The music schedule appears once a month, and show all the hymns, psalms, settings and anthems to be included in the services for the coming month. Our choir has a big repertoire, including over 30 Mass settings, a similar number of settings of the Evensong canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis) and over 200 anthems and motets suitable as Communion motets for Sung Mass or as anthems for evensong (as it says in the rubric: ‘in quires and places where they sing’.) The process of compiling the Schedule begins over breakfast in Weatherspoons when the Director of Music and the Vicar meet to pick the hymns for the following month. This can take up to 2 hours, followed by several hours of agonizing by the D. of M. over the choices of settings and anthems suitable for the Sundays and feast days in question, and careful checking by the vicar to ensure that all the details are agreed.
The Music Schedule becomes the source of the information on the pew sheet for each service. The result is hopefully a rich feast of glorious music to accompany the liturgy, which the choir miraculously manages to bring to life each week!