Peter Hallock remembered: Seattle’s world-renowned choral musician
Peter Hallock, a world-renowned church musician who made
beautiful music in Seattle for 63 years, died Sunday afternoon at his
home in Fall City. He was 89.
As choir director at St. Mark’s Cathedral for 40 years, from 1951 to 1991, Hallock is best known as the musician who revived the ancient monastic rite of Compline, which became a Sunday night magnet for generations of Seattle-area young people.
“What an amazing thing he created,” said Austin Rickel, a senior at Center School who did a video on Compline last year. “Here was a service that you could experience, a spiritual experience that you could appreciate even if you did not fully understand.
“The experience is going to live on: One of the greatest things a person can do, what you should live for, is to create something that goes beyond yourself. As long as St. Mark’s is in existence, Compline will be in existence with a wealth of participation in something deeply spiritual.”
James Savage, music director at St. James Cathedral, described Hallock as “a giant” and added: “For me, he was the one who made it possible for me to do what I do here. He saw a cathedral as a citizen of the community. He invited people to come for more than worship (services), for annual performances of the Messiah, for organ concerts, for times of grief and celebration.”
Savage was a master’s degree student at the University of Oregon when, in 1974, he was invited to sing at St. Mark’s. “I had a job waiting for me somewhere else, but I fell in love with Seattle.”
Hallock conducted the Compline Choir until 2003 when he was succeeded by Jason Anderson, who wrote his dissertation on Hallock’s music. Hallock believed, said Anderson, that “God could be experienced in beauty, in song, in the communal experience as well as the contemplative.”
The Compline service at St. Mark’s, begun in the 1950′s, led to a rediscovery of the late-night monastic prayer tradition in the Episcopal and Anglican churches. Anderson estimates that, at one time or another, there have been 50 groups across North America modeled on the St. Mark’s Compline Choir. Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver has a Compline service.
As choir director at St. Mark’s Cathedral for 40 years, from 1951 to 1991, Hallock is best known as the musician who revived the ancient monastic rite of Compline, which became a Sunday night magnet for generations of Seattle-area young people.
“What an amazing thing he created,” said Austin Rickel, a senior at Center School who did a video on Compline last year. “Here was a service that you could experience, a spiritual experience that you could appreciate even if you did not fully understand.
“The experience is going to live on: One of the greatest things a person can do, what you should live for, is to create something that goes beyond yourself. As long as St. Mark’s is in existence, Compline will be in existence with a wealth of participation in something deeply spiritual.”
James Savage, music director at St. James Cathedral, described Hallock as “a giant” and added: “For me, he was the one who made it possible for me to do what I do here. He saw a cathedral as a citizen of the community. He invited people to come for more than worship (services), for annual performances of the Messiah, for organ concerts, for times of grief and celebration.”
Savage was a master’s degree student at the University of Oregon when, in 1974, he was invited to sing at St. Mark’s. “I had a job waiting for me somewhere else, but I fell in love with Seattle.”
Hallock conducted the Compline Choir until 2003 when he was succeeded by Jason Anderson, who wrote his dissertation on Hallock’s music. Hallock believed, said Anderson, that “God could be experienced in beauty, in song, in the communal experience as well as the contemplative.”
The Compline service at St. Mark’s, begun in the 1950′s, led to a rediscovery of the late-night monastic prayer tradition in the Episcopal and Anglican churches. Anderson estimates that, at one time or another, there have been 50 groups across North America modeled on the St. Mark’s Compline Choir. Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver has a Compline service.
“He was instrumental in enabling St. Mark’s and the Pacific Northwest
to make a critical contribution to sacred music generally, and to music
in the Episcopal-Anglican tradition,” said the Rev. Steve Thomason,
dean of the cathedral.
Hallock thought big. He was the person who caused the Flentrop Organ — usually called “the mighty Flentrop” — to St. Mark’s in 1965. He authored a three-year cycle of psalm settings for choir, with antiphons for congregational singing, that is widely used in the Episcopal and Lutheran churches.
Hallock was still composing at the time of his death. One of his last works, a setting of the Victimae Paschali, had its premier during Easter services at St. Mark’s in 2013.
“On Easter, I am not not always thankful of having to listen to everything twice, but with this piece I was most thankful,” said the Rev. Greg Rickel (father of Austin), Episcopal bishop of Olympia.
Bishop Rickel noted that Hallock stayed at the “Holy Box” on Capitol Hill for 40 years, conducted the Compline Choir for a half century . . . even as he won national and even international recognition.
Hallock was honored across the pond by the Royal College of Music and was awarded an honorary degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He was the first lay musician in the Episcopal Church to be given the title of canon precentor.
“There is nothing normal about that anyplace in the church,” said the bishop. “He gave his life to St. Mark’s. He brought so many, many people who had never crossed the doors of a church into a church.”
It’s likely that not one of the hundreds of young people who fill St. Mark’s at 9:30 on Sunday nights knows what a “canon precentor” is. Yet, generations of college and high school students have come to witness one of Christianity’s most ancient rituals.
Hallock thought big. He was the person who caused the Flentrop Organ — usually called “the mighty Flentrop” — to St. Mark’s in 1965. He authored a three-year cycle of psalm settings for choir, with antiphons for congregational singing, that is widely used in the Episcopal and Lutheran churches.
Hallock was still composing at the time of his death. One of his last works, a setting of the Victimae Paschali, had its premier during Easter services at St. Mark’s in 2013.
“On Easter, I am not not always thankful of having to listen to everything twice, but with this piece I was most thankful,” said the Rev. Greg Rickel (father of Austin), Episcopal bishop of Olympia.
Bishop Rickel noted that Hallock stayed at the “Holy Box” on Capitol Hill for 40 years, conducted the Compline Choir for a half century . . . even as he won national and even international recognition.
Hallock was honored across the pond by the Royal College of Music and was awarded an honorary degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He was the first lay musician in the Episcopal Church to be given the title of canon precentor.
“There is nothing normal about that anyplace in the church,” said the bishop. “He gave his life to St. Mark’s. He brought so many, many people who had never crossed the doors of a church into a church.”
It’s likely that not one of the hundreds of young people who fill St. Mark’s at 9:30 on Sunday nights knows what a “canon precentor” is. Yet, generations of college and high school students have come to witness one of Christianity’s most ancient rituals.
Hours after his death, the Compline Choir processed to Hallock’s
setting of the Easter canticle Pascha Nostrum (Christ our Passover) and
remembered him simply at the beginning of the service.
Arrangements for
Hallock’s funeral service are pending.
Peter Hallock made Compline happen, in Seattle and elsewhere. It is his living legacy.
Peter Hallock made Compline happen, in Seattle and elsewhere. It is his living legacy.
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