Thursday June 1st 2023 - Priory Launches First National Psalm Chant Competition

For immediate release

This Thursday the 1st of June, Priory are launching their first international Psalm Chant writing competition. The contest is open to anyone of any age, and aims to increase participation in church composition. The competition will be judged by a panel of church musicians, with the winner receiving a full set of Priory's recordings of the Psalms of David, a certificate and the possibility of the chant being used on a future recording. All entries will be stored for posterity in the Anglican Chant Archive.

Entries will be accepted until June 30th 2023.

To enter, simply write a psalm chant. You might also suggest a psalm which to which it is particularly suited. For those unfamiliar with the form, there are resources below to describe it and hopefully help in making a first attempt.

How to Enter & Rules

Entries should be formatted in musical notation, and provided in PDF format by email to Neil Collier, of Priory Records, who is the chair of judges. The chair of judges will have final discretion over the winning entry. Entries must be received by midnight on the 30th of June 2023. Entrants under the age of 18 should obtain the permission of a parent or guardian before entering. All chants remain the property of the entrant, but consent is assumed for adding the chant to the Archive.

Background

Priory Records was founded in 1980 by Neil Collier and Paul Crichton. Paul was, and is, a renowned audiovisual engineer, and Neil has had a life-long dedication to choral and organ music. Neil felt that important areas and aspects of the huge repertoire of church music were being seriously neglected and lost by recording enterprises specialising in this widely embracing branch of music, whose roots are historically buried in ancient times.

Since its foundation, Priory has grown into a company with a big reputation for opening up a previously neglected but inspirational branch of music-making and has compiled the largest catalogue of choral and organ music in the world. In the 1990s, Priory issued the first complete recording of “The Psalms of David”, a series of all the 150 psalms which make up the psalter, and to enhance this unique project, 10 different cathedral choirs were involved to provide and illustrate the wide variety and contrast which exists in the interpretation of the music and words. This was followed with a second set with alternate chants.

Priory Records maintains its commitment to church music, and this extends to the promotion and promulgation of the form, and the support of new performers and composers.