Christians have worshipped on the site of Glasgow Cathedral for well over a millennium, from the days of St Mungo in the 7th Century. From this point onwards, music has been a part of worship, even though the Cathedral in its current form was only completed in the 12th century. As the political and religious landscape has changed over the years, so has the music. Beginning with monastic chants and then early polyphony sung by the Vicars Choral, at the time of the Reformation music in the nascent Church of Scotland followed the liturgy away from Latin texts and into the vernacular, with a huge range of styles emerging over the centuries.
Glasgow Cathedral Choir is a professional ensemble with a repertory covering the entire lifespan of the Cathedral, singing at Sunday services. In addition to this they perform at many special services including weddings, funerals and other special events. The most recent of these were the live broadcast of the National Commemoration for the Centenary of the First World War Armistice, and an episode of ‘Songs of Praise’, both for BBC Television. The choir are also frequent contributors to BBC radio, both for worship programmes and as guest artists on BBC Radio Scotland’s Classics Unwrapped. The first of the choir’s commercial recordings, ‘Christmas from Glasgow Cathedral’ is available here.
Director of Music, Andrew Forbes
Cathedral Organist, Dr Malcolm Sim
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Mission Statement
The mission of Glasgow Cathedral Music Department is to lead the congregation and provide comfort through musical praise; to assist the minister in the spreading of God’s word, and to help connect people to each other and to God.