Chris Chataway

My background is that I left studying music at the Adelaide Conservatorium in South Australia to prepare for ordination in the Anglican Church of Australia. Since I was a teenager, I have experienced being an organist, chorister, choir director, guitarist, bass player, arranger and composer in both contemporary and traditional worship styles.

Chataway Setting 1995

This setting was written to accompany the release of A Prayer Book for Australia (APBA) in 1995. Published by Broughton Books, it contains the most widely used eucharistic rite in the Australian Anglican Church. The music is a setting of the second eucharistic order. It was intended to be performed by a wide variety of musical resources and styles, from organ to piano, or instrumental band. It plays well for large and formal worship, as well as for small and intimate worship contexts, and is learnt quickly by congregations.

Optionally, it includes a score for accompanying the spoken eucharistic text as well as the sung text. I was exploring the idea that when music is placed under spoken text, it turns that which is spoken into song, which is ideally how the eucharistic text should be prayed. Please read the introduction carefully though, for it is not for the faint hearted and requires the cooperation of and prior rehearsal with the presiding minister.

NB This setting was also published in "Sing The Feast" in 1998 by Open Book publishers and has been widely used in Lutheran Churches in Australia. While these downloads are for the APBA rites, they are compatible to that published in Sing the Feast. There is also an accompanying CD with this publication.

Andreas Setting 2010

This setting has a more spacious and grander style, ideally for organ and choir but I have included a piano version. It also requires a little more facility on the keyboard than my previous setting. While more demanding of the musicians, it remains easily singable for the congregation.

Let Our Praise Resound

This hymn began its life as a scrap of melody and part of a verse back in 2006, when visiting Minlaton on Yorke Peninsula, my mother's home town. Earlier in 2011, I completed it and offered it to Bishop Garry Weatherill as part of his farewell to the Diocese of Willochra. By chance, Bishop Garry was about to commission a new priest at Minlaton and asked if he could use it. So it premiered at the commissioning of Fr Thomas Karama at St Benedict's, Minlaton on 10 Aug 2011 and was then used at the Diocesan Farewell on 1 Oct 2011. I performed it as a solo at his commissioning as the new Bishop of Ballarat on Saturday 5 Nov 2011. I asked Bp Garry to name the tune and he named it WILLOCHRA after the Diocese.

It is a reflection on Psalm 66 (i.e. vv. 7, 9, 11, & 19) in the light of Christ's story. It also has echoes of Philippians 4:4 (Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.)

Words only

Melody and Words

Melody and Keyboard

Choir and Keyboard

Jesus Calls Us! O'er the Tumult

One of Cecil Frances Alexander's (1818-1895) popular hymns, it was written to be sung on St Andrew's Day. The words were first published in 1852 and are usually sung in their original version, with line 3 in verse 1 changed from "his sweet voice soundeth" to "his voice is sounding." The words are found in most hymn books. A version without 'Thy/Thee' can be found in Together In Song (Australian Hymn Book II) No. 589.

The first time we used it for St Andrew's Day, here at Walkerville, it occured to me that none of the set tunes to these words captured their evocative theme. The voice, calling over the restless sea, inspired this tune, which rolls and pitches, like a boat on the sea. The tune pauses at the end of the third line to allow the accompaniment to roll through like a wave. The pause gives emphasis to what follows, so that we ready ourselves to hear what the voice is calling us to do, expressed in the final line of each verse.

Melody and Words

Choir and Keyboard