By Caroline Smith
When English-born tenor Richard Butler joined the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) for its first performance of St John’s Passion on 23 March, he brought with him a unique knowledge and history of Church music, nurtured since childhood.
Mr Butler explained that he is Australia’s only traditional Church musician (outside of organists), and has been involved in choral and individual singing in this context since his primary school years, guided, in part by, his family background.
“I’ve been doing this all my life,” he said. “I only converted to Catholicism in 2013, but I grew up around Church music because my father was an Anglican priest and my mother was a religion teacher at several schools.”
“So I had an understanding of Gospel through osmosis just because of that.”
With this foundation, he was able to begin training as a Church singer from a young age, and launch a career both performing and learning about this style of music.
“I began singing in church from very early on, and went to Durham to sing in the cathedral there and was a boarder (at Durham School) from the age of nine,” Mr Butler said.
“I was also at Kings College in Cambridge for three years as a musical scholar, and then I went on to work at Westminster Cathedral.”
As a scholar and performer, Mr Butler focused particularly on mediaeval religious music, the 16th century and the work of Handel – performing regularly in the Messiah throughout his career.
Upon arrival in Australia, Mr Butler took on a permanent position at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, while continuing to perform around the country and overseas with various orchestras and other groups.
“Before I came to Australia in 2010, I was entirely freelance, working sometimes for religious organisations, and sometimes for secular, but always singing religious pieces,” he said.
“Now, I spend two-thirds of my time at the Archdiocese of Sydney, at the Cathedral there, both singing and teaching the choristers.
“The other one-third is spent travelling Australia singing oratoria such as the Passion and Handel’s Messiah.”
Turning to St John’s Passion –written by Johann Sebastian Bach in the 1720s – Mr Butler said the decision for WASO to perform it during Holy Week was not without precedent.
“The Passion is entirely taken from St John’s Gospel,” he said.
“And, I’m not sure, but I believe it was performed for the first time on Good Friday.”
Having sung with WASO in the past, most recently in 2014, Mr Butler said he relished the challenge of interpreting the quieter, more intimate aspects of the Passion with a large musical group.
“Working with them is a very different experience from a Church music performance, because these pieces are written with different instruments in mind compared to an orchestra,” he said.
“The scale of the orchestra is bigger, so it can be quite challenging, particularly with things like the Passion, which has a few moments requiring that you draw in the audience.”