MUSIC at St. Andrew’s

Music at St Andrew's reflects the AngloCatholic tradition of the Parish. We use the New English Hymnal and sing the seasonal responses, together with acclamations and processionals.

We are a regular venue for concerts in the Deal Festival of Music and the Arts and are always interested in hosting recitals and concerts at other times of the year. We have an 1870 Blüthner Concert Grand Piano in the church as well as the 1883 West Gallery Organ and an 1855 Chamber Organ by T C Lewis.

THE ORGANS

The figure of Frederick H Browne will be unfamiliar to most but within the history of St Andrew's he plays an interesting part. Browne was born in Canterbury in 1849 and was apprenticed to a local organ builder and, according to company folklore, subsequently to the great T C Lewis of Brixton. He moved to Deal aged 22, set up an organ factory in the redundant Nelson Chapel and ran a piano shop & music lending library in the High Street. He lived with a large family and two servants above the shop which is now Superdrug. From these early days Browne, an Anglo-Catholic, seems to have been connected with St Andrew's, becoming sidesman then church-warden; he had all but one of his eleven children baptised here. The then Parochial Church Council commissioned FHB to build a new organ. Situated just yards from the factory this must surely have been his flagship instrument and it would be pleasing to think that organs up and down the county, as well as further afield, came to be commissioned on the strength of this instrument. His company flourished in a late-Victorian church-building boom but an unfortunate incident involving the contract for a Canadian cathedral organ cost the company dearly. Consequently, Browne shut up shop in Deal and moved to Canterbury. Although no longer family owned, F H Browne & Sons Organ Builders still operates a highly successful organ building firm in the Old Cartwright School in Ash, just a few miles north of Deal.

ORGAN RESTORATION PROJECT

The Gallery Organ was badly damaged as a result of Second World War bombing. Fifteen stops were salvaged and placed behind an unattractive pipe-rack in the Sailors' Gallery at the west end of the church. Although just about adequate for its main Sunday duties, its electrics and other parts were failing and the instrument was becoming increasingly unreliable after decades of constant use. A complete restoration of F H Browne's original specification and tonal aesthetic was planned, together with the installation of an early T C Lewis Chamber Organ in the Quire. Completed in 2010, the project provided St. Andrew's with two complementary liturgical instruments of national & local interest, capable of performing the whole repertory in services, for teaching, as well as for concerts and recitals.

Restored Gallery Organ specification (pdf)

THE GALLERY ORGAN CASE

The magnificent new Gallery Organ casework was installed in early 2006 and is considered to be of significant historic interest, being awarded an Historic Organs Certificate by the British Institute of Organ Studies. It is the work of renowned ecclesiastical architect Stephen Dykes Bower (1901-92), and originally designed for St Peter's, Limpsfield in 1963, just three years after he completed the organ cases at Westminster Abbey. We are immensely grateful to Roger Greensted of F H Browne & Sons for donating the case, along with the good folk of St Andrew's and to local businesses for their generous contributions to the Organ Fund.

THE CHANCEL ORGAN

The 1855 Lewis Chancel Organ arrived in 2007. It is essentially the Choir Organ, but comes into its own for the accompaniment of plainsong and for leading Choral Evensong in the Chancel. This beautiful instrument, built for the Culpepper family's chapel in Wakehurst Place, was a gift to St Andrew's by Ardingly Congregational Chapel, where the organ stood for the past 40 years. We are extremely grateful to the Congregational Church.

THE CHOIR

There has always been a choir at St Andrew's. The Victorian tradition of a robed men and boys choir existed well into the twentieth-century; pictures from the seventies show the choirstalls still full, although by this time girls and women had naturally joined the ranks.

We welcome any experienced choral singer to join us. The choir sings each week on Sunday for Mass at 10am and again at Choral Evensong at 6pm; rehearsals take place on Wednesdays at 6.30-7.45pm.

The choir often takes part in the Deal Festival of Music, having performed Spätzen Mass by Mozart in 2006, Fauré Messe Basse in 2007, Schubert Mass in G in 2008 and Haydn's Little Organ Mass and Bach Vespers in 2009. They are very much part of the Parish, whether in Deal or Canterbury or St Omer.

If you are interested in joining us, or simply want to find out more, please contact the Church Office.

Please click to hear the choir singing part of a Plainsong Psalm.