Listening with the heart: recalling carol concerts at St. Mary’s Church

The John Millns Chorale might have been silent during the carol roll call, but its Yuletide sounds from years ago still resonate with the music cognoscenti. Let us revisit the magical notes that used to fill St. Mary’s Church at Fort St. George 

Reviewing a concert that happened five years ago is the equivalent of doing multiple backflips. Supposing that concert has to do with Christmas carol singing, a swan song by a celebrated choir fading into the sunset, the review enters trickier terrain. Emotions and not just notes need capturing. 

The 2019 Christmas carol concert at St. Mary’s Church in Fort St. George was its famed choir’s last gasp. It was probably not officially announced, nothing put down in black and white, but the choristers could see the writing on the wall, as clearly as when each letter is the size of a football.

Jabez Janagaraj, the chief architect and conductor of the choir, John Millns Chorale, had passed on the previous year. It was going to be an emotion-packed concert from the get-go. The quaint little church that has aged well was packed to the wooden rafters. The pews were overflowing with the faithful. The choir had to bring their beloved ‘Uncle Jabez’ alive in every song they sang. The most memorable performance had to do with Jingle Bells, uniquely arranged by Jabez. 

In addition to the songs that were performed, the audience listened in to one that was not, that evening. The John Mills Chorale had its anthem, a song it fashioned in its “atelier”. It was “Bells in the Church Steeple Ringing,” a composition Jabez created himself. 

It became the choir’s signature piece, and Jabez’s wife Cheryl recalls how the choir’s voices would blend perfectly with the rhythm, filling the St. Mary’s Church with something irresistibly haunting. 

“When we finally nailed that harmony,” Cheryl recalls with a smile, “it was not just about the music. It was the joy of creating something together, of sharing that perfect moment.”

Though Jabez created this composition, when the choir perfected it, it was a feather tucked in the choir’s cap, not Jabez’s.