Info Current as of 4/15/1998
The GoodNewSingers
The
GoodNewSingers (GNS) is an English singing Church Choir
affiliated with the St. Teresa's Parish Church, Prince Edward
Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Mass time
The Choir manages the music ministry of the 9:00 am Sunday English Mass weekly. Thus the Choir is also known as the 9 o'clock Choir. As the Parish church has mostly a Chinese (Cantonese) speaking congregation, the Christmas and Holy Week (Easter) celebrations in English are usually held in the School Chapel (used to be known as the Pastoral Center) of Maryknoll Convent School, or in the School Hall.
Membership
With St. Teresa's Church being the parish church of Kowloon Tong, and a number of Catholic Schools in the parish's realm, the Choir has traditionally recruited members from secondary schools of the area. At times, the more dominating schools for recruiting members were the Maryknoll Convent School and the La Salle College, which were close by the church. Thus, there was a time when the choir was called the La Salle and Maryknoll Church Choir. Nevertheless, there were always students from other neighboring schools, and not necessarily from the Catholic schools alone.
There was however never any hard and fast rules for limiting the source of where members originated, and so there were often more 'senior' members in the choir who were in University or were already in full time work. Likewise, the choir did often welcome little brothers and sisters of existing members, who may not be able to contribute in volume, but can still help in spirit, and also help build up a larger looking crowd when the number of available members on hand for a mass was not that great!
Follow these links to learn more about our members through the years:
Source of Music
Today the main source of the GNS' music is
from North America's folk style church music, the main
accompaniment being guitars. Other accompanying instruments have
been used over the years of the choir's history, most often the
flute, and occasionally the organ (pedals and/or keyboard), the
cello, violin, mandolin, double bass, oboe, bassoon, French horn;
the relatively modern instruments of bass guitar, banjo and
ukulele.
The choir was founded in the 1960s by a Maryknoll sister, Sr. Marie Ann Lipetzky. The GNS started off as a choir using the organ as the accompaniment, and using traditional English Church hymns. The membership was mainly from the Maryknoll Convent School and the La Salle College. Then around 1970/71, the guitar was introduced to the choir, and was used concurrently with the organ.
In 1975/76, the "Red Book" as Choir members had always referred to the then new song book, was compiled, thanks to the work of Sister Jeanne Houlihan, Barbara Lee, Lester Huang and other members which the writer cannot now trace. In fact the Red Book was only one of the three colours the song book was printed in. A Blue Book found its way into the classrooms of Maryknoll Convent School (MCS), and a Black Book found dwelling in Maryknoll Fathers'(Retreat) House, Stanley, HK.
In
reviewing the compilation of the Red Book, it is evident that the
music scores were set in a format that was suited for the guitar
(with guitar suited chords), and there was no indication that the
book was complied for an organist. Thus by 1976, the GNS evolved
into a guitar plus organ choir. However the organ was slowly
phased out by 1983/84, although the organ was still used for the
General Intercessions response "Lord of Glory, Hear our
Prayer". Notably, this remaining response was also
eventually replaced by a guitar accompaniment.
The 150 or so hymns in the Red Book formed the backbone of the music the choir was to use. The source of the music was influenced of the Maryknoll Sisters, whose base is in Maryknoll in NY State, USA. Probably also due to the lacking of more modern and lively hymns from HK for the more youthful choir (and for MCS), Sister Jeanne and the members of the Choir opted to import music from North America.
As a result, the Red Book saw its main source of music from the (then) North American Liturgy Resources (NALR), for example 25 hymns were from the Neither Silver Nor Gold Compilation (1974); and Hymns from the Weston Priory Productions - The Benedictine Foundation of the State of Vermont, Inc., for example the Album of "Listen" (1972/73), including the hymns "All I Ask of You", "Hosea" and "Listen", well know to choir members from 1970 to 1998 and after. Most, if not all, of these hymns from the Weston Priory were written by Gregory Norbet OSB. The styles of the music in these albums had much influence on the style the Choir was to develop in.
A choir can excel and improve only when it is stable and can comfortably manage its basic duties of leading the singing of hymns for the congregation in weekly Sunday mass. A prime example of this is between 1985-86, where GNS experienced significant improvements in its standards in singing and instruments, owing this to a group of Choir members who pushed themselves to reach new standards. Notably, one of the members, Eugene Ng, laboriously compiled the first instrumental book for the choir, recording the scores that he, and his predecessors in the choir, have written to accompany the hymns.
During this strong era of the choir, a few landmarks were tabulated : The GNS participated and sang in a Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass in 1985 which was televised by the Radio and Television Hong Kong (RTHK) on the following Easter Sunday. Also, around the same period, the GNS sang in a mass which was broadcasted by radio.
The strong growth of the choir during those few years were to suddenly receive a heavy blow after the summer of 1989, due to the departure of an exceptionally large number of seasoned members. On seeing the end of a remarkable era of the Choir, on 4 July 1986, the GNS held a religious concert named "Spirit, Be Our Spirit". During the concert, some 30 hymns and shorter responses/orders for mass were shared in the then Pastoral Center Chapel (now part of the Maryknoll Primary School) with the audience of friends and supporters along the years. The concert was also graced by Rev Father H. Naylor SJ, a long time supporter of the GNS, who shared with us a homily and a final blessing. With the final hymns of Be United, Shalom and finally For I shall See You Again, there was hardly a dry eye, at least among the performers, that is, all the members of the GNS, some 25-30 then.
The Choir went into a relatively uneventful time for several years from 1989 to 1990, but the GNS nevertheless continued dutifully to support the music needs to the 9 o'clock mass at St. Teresa's. With the departure of several key guitarists and instrumentalists, circumstances made it necessary for other relatively less experienced members to shoulder the guitar and the leading of the choir. With the support of a strong and determined committee, the GNS continued.
By the early 1990's, the GNS saw the return of some experienced members of the choir to HK after their university education, and resettling in HK. With this, the choir saw some re-strengthening of the ground work of the choir - the familiarity of the core hymns, and the ability to learn new hymns from new albums, now brought by members themselves from religious shops in Canada and the USA during their studies there or during travel. Also, members "stationed" (either emigrated or temporarily for studies) in these countries also sent/brought back music they used or heard while abroad. Thus the size of the GNS' repertoire continued to grow during this time to roughly 300 hymns to date.
Relations with Other Choirs
Another sign of a mature choir may be the reaching out of the choir to other similar choirs/groups for exchanges and friendships. This occurred on several occasions during the stronger times of the GNS: To St. Joseph's Church, Saturday 6:00 pm English mass during 1985/86; to the AMDG Choir of Christ the King Chapel, St. Paul's Convent, Causeway Bay, 11:00 am Sunday English Mass in 1995; and to Wisdom Cell Group and Choir in the University of HK in 1997, which was then a relatively young choir (about 1 year old) singing for the 11:30 am mass in the Chapel in Ricci Hall.
A common factor between GNS and all these choirs was the sharing of the same mission of leading congregation in song and music during the celebration of Mass. Other common factors are the similar age of the members of the choirs, the use of the guitars (for most of these choirs), and similar problems that the choirs encountered, for example, searching for new sources of music, membership issues, religious activities for the spiritual development of members, succession planning etc. Through these reaching-out exercises and regular exchanges (singing together in each other choir's masses), the GNS has, on the one hand, learnt from the other choirs (songs, methods and management etc.), and on the other, been able to share our experiences in running the choir with our fellow sisters and brothers in Christ; and in some other cases, given hands on support, as in the St. Joseph's Choir in the mid-1980s.
Today, come rain or shine, the GoodNewSingers, intermitted by ups and downs, laughters and tears, continue to sing at the same 9 o'clock mass at St. Teresa's Church, after over 30 years of music making and sharing with all those brothers and sisters who have joined us at the masses.
May the members of the GoodNewSingers continue to help all people they encounter, and to worship God with song: Songs of the Good News.
