Editing Anglicanism (section)

===={{anchor|Quires and Places where they sing}} "Quires and Places where they sing"==== <!-- Please do not "correct" the capitalisation or spelling as it is a direct quote -->
{{Main|Anglican church music}}
In the late medieval period, many English cathedrals and monasteries had established small choirs of trained [[lay clerk]]s and boy [[choir|choristers]] to perform [[polyphony|polyphonic]] settings of the [[Mass (music)|Mass]] in their [[Lady chapel]]s. Although these "Lady Masses" were discontinued at the Reformation, the associated musical tradition was maintained in the [[Elizabethan Settlement]] through the establishment of choral foundations for daily singing of the Divine Office by expanded choirs of men and boys. This resulted from an explicit addition by Elizabeth herself to the injunctions accompanying the 1559 ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' (that had itself made no mention of choral worship) by which existing choral foundations and choir schools were instructed to be continued, and their endowments secured. Consequently, some thirty-four cathedrals, collegiate churches, and royal chapels maintained paid establishments of lay singing men and choristers in the late 16th century.{{sfn|Mould|2007|p=94}}

All save four of these have – with interruptions during the [[English Interregnum|Commonwealth]] and the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] – continued daily choral prayer and praise to this day. In the Offices of [[Matins]] and [[Evening Prayer (Anglican)|Evensong]] in the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'', these choral establishments are specified as "Quires and Places where they sing".

For nearly three centuries, this round of daily professional choral worship represented a tradition entirely distinct from that embodied in the intoning of [[Parish Clerk]]s, and the singing of "[[West gallery music|west gallery choirs]]" which commonly accompanied weekly worship in English parish churches. In 1841, the rebuilt [[Leeds Parish Church]] established a surpliced [[choir]] to accompany parish services, drawing explicitly on the musical traditions of the ancient choral foundations. Over the next century, the Leeds example proved immensely popular and influential for choirs in cathedrals, parish churches, and schools throughout the Anglican communion.{{sfn|Mould|2007|p=177}} More or less extensively adapted, this choral tradition also became the direct inspiration for robed choirs leading congregational worship in a wide range of Christian denominations.

In 1719, the cathedral choirs of [[Gloucester Cathedral|Gloucester]], [[Hereford Cathedral|Hereford]], and [[Worcester Cathedral|Worcester]] combined to establish the annual [[Three Choirs Festival]], the precursor for the multitude of summer music festivals since. By the 20th century, the choral tradition had become for many the most accessible face of worldwide Anglicanism – especially as promoted through the regular broadcasting of choral evensong by the [[BBC]]; and also in the annual televising of the festival of [[Nine Lessons and Carols]] from [[King's College, Cambridge]]. Composers closely concerned with this tradition include [[Edward Elgar]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Gustav Holst]], [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], and [[Benjamin Britten]]. A number of important 20th-century works by non-Anglican composers were originally commissioned for the Anglican choral tradition – for example, the ''[[Chichester Psalms]]'' of [[Leonard Bernstein]] and the ''[[Nunc dimittis]]'' of [[Arvo Pärt]].