Pipe Organs of England - Pipedreams - American Public Media

PAGE 62THURSDAY, 17 MAYThe College and the ChapelThe Queen’s College, founded 1341, is one of the constituentcolleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen’s iscentrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its18th-century architecture. The “Hall of the Queen’s Scholars atOxford” was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield, a chaplainin the household of Queen Philippa, who named it in herhonour. He envisaged an establishment of fellows, chaplains,‘poor boys’ and various officials and servants, headed by aProvost. Membership was to be open, but with a preferencefor inhabitants of Cumberland and Westmorland. After 1400the preference for people from Cumberland and Westmorlandbecame a monopoly, making Queen’s a community of north-westerners. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it prospered,and in Elizabeth’s reign, when it became one of the most popular Oxford colleges. Meanwhile Queen’s was expanding. Williamsongave a building in 1671-2, and the magnificent Library, one of the finest in England, was added during 1693-6 to house Barlow’sbooks. Around 1700 the crucial decision was taken to rebuild the medieval College entirely, so that by the 1730s Queen’s wasthe only Oxford college to be housed entirely in Baroque buildings. The Front Quad, which has been called ‘the grandest pieceof classical architecture in Oxford’, was heavily influenced by the great architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, who produced even moreextravagant designs that were never executed. During the eighteenth century Queen’s experienced the same decline as mostcolleges, and in the early Victorian period the same revival and reform. Since the late nineteenth century it has developed a strongacademic reputation. The Queen’s College is well known in and beyond Oxford for the quality and quantity of its musical activities.The mixed-voice Chapel Choir is conducted by the Organist and Praelector in Music, Dr. Owen Rees, a noted scholar of Iberianpolyphony, and occasional services are conducted by the Organ Scholars, Benedict Lewis-Smith and Matthew Burgess.The Chapel: There has been a chapel at the Queen’s College since 1382: the present chapel was consecrated by the Archbishopof York in 1719 and has stood virtually unchanged since it was consecrated. The chapel has a significant place in College life. HolyCommunion is celebrated every Sunday morning and at other times and is open to all communicant members of any Christianchurch or denomination. The Sunday evening service takes the traditional form of Choral Evensong, which is also held on Wednesdayand Friday evenings during term. Morning and evening prayer is said daily, and at other times some like to use the stillness fortheir own prayer. Baptisms, confirmations, and weddings are also conducted for members or former members of the College.