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Views from the Choir Loft

Singing with John Rutter

Andrew Leung · July 13, 2017

CTL John Rutter 1 AST WEEK, I shared a video of Arvo Pärt’s reflection on choral music. This past weekend, I had the privilege to sing under the direction of another great contemporary composer, Sir John Rutter. I was blessed to be invited to serve as a guest singer of the Choir of St. John’s Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral of Hong Kong. We sang Rutter’s colorful settings of Te Deum and Jubilate (O Be Joyful in the Lord) at a Choral Mattins under the direction of the composer himself. It was truly an amazing and unique experience!

I have sung his most well-known pieces, For the Beauty of the Earth and The Lord Bless You and Keep You, many times when I was a young boy in school choirs. Rutter’s pieces are so popular because of their beautiful and simple melodies, and the very straightforward harmonies. However, these two pieces we sang on Sunday are more complex and are full of colors. It was wonderful to see how Mr. Rutter interpret the texts and his own music. He was a very nice and cheerful conductor, and he was constantly sharing stories and telling jokes.

During rehearsal, Mr. Rutter actually asked us to sing our choral anthem, Like As The Hart, for him. He actually knew Howells personally and he spoke very highly of his works. And John sang along with the basses while we go through the piece. To have one of the world’s most famous contemporary composer singing next to me was an unforgettable moment and an extraordinary experience!

CTL-Rutter-Gallery-9 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-8 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-7 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-6 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-5 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-4 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-3 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-2 CTL-Rutter-Gallery-1

Photo Credit: St. John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong

N 2015, John Rutter did an video interview with JW Pepper where he talked about “The Importance of Choir“. He made some very good points about choral singing in the video and he did another similar interview in the beginning of this year with Oxford University Press on “The Power of Choral Singing”:


I thought he made a very good point about “the unity among the choir members”. Choral music can only be sung when singers come together as a choir, as one body. This is very similar to the image of the Church. By contributing our own gifts and talents, we produce beautiful harmonies and give glory to God. As Christ said:

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Mt 18:20)

Whenever we gathered together to sing our prayers, He will be among us.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Gerard Manley Hopkins once argued that most people drank more liquids than they really needed and bet that he could go without drinking for a week. He persisted until his tongue was black and he collapsed at drill.”

— A biography of Fr. Gerard M. Hopkins (d. 1889)

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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