St. Peter's Church: Faith in Action for 250 Years

Chapter 12: The Choir School

Harold Gilbert leads a choir practice in 1948. “ἀ ere is not a boy that I cannot teach to sing,” he reportedly said. (Courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, PA) David J. Richards The Gilbert Years The Choir School: 12 From St. Peter’s earliest days, a choir has been an essential part of the church’s cultural and religious life. In the nineteenth century, the parish also instituted formal education. With the creation of St. Peter’s Choir School for Boys in 1903, music and schooling became intricately intertwined, and remained that way for close to six decades, giving the parish a national renown that helped sustain it in some of its toughest years. ἀ e records show that a choir sang at the first service and that a year later, the congregation was led in singing by a clerk (a prestigious position at the time) from the reading desk at the west end of the church. ἀ en, in 1782, a committee was created to arrange for someone to instruct twelve persons, men and women, to sing while accompanied by the organ. ἀ is is the first mention of an ongoing choir at St. Peter’s. By the mid-1800s, the choir consisted of both volunteers and four to six paid professional singers. ἀ e fees of the soloists, each of whom was paid about one hundred dollars a year, were always an issue at times of parish financial difficulty, however. Music was essential—but at what cost? ἀ e theme would echo through the years. At just such a time of financial stress in 1866, the Reverend George Leeds broached the idea of replacing the professional singers with a boys’ choir led by a trainer—a change that took effect on December 8, 1868. ἀ is new choir consisted of sixteen boys; eight were paid two dollars a month and eight received one dollar a month. A leader, called the drillmaster, was also employed. It soon became evident , however, that a choirmaster was needed to teach the boys and that professional singers were still needed to provide core musical talent. By 1900 the choir was costing the parish about four thousand dollars a year. ἀ e parish had also seen growth and change on the education front. In 1834 St. Peter’s Day School was created at 319 Lombard Street to provide children with a much-needed basic education at minimal cost. ἀ e school proved a great success at first, but by the turn of the century the public school system offered education to all at no cost, and 152 St. Peter’s Church: Faith in Action for 250 Years attendance at the parish school dropped off. In early 1903 Ernest Felix Potter , the church organist, made a proposal: Why not create a boys’ choir school? Choir schools have been part of the Anglican worship tradition for centuries and were usually attached to cathedrals, abbeys, or college chapels. In England, the choir schools of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London and of King’s College, Cambridge, are prominent examples of the tradition. A choir school at St. Peter’s would offer not only a strong academic education but also intensive musical instruction not available in the public or private school systems, thus providing a continuing supply of musically trained boys for the church’s services. Similar schools had been created in Baltimore and New York. ἀ e proposal was approved, and St. Peter’s Choir School for Boys opened on September 15, 1903, merging with the parish school to provide a single effective educational institution. Potter became the first headmaster and choirmaster. A little over a decade later, Harold Wells Gilbert arrived at St. Peter’s—and would largely dominate the picture until his retirement amid tumult in 1960. Gilbert was born on November 25, 1893, in Lambertville, New Jersey, the son of an Episcopal priest who died when his son was ten years old. ἀ e family relocated to Philadelphia, and Gilbert became a soprano soloist at the Church of Our Saviour in Jenkintown under the tutelage of Lewis Wadlow. Wadlow became the organist at St. Peter’s in 1910, and in 1915 Gilbert, then twenty-two, joined him as his assistant. Gilbert was appointed choirmaster and organist a year later, when Wadlow left for another position. ἀ e next few years were busy ones for Gilbert. In 1917 he received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Months later, in January 1918, he...