Andrew Cichy’s prestigious Clarendon Scholarship will enable the University of WA graduate to continue his Oxford studies into an era when the act of composing sacred music endangered lives
When Henry VIII’s troublesome marriages evoked ire in the Church of Rome and division within the monarch’s own realm, one of the casualties of the stormy era known as the Reformation was the long tradition of creating sacred music within the walls of monasteries and seminaries.
Across England, the deep division between assailants and defenders of the old order saw monasteries wrested from the Catholic church, and clergy facing imprisonment if they continued to celebrate the traditional Mass.
Those who harboured ‘underground’ priests could be imprisoned or see their property confiscated. Clergy refusing to relinquish the musical rituals associated with their faith fled to cities in Catholic Europe where they received sympathetic support for the seminaries they established.
“It was assumed that English Catholics virtually ceased to sing the sacred music that had been so much a part of worship because there were so many restrictions and some clergy actually went ‘underground’,” explains Perth man Andrew Cichy, who is researching the impact of the Reformation on sacred music for his doctoral studies at Oxford University.
“Little is known of the music being composed for liturgical practice because it simply was not acknowledged at the time. In an environment where everything had to be concealed, liturgical practice became functional, and yet we know that during this period some inspired music was produced by English composers.
“Researching an area like this involves detective work. You don’t always look in the obvious places for leads. You might trawl through the inventory of a great house, discover that it had a chapel and then find mention of a thurible – the swinging metal censer filled with incense that was used in ceremonies and liturgies. That might lead you down an interesting research path …
“We do know that the English clergy who fled to the Continent established seminaries in Spain, France and Belgium where priests were ordained. They set themselves up, often in considerable style, and built some exquisite chapels that I’ve been lucky enough to visit. In these chapels, priests were ordained and smuggled back into England. If discovered, they could be hanged, drawn and quartered.”
All this material is a far cry from the Commerce degree that brought Andrew Cichy to UWA from Perth’s Trinity College, where he was already known as a fine musician. However, today he is quick to acknowledge the practical benefits of his first degree.
“Commerce was a very useful first degree for me,” he says. “I’ve been discovering its true value ever since. It taught me to be organised, to report clearly, to appreciate the importance of sound management, impartiality and the need for transparency. I think some of these things get lost in education.
“In my final year at UWA I auditioned for the School of Music and was accepted on piano and organ – and chose to go with the latter.
“Winning a School of Music scholarship was one of the highest moments of my life because I’d been nervous about whether I was up to performance standard. That scholarship offered me four years of study, doing what I loved to do: a major in performance, a minor in musicology. I felt very fortunate.”
Andrew began playing the piano at seven and the organ when he became a student at Trinity College and UWA graduate Annette Goerke, one of Australia’s leading organists, became his teacher. The organ at Trinity had been built by UWA lecturer Lynn Kirkham (School of Mechanical Engineering) and clearly it was a source of inspiration for the young musician.
“The Trinity College organ is a stunning instrument – probably one of the finest in the country. Built in the Dutch classical style, you can play anything on it from Bach to contemporary compositions,” he says.
“Robert Schumann said that no instrument took swifter revenge on sloppy composition or playing. He said a well-built organ tells no lies: even a slight slip of the hand or foot will be magnified several times.
“However, the organ’s many difficulties are outweighed by the sheer beauty of the instrument and its repertoire.
“People always think of an organ’s huge sounds, but every bit as important are the warm, quiet tones and subtle sounds.”
Studying at UWA, Andrew was able to add another significant organ, Winthrop Hall’s McGillivray Pipe Organ, to his performance experience. At the time, he was researching the life of one of the State’s most celebrated composers. Albert Lynch trained for the priesthood and, at a Benedictine Abbey in France, encountered the revival of the plainsong chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church.
On his return to Western Australia, Lynch formed an all-male choir at St Mary’s Cathedral and, in the 1960s, began writing church music. His brilliance earned him a commission to write a Mass for Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral during the Papal visit in 1970.
“I catalogued Lynch’s work and sources and it was a wonderful way of exploring his work and a contribution that, I think, was in danger of being forgotten,” says the graduate.
“After the Second Vatican Council’s directive changing the liturgy from Latin to English, Lynch provided the new music. It was a culture shock singing in English because the Catholic Church had thousands of years of solid repertoire from wonderful composers, so Lynch’s contribution in these early years was significant.
“He also introduced Gregorian chant into Catholic schools in WA in one of this State’s first large-scale music education programmes.
“A whole generation of Catholic students was taught to sing and chant, so it would eventually filter through and the entire congregation would be singing at Mass – and that did happen.
“It’s amazing to recall that there was an annual Gregorian Chant Festival in which more than a thousand school students participated. It was something special and, I think, very important. Sadly, it doesn’t happen any more.”
Andrew has already completed a Masters of Studies at Oxford on a dramatic period in church music. The flowering of creativity during the Renaissance was under threat. By the mid 16th century the Calvinists spearheaded the Protestant attack while the Jesuits were “the shield and sword of Catholic defence”.
With the monasteries falling into the hands of elite noble families, it became a treasonable offence for a Roman Catholic priest ordained abroad to be hidden in a great house or to conduct underground services. In Ireland, just as ‘hedge” schools would later offer education to Irish Catholic children, so there were surreptitious ‘hedge Masses’ – hastily gathered and dispersed – during this period of repression and turmoil.
“My dissertation is confined to the research of sources with the aim of developing a guide to help other researchers pursue the leads I have been able to uncover,” explains Andrew.
“My aim is to open a new area of scholarship. While historians explored this period from the political perspective, because those in hiding were so good at concealing things, we haven’t yet appreciated the extent of English church music produced at this time. We do know that the period ending 1700 produced some inspired music that combined the best of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.”
The Clarendon Scholarship enables Andrew to undertake a DPhil that is a continuation of his Masters study. He will be further exploring the sources he has identified to examine different influences on English music of the time.
“I don’t want to compartmentalise my research because I believe some music scholarship suffers from that. I want to weave together musical styles, cultural influences and history,” says the UWA graduate.
Dr Owen Rees, Reader in Music at Queens College at Oxford, an expert on 16th century Iberian sacred choral music, will supervise his doctoral studies.
While he explores the music of long-gone periods in history, Andrew is also honing his performance skills, taking lessons with virtuoso concert organist Nigel Allcoat; going to master classes with British concert organist Dame Gillian Weir, doing classes in conducting with Paul Spicer, conductor of the Birmingham Bach Choir – and he’s getting to know amazing new organs such as the first Aubertin French organ in Oxford.
“I feel I have a great community of organisations with which to share ideas and I’m loving it,” says the graduate who is now very much at home in Oxford’s Merton College.
“I see myself as both a performer and a scholar and I can absolutely see myself teaching in future. I would love to design new courses that introduce people to the areas I am researching and to repertoire not as well known as it should be. There is so much that has slipped through the cracks – and that is too good to lose. I’ve been so fortunate in having wonderful mentors over the years and I’d like to be able to help others in this way in future.”
These article and photos were first published in UniView, the alumni magazine of UWA.
Published with permission.