and also received the Royal Maundy from the Queen in Armagh Cathedral. He was appointed MBE in 2009 for services to music.
The Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev John Mann, said: “All are welcome to this memorial Evensong as we pay tribute to a man who contributed so significantly to the musical life of the Church of Ireland, St Anne’s Cathedral, this City of Belfast and further afield.”
The Dean said Harry had had a huge influence on others. “Harry was one of that select few who have led and still lead the way by their expertise, example and utterly single–minded commitment,” Dean Mann said.
The Memorial Evensong is at 3.30 pm on Sunday November 16 and is open to all. Clergy are welcome to robe for the service.