Royal School of Church Music and Church Music Society announce publishing partnership

Founded in 1906, the Church Music Society is a charity dedicated to promoting church music of the highest quality for the diverse needs of the Christian Church, particularly through publishing works that are not otherwise available. Under the new arrangement, the Society’s catalogue will be distributed through the RSCM’s established publishing and retail infrastructure, including its online shop. The CMS catalogue includes a number of well-known and widely used works. Among its early favourites is the Hugh Allen and Robert Bridges arrangement of Bach’s ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’. Church musicians will also recognise the standard collection of ‘Tudor’ Responses edited by Watkins Shaw, as well as Herbert Howells’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B minor and Mass in the Dorian Mode, and Kenneth Leighton’s Communion Service in D and Second Service. The catalogue spans a broad historical range. Renaissance repertoire includes music in both Latin and English, while the Baroque period is represented by composers such as John Blow, Henry Purcell, Maurice Greene and William Boyce. Nineteenth-century figures include Thomas Attwood Walmisley, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Charles Villiers Stanford’s contemporaries S. and S.S. Wesley, Charles Hubert Parry, Charles Wood and Walford Davies. More recent composers published by CMS include Philip Moore, Francis Jackson, Jonathan Harvey and Judith Bingham. Recent issues have featured Sarum responds by Taverner, Tallis and Sheppard edited by Sally Dunkley, motets by Pearsall, carol arrangements by Martindale Sidwell and new compositions by Christopher Ouvry-Johns, Paul Trepte and Rupert Jeffcoat. Professor Patrick Russill KSG, Chairman of the Church Music Society, described the agreement as ‘the start of an exciting new chapter’ in the Society’s history and mission. He said the partnership would enable CMS to draw on the RSCM’s expertise in church music publishing, ensure immediate availability of publications via the RSCM’s online shop, and allow both organisations to coordinate complementary publishing policies while maintaining editorial independence. Hugh Morris, Director of the RSCM, said the organisation was pleased to take on the publishing of CMS materials and to make its distinguished catalogue available more widely alongside RSCM Publications. He added that the partnership would support the development of new resources in the years ahead. The full Church Music Society catalogue will be available via the RSCM Music Shop from 2 March 2026.