TIO NYC: Music at St. Luke’s in the Fields!

29 Oct TIO NYC: Music at St. Luke’s in the Fields!

How can a church be “in the fields” given it is surrounded by cement and just how good is its choir?

A recent highlight of our NYC adventure was a concert titled “Music for the Chapel Royal” at St. Luke’s in the Fields.

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St.Luke’s in the Fields, the oldest church in Greenwich Village.

St. Luke’s elegant, minimalist interior.

Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, countless jazz clubs no doubt produce great sounds. But this venue was a first for us and well worth the trip downtown.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Question #1, In the Fields:

According to online sources, in October 1820, a group of Greenwich Village residents gathered to found a new Episcopal Church. Two hundred years later, the institution they formed still stands at 479-485 Hudson Street.

Since then, the Church of St. Luke’s in the Fields has weathered two devastating fires and three epidemics. As the third oldest church building still in use in Manhattan, and the oldest in the Greenwich Village Historic District, its history reflects the surrounding neighborhood’s evolution over time.

“In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, New Yorkers living in downtown Manhattan faced the arrival of a yellow fever epidemic. In an attempt to flee this series of outbreaks, people began to move uptown. What we now know as Greenwich Village was, until this time, a largely undeveloped piece of land dotted with farms and summer estates primarily owned by the city’s aristocratic class. As new communities started arriving in the area, they brought old institutions with them and created new ones. St. Luke’s in the Fields was originally commissioned as the uptown chapel of Trinity Parish, on land owned by the church, with its cornerstone laid in 1821. It was consecrated on Ascension Day, May 16, 1822. Reverend George Upfield served as the congregation’s first minister, and fascinatingly, one of its founding wardens included theology professor Clement Clarke Moore, who wrote “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” explained the Village Preservation Society, continuing:

“The name “St. Luke’s” was chosen in honor of the patron saint of physicians, an evocation of the disease that catalyzed the church’s development. According to Daytonian in Manhattan, only four buildings were visible from the site of the church at the time of its construction, including the State Prison between Christopher and Charles Streets. This idyllic rural context apparently gave St. Luke’s the second part of its name: ‘In the Fields.’ Built by James N. Wells, the structure’s simple Federal-style architecture also recalls this transitional period in Greenwich Village. Simply massed and adorned, St. Luke’s was intended to be a ‘country’ church surrounded by farmland, even as it was a critical part of the neighborhood’s changing landscape…”

#Question 2: The Choir

St. Luke’s in the field choral society.

Described by Time Out as “one of the finest classical choirs” in the city, the ensemble is renowned for its historically informed performances of early music.

Under the direction of David Shuler, the choir of St. Luke in the Fields is a professional ensemble comprised of some of New York City’s finest singers. In addition to performing at St. Luke’s, members have performed and recorded with groups such as New York’s Ensemble for Early Music, Pomerium, BachWorks, Artek, Concert Royal, Western Wind, the American Bach Soloists, Anonymous Four, My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort, the Clarion Music Society, Trefoil, the Orlando Consort and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus.

As part of the liturgy at St. Luke’s Church, the group regularly performs masses and motets that date from the 15th century to the present.

The concert we attended featured anthems (brief musical meditations) and service music in a program titled “Music for the Chapel Royal,” defined as “a body of priests and singers who travelled with the monarch.”

While the evening featured sounds you may not be able to whistle on cue, the overall performance of these sonic gems was vibrant, lush and well-balanced.

In general, St. Luke’s concerts are preceded by lectures by noted authorities in the field.

Upcoming concerts include (with 6:30 pm lectures and performances at 7:30):

“A Bach Christmas,’ December 8, 2022.

‘The Golden Age of Portuguese Music,” March 2, 2023.

“Pergolesi Rediscovered” or The Choir of St. Luke in the Fields with Baroque in the Fields period instrument ensemble, May 4, 2023.