1st july 2000
One Wedding and a Concert
The Cathedral in Arundel was built by the Duke of Norfolk in 1872. Originally intended as an Oratory, it was dedicated to St Philip Neri but it never fulfilled that role, and was a rather oversized parish church next to the Castle, official home of the Earl Marshal of England. In 1966 the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton was created with a ready-made beautiful cathedral. John Underwood's family have lived in Arundel or been connected with it for many years and it made a splendid setting for his marriage to Susanne Jörg. As well as our own forces of instruments and singers, we were joined by the Arundel Cathedral Choir who sang William Byrd's Ave Verum - a few yards away from the shrine of St Philip Howard, Duke of Norfolk, to whom the Cathedral is now dedicated and who would have known Byrd as another Catholic at the Court of Queen Elizabeth I. We were also joined by Neuweiler Kirchenchor in which Susi has sung since leaving school and which is conducted by Bernhard Fromkorth who taught her music for nine years (who conducted the orchestra and choirs during the Wedding Mass). In the afternoon there was a solemn nuptial mass in which the music of Haydn's Mass (for Peace) in Time of War played its proper liturgical part in a celebration in five languages. (English, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew). The other music of the Mass were taken from the Chants of Taizé (a community of Protestant and Catholic Brothers in Southern Burgundy which Susi and John visit every year). In the evening, after the reception, we gave a concert in aid of the Cathedral's Music Foundation.