Seminary Music Department

Robert Melhuish, Director of Music
Matthew Weber, Choir Director
Matthew Weber, Chant and Vocal Instructor
Alison Altstatt, Chant Instructor (currently on sabbatical)

Music Department classes are offered two hours a week, and end three weeks prior to the end of the semester, freeing the seminarian's time to focus on final exams in other areas of study. A final exam in music is not required.

GENERAL MUSIC is a full year program taught Fall through Spring. The course is a lecture and discussion format and covers all necessary areas of developing and administering a proper Anglican liturgical music program. The scope includes the elements of liturgical music, the selection and scheduling of liturgical music, the development and budgeting for a musical program, the basics on staffing a liturgical music program, the elements of acoustic and organ to enhance music, and the roots of music in the Anglican tradition. The course also gives instruction on the preparation for singing the daily offices, especially daily Evensong in the Chapel. The course is usually taught by the Director of Music.

BASIC MUSIC is offered in the Fall term. The scope includes an analysis of speech and the singing voice, basic and remedial work on elements of proper speaking and singing, and basic points of reading notation. The course is usually taught by the Vocal Instructor or Choir Director.

CHANT is a Spring term offering only and includes the review of the development of early church music, understanding and using neumes (musical notation from the Middle Ages), basic elements of chanting, and plainsong including church Latin pronunciation. Special focus is placed on the clergy chants in the missal liturgies. This course is taught by the Chant Instructor or Choir Director.