In some churches and cathedrals in the United States, Episcopalians have enjoyed a respectable approximation of that sound. But is it the “real thing”? Can America’s best church musicians duplicate the experience for their congregations, with the training and resources available here? Should Episcopal congregations even try — or should they be forging their own path? And does the angst over some appointments point to a deeper concern? These are some of the questions raised by the recent arrival of several English musicians in high-profile positions in the United States.

In the past two years, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo, N.Y., St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue, in New York and Washington National Cathedral have hired English musicians to lead their music programs. While it may be coincidence, it has caused concern among Episcopal musicians who wonder why, in a denomination with only a handful of full-time jobs and plenty of highly qualified American organists and choir directors, three of the biggest plums went to Britons.

Some observers say it’s extremely difficult for Americans to replicate what happens in English cathedrals, and if a church wants that sound, it likely must hire an English musician. The English choral tradition is more than a particular repertoire performed in a certain style. It’s an entire system, a culture, something that seems embedded in the Church of England’s DNA. And in one school of thought, it doesn’t necessarily translate — in the United States or anywhere else.

Andrew Cantrill grew up in England and served as organist and choirmaster in churches there, as well as in Ireland and New Zealand, before becoming organist-choirmaster at St. Paul’s Cathedral. In an English town or city with a cathedral, he explains, “the cathedral is the focus. It’s the reason for tourism, the reason for pilgrimage.” Typically the cathedral will have a choir school, the place where most British church musicians start out and work their way up through a hierarchy unlike any other.“There is very little opportunity for American musicians to experience the British choral tradition firsthand,” he says. “It’s in our blood.”

“I’m not saying Americans are not capable of pulling it off.” But, he says, “If a church wants to do the British thing to the letter, they’re obviously looking for someone who can make it work.” Howard Ross, who retired as organist and choir director at the Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas in the fall of 2003, agrees that replicating the English sound in an American church “does require an inculcation that is not rapid.” Ross is a veteran church musician who has been involved in the Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM) and is a consultant to the National Network of Lay Professionals.

“There are American musicians who attended good music schools who have an ability to train their choirs to sound like an English choir. … But the ethos of the worship is not the same,” he says. “The choir itself is really lovely — but it’s a copy.” Ross compares the scenario to that of  “priests who have grown up and trained in another denomination and decide to come to the Episcopal Church. They have no sense of the ethos of an Episcopal church.”

Likewise, the Church of England has its own ethos, he says. “Congregational hymn singing is one of the most glorious sounds in the world. But you’re not going to find much of that in English cathedrals,” where the congregation relies on the choir.
“That ethos thing cuts both ways,” Ross says. Cantrill agrees. A British musician “is not necessarily going to understand what it means to be Episcopal,” he says.

The allure of ancient traditions

The desire to offer music in the English tradition is not just liturgical pretentiousness, but a way of connecting to something ancient and deeply spiritual. For him and his contemporaries, “The ancient traditions are often what we buy into,” says Matthew Davies, who was a choral scholar at Canterbury Cathedral and now works for Episcopal News Service in New York. “I wouldn’t dream of going to a happy-clappy service with guitars.”

Most Generation X Christians, he says, are into “either ancient traditions or really pushing-the-envelope churches with hip-hop music.”
If a congregation has decided that it wants to capture the English sound, its leadership must make a real commitment to it. Such a program requires resources — an accomplished, multiperson staff  and paid singers, for starters. And some say you need an English musician at the helm.

The willingness of some churches to commit those resources is attracting English organists and choirmasters to the United States as a land of musical opportunity. Two stories published in British papers last year reported that Britons can make substantially higher salaries in the United States. The Church Times carried a story in February 2004, “Jobs go to imported organists,” and the Telegraph published an article the following month, “Britain’s best organists are lured to America by higher wages.”

Neal Campbell, an American who is organist and choirmaster at St. Stephen’s in Richmond, Va. — a cardinal parish in one of the largest dioceses in the Episcopal Church — rattles off a list of churches with English musicians. Besides the three already mentioned, he names St. Michael and St. George in St. Louis, St. Paul’s in Akron, Ohio, Christ Church in Charlotte, N.C., and the Cathedral of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pa. “The Episcopal Church has been always influenced by the English church music tradition,” Campbell says. He says he doesn’t see any greater influence now than in the past.

The musician whom Campbell credits with perhaps the single largest influence on today’s Episcopal musicians is an American: “Gerre Hancock’s influence on music in the Episcopal Church is equally as great as that of any British musician.” Hancock, organist and master of choristers emeritus at St. Thomas Church, New York City, whose choir school is the only church-affiliated boarding choir school in America, is known for his leadership of that program, as well as his teaching and his performances throughout the country. Campbell says that Hancock’s pupils are serving in numerous cardinal parishes and cathedrals across the United States.

Ironically, the program that Hancock developed and led at St. Thomas for years is widely credited as one of the finest — and most “English” — choral programs in the United States. Hancock, who now teaches at the University of Texas in Austin, says he thinks American musicians are more than up to the challenge.

The tendency among some clergy to assume that English musicians are better qualified than Americans is “just a misunderstanding of the capabilities of American musicians,” says Hancock. “They have marvelous training.” American musicians “better understand the sociological makeup of our Episcopal churches,” Hancock notes, adding, “I don’t mean it to sound jingoistic.”

American musicians are better qualified to serve in American churches because of “the generally broader education our musicians get, which the British musicians do not,” he says. “It’s an erroneous perception that only English musicians can do the British choral tradition.” That tradition must be placed in an American context, Hancock says. “That’s the British church — but we’re the American church. American musicians tend to be much more broad and open: Going abroad, going to conferences, staying in touch with one another. They’re not just stuck in one roadway, one path. Above all, we’re musicians.”

A national cathedral with an imported music director

Of all the organists and choir directors Campbell named, the one that seems to get the most comments is the recently appointed Michael McCarthy -- because of the institution that hired him. “Washington National Cathedral is the presiding bishop’s seat, it’s the bishop’s seat for the Diocese of Washington, and it’s a place of prayer for all Americans,” says the Rev. Clayton Morris, the Episcopal Church’s officer for  liturgy and church music. “Shouldn’t there be an American sitting at the console?” Cantrill says he understands that concern, but adds, “Presumably Michael was what they needed.”

Greg Rixon, the cathedral’s director of public affairs, followed the search process that led to McCarthy’s hiring. While recent appointments don’t constitute a “British invasion,” he says, “It is certainly true that persons such as John Scott [at St. Thomas] and Michael McCarthy are premier musicians eminently qualified for jobs in America, and when American churches have sought the very best for their music programs, it makes sense to give careful consideration to talent from the U.K., where there is a longer and stronger church music tradition than here in the U.S.”

While the gap in training and preparation for such jobs is narrowing, Rixon says, “a gap does still remain.” He compares it to the differences that once existed between U.S. and European orchestras and conductors. “European orchestras reflected a longer tradition of excellence than did American orchestras.” 

Of McCarthy’s hiring, Rixon notes, “The more important change or break in tradition is not that he is an Englishman, but rather that he is indeed a choirmaster/singer and not an organist.” Previously, he says, “the cathedral’s music director was first an organist with choir directing duties. Michael has reversed that trend.” Ross keeps the focus on the churches doing the hiring. “If anybody needs to examine what’s going on, it’s the hiring institutions,” he says.

As for Washington National Cathedral, Ross says he understands the “personal gut feeling that, if it’s the national cathedral, shouldn’t there be an American in that position?” He asks, “Does this say that we don’t have the caliber of musicians” that England does? Ross doesn’t question McCarthy’s credentials, nor those of Scott, organist and director of music at St. Thomas, whom Ross considers a “very good friend” and “a fine musician.”

“I do hate it when fine American musicians don’t get a fair shake,” he says. But with the choir school at St. Thomas, there probably isn’t an American trained to do that job as well as Scott, who came from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ross says. There are Americans who could be groomed for such a position if given the opportunity and resources to, for example, apprentice to a musician in England, he says.

Ross notes that Dale Adelman, director of music at All Saints, Beverly Hills (and Cantrill’s predecessor in Buffalo), took it upon himself to study there. Adelmann, the immediate past AAM president, received a Fulbright scholarship in 1987 to study Anglican choral worship at Cambridge University, where he remained to complete a Ph.D. According to Ross, Adelman successfully integrated the English tradition into an American style of worship. Ross would like to see churches support that kind of study.

Raymond Glover, professor of music emeritus at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., and editor of Hymnal 1982, says he is concerned about the arrival of British musicians because of the small number of jobs that exist here. “You can’t knock [the recently hired Britons],” he says. “They are really first-rate musicians. ... I don’t mean to be insular. But there is a shortage of church jobs for American musicians. Good musicians are going into other careers as a result. What does this mean when it comes to our schools? Who’s going to be attracted to graduate school to prepare for a job that doesn’t exist? The long-term impact is serious.”

What’s the real issue?

A number of musicians, American and British, refused to comment for this article, reluctant to say anything that might damage relationships with colleagues they respect and admire. A musician who is widely regarded as one of the finest in the country would not speak for attribution, but asked, “Can you think of any other profession in which the hiring of six or eight foreigners would be such a big deal?” While the arrival of British musicians in Episcopal churches is cause for concern, he says, that reaction to a perceived “British invasion” is really a symptom of something deeper.

AAM President Jack Warren Burnam, parish musician at Immanuel Church, Highlands, in Wilmington, Del.., also is concerned about larger issues. Burnam says he does not see the British appointments as a problem. The presence of English musicians here “has always been a reality of the musical scene,” says Burnam. “There are any number of Brits who have held jobs in the United States. This strikes me as a little bit of old news.”

AAM has a grievance process, and no one has used it regarding the search processes leading to the appointments of Englishmen. “All of our discussions have taken place in the context of our policy, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, physical handicap or nationality,” Burnam says. “It’s a stated policy that we require all our members to adhere to. … if someone has a job opening and asks us to publicize it, we ask them to specify in writing their agreement to this policy.”

Burnam adds, “We did look into [the British appointments], and we listened to what people had to say. We decided, there’s nothing here that needs to be addressed or that we’re in a position to address.” “Every hiring institution has both canonical and just commonsense authority to construct their own process and to do what they think is in the best interest of their institution,” he says. “The smoking guns [that would indicate some sort of discrimination] are hard to come by. After those couple of high-profile jobs went to Brits, several others didn’t. There’s a certain randomness here.”

The percentage of English musicians in America is tiny. “AAM has 800 members,” he says. “Less than two percent of our membership is made up of people who are British.” Still, says Burnam, “The angst is personal and highly understandable. This situation points to some underlying anxiety. The Episcopal Church has given a lot of lip service to the ministry of the laity. But by and large they have not backed that up with action.”

General Convention has passed several resolutions regarding professional standards for, and treatment of, lay professionals, Burnam notes. “By and large, dioceses have been unwilling to follow those up with anything mandatory or enforceable. Lay people in general and musicians specifically — including those with fine credentials — work under employment conditions that are sometimes medieval.”

Concern over appointment of British musicians in the United States “reflects general anxiety about our status in the church,” Burnam says. AAM is working to “promote best-employment practices” and has published two resources for congregations (see sidebar). “We want a level playing field where the institutions value [musicians’] presence.”

Ross, in his work with the National Network of Lay Professionals, is addressing similar issues. “We want to make the Episcopal Church a good place to work,” he says. Ironically, English musicians may be coming to America not only for higher salaries, but also because they sense a more positive attitude here towards the church in general and towards professional musicians in particular. The Telegraph quoted John Ewington, general secretary of the Guild of Church Musicians, saying, “Americans treat their church musicians as professional people and the clergy treat them as their equals.”

While American musicians may not necessarily share that sentiment, Burnam says it’s understandable that the United States would be attractive to English musicians.The Episcopal Church integrates the best of the traditional Anglican musical forms into a broader tradition that includes excellent congregational singing, he says. “There’s almost nothing that’s comparable in England.”

That, plus the much lower pay there, has “created an extremely attractive situation for the small segment” of musicians with the credentials to secure a job here, he says. “This really does look like the promised land.”Echoing Ross, Burnam notes that there is a different ethos here. In England, the emphasis may be on performance, but here, the issue is “what it feels like to be part of a parish, what kind of community that is.”

“And what’s really important in one parish won’t be in another parish — it depends on the needs or social setting of their people,” he says. “We’re long past the point where there is one ideal template for what a parish should look like, let alone the ideal music program. We’re looking for ways to expand our vision, to understand a broader range of [musical expression].”

Cantrill notes that a music program such as the one in Buffalo’s cathedral requires financial resources that many parishes will decide to put elsewhere, such as in outreach or overseas mission. It’s up to each congregation to make that decision, he says, and to decide how it will express itself liturgically. The Anglican choral tradition, as attractive as it is, is one option among many, says Burnam. “I think that’s the world we’re in today.”

Like Hancock and others, Morris says he wants American congregations to be who they are — not an imitation of something else.
“In my early days, there was a sense of pride in being Anglican, and obviously the repertoire of the golden age of English church music is glorious stuff,” says Morris. “The question is, are we the Church of England in the U.S., or are we an American denomination?”

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