Music at Thorney Abbey
A site of unbroken Christian worship for over a thousand years, whose walls have echoed to the music in praise of the Lord in Latin, French, English and German. The abbey has a strong tradition of choral music and all main services are accompanied by the organ and choir. Eucharist is sung throughout the year.
Choral music has been at the heart of the music at Thorney Abbey for many years. The current abbey choir consists of six sopranos, three altos, one tenor and four basses and practice weekly on Thursday evenings in the abbey at 7.30pm until 8.30pm, and on Sunday mornings at 10.15am before the service at 11.00am.
The choir leads the abbey congregation in t
e singing of the hymns and sung Eucharist. Each week the choir sings a communion anthem from a large musical repertoire which ranges from accompanied choral pieces to unaccompanied SATB works.
Music is sung in English, Latin and German.
In may of each year the choir joins over 300 other singers in Ely Cathedral for the Diocesan Choral Festival. Every two years they sing with other choirs at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.
Should you wish to know more about the choir or are thinking about joining you can contact Jeremy Mold, Organist and Choirmaster, either by telephone on 01733 211810 or email at thorneyorgan@gmail.com.
The current Hill & Son organ at Thorney Abbey dates back to 1858. Previously occupied in the balcony just above the west door, it was moved to a new balcony in the south transept in 1888 and has two manuals and pedal board, consisting of nineteen speaking stops. The action is tracker.
The organ’s tone compliments the abbey perfectly whether as a solo instrument, accompanying congregational hymn singing or the abbey choir.
For more information on the organ click here. You can also see some pictures of the organ cleaning happening here.
During the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 the organ was out of regular use for over 3 months. In order to keep the instrument in as good a condition as possible during this time the organist made regular visits to the organ to run through some checks. A number of recordings of the organ were also made during this period and can be found at the link here.