Visakhapatnam’s oldest choir group of St John’s Parish rings in the Yuletide spirit
Members of the city’s oldest choral group of St. John’s Parish consisting of St. Paul’s Church in Siripuram and St. John’s Church in the One Town area near the Old Post Office in Visakhapatnam | Photo credit: special agreement
It’s a balmy evening in Visakhapatnam when a group of 39 choristers, aged 19 to 61, gather for their final rehearsal at St. Paul’s Church in Siripuram. They are the oldest choral group in the city of St. John’s Parish, consisting of St. Paul’s Church in Siripuram and St. John’s Church in the One Town district near the Old Post Office. The group recently held their annual program and kicked off the Christmas spirit.
Members compete in color-coordinated attire: women in neatly pleated cream and pink saris, and men in formal white shirts and dark trousers. Hectic working hours do not stand in the way of the choir singers practicing Christmas carols on time. The weekly choir rehearsals for the Christmas carol service usually begin in mid-August and the group meets twice a week from November.
fragments of history
Established in 1838, St. Paul’s Church is one of the oldest churches in Visakhapatnam and was built by British officers then residing at Waltair. GH Bell was the consulting engineer and Reverend Shortland built it.
St John’s Church was designed and built by Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton in 1844 and consecrated in 1846.
(As narrated by Edward Paul, Member of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Visakhapatnam Chapter)
Rakesh Anand, who has been a member of this choir since 1987, remembers how his grandmother and mother, who were also members, drew him to music and singing. “I grew up in Soldierpet in the early 1970’s and my grandparents and parents went to St. John’s Church. There was always music playing at home and my parents had a huge collection of vinyl records,” he says. Several Anglo-Indian families lived in the area and every house belted out popular western numbers by the Beatles, ABBA, Boney M and Elvis Presley at this time of year. Gradually, Rakesh began participating in carol practices.
Members of the city’s oldest choral group of St. John’s Parish consisting of St. Paul’s Church in Siripuram and St. John’s Church in the One Town area near the Old Post Office in Visakhapatnam | Photo credit: special agreement
The earliest record of the St John’s Parish Choir performing is from 1848. Since then it has performed almost continuously except during the period of the Spanish Flu, the two world wars and the recent pandemic when there was online chanting. Since its inception, the choir (mainly British soldiers and their families at the time) has comprised the four voices of each choir – sopranos and altos (for the women) and tenors and basses (for the men).
Members of the city’s oldest choral group of St. John’s Parish consisting of St. Paul’s Church in Siripuram and St. John’s Church in the One Town area near the Old Post Office in Visakhapatnam. Photo: special arrangement | Photo credit: special agreement
St. John’s Church had a large pipe organ which was the sole accompaniment for the choir. Its bellows were initially manually operated, later motorized. The group spiced up the Christmas carols by introducing electronic instruments. “In the mid-1980s, an electronic keyboard was purchased and used in the service and also for the choir. Sometimes a special Christmas carol would have added instruments like drums and guitars,” recalls Rakesh.
View of the brightly lit St. Paul’s Church (founded 1838) being decorated before Christmas at Siripuram in Visakhapatnam. The oldest choral group in the city performs here. | Photo credit: KR Deepak
At that time, the choir of St. John’s Church was the only English choir in Vizagapatam, as the city was then called. “Each Christmas, English-speaking Christian families would gather for an evening of carols at St. John’s Church, which was then the center of town,” says 75-year-old Vasanth Thompson, a former choir member. According to him, the choir performed both during the day and at times in the light of torches in the church.
He says the process of joining the choir was straightforward – meet the choir director, who then asked the person to sing a song or two, first understanding the voice quality and then deciding which of the SATB voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) are the individual could join. Over the years the choir has grown and shrunk – sometimes down to as few as 20 members. There were some able conductors including Romola Bennett, Reverend Keith Everett, Manoraj Sumanam and Reverend Reginald Gordon.
The choirmaster always chose the Christmas carols for that year. The repertoire consisted of popular Christmas carols by western poets and music by well-known composers, including George Frederic Handel, John Francis Wade, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Xaver Gruber and John Gardner. To cater to the Telugu speaking community, some Christmas carols have been recorded in Telugu lately.
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