HOLY CROSS CHOIR, LEICESTER                                               PRACTICES

Some more on our history:

The religious order of Dominican Friars (or Black Friars), officially called the Order of Preachers, was founded by St Dominic in 1216, and in 1247 established the Priory of St Clement on the east bank of the River Soar in Leicester. This was suppressed in 1538, but Dominican missionaries began visiting Leicestershire from 1746, and in 1819 a church, schoolroom and priests house opened on Wellington Street.

Over the next 60 years the church was extended several times and the cloister was completed, and in 1882 Holy Cross was raised to the status of a Priory.  In 1931 the first part of the present church - the Choir, Lady Chapel, Transepts and first two bays of the nave - was opened, and the former church and became a parish hall.  Building resumed after World War II and the completed church was consecrated in 1958. A stained glass window commemorates the arrival of the Dominicans in Leicester in 1247, and the completion of the present church in 1958.

The musical tradition of Holy Cross stretches back almost two centuries. In his 'Music and Friends' (1838) William Gardiner records that the first director of music in 1819 was the noted young French musician and composer Charles Guynemer, who had been a professor at the Paris Conservatoire and a virtuoso solo violinist until he went into exile in England on the defeat of Napoleon in 1815.  He settled first in Leicester, though in the 1820s he moved to London.  Since the later 19th century at least, Holy Cross has been widely known for its music, including liturgical works by Haydn, Mozart and their 19th century followers in their tradition, notably Gounod and Rossini, as well as anthems and hymns in the emerging English Catholic tradition founded in the later 18th century by Samuel Webbe.

The distinctive Dominican plainsong tradition has been increasingly important through the 20th century, and since the liturgical reforms of the 2nd Vatican Council the repertoire has been broadened with the inclusion of both English settings of the Mass and a wide range of Renaissance and later anthems in the English church tradition, as well as contemporary works.  The four part mixed voice adult choir sings at the 11am High Mass every week, which use English and Latin in alternate weeks, and members of the choir also join the friars of the Community in singing Compline in the Dominican Rite every Sunday evening, Holy Cross being the only Community in the English Province to maintain this tradition.

Holy Cross has two organs.  The first, by J. Porritt and Son of Leicester was installed in the old church in 1861, and enlarged in 1891.  It was then re-built and moved to the Choir of the new church in 1931, with a further rebuild under the guidance of Ralph Downes in 1953.  The present main organ, in the west end gallery, was built in 1880 by W E Richardson for St Mary's Parish Church, Preston, Lancs., and when the church was declared redundant the organ was bought by Holy Cross and moved to Leicester in 1995, being both restored and enhanced by Peter Collins of Melton Mowbray at the same time.