Robert Twynham

Robert Twynham passed away on March 23, 2011, peacefully at home. He was 80. A Memorial Mass is being planned for early May; it will take place at his home parish, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, in Baltimore. He is survived by his wife, Eileen.

For almost 40 years, Robert Twynham served as Choirmaster and Director of Music at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen starting in 1961 and was largely responsible for establishing the fine Sacred Music Program and the Cathedral Music Series that have benefited many in some profound and spiritual way. He was a musician of national and international standing, a composer and organ pedagogue.

Msgr. Robert Armstrong, our retired rector, called Twynham a "great artist" who was passionate about his vocation as the Music Director. He was devoted to good liturgy, Monsignor Armstrong said. "His whole life was dedicated to music, and particularly ecclesiastical music. He was very devoted to his faith, to God and the Church."

After the Second Vatican Council, Twynham composed numerous psalm settings, acclamations and large-scale works, many of which were published in hymnals and used in parishes across the United States. Daniel Sansone, the cathedral's current music director, said his predecessor was on the "cutting edge of supporting and affirming great sacred music in the Roman Church."

The Cathedral will host a memorial concert in the fall featuring musicians from across the country who will play Twynham’s greatest works.

Robert Twynham was born in Washington, DC. At the age of thirteen, he began his musical career as organist at the Walter Reed Hospital Chapel. His first organ teacher, Katharine Fowler, encouraged her gifted young student to pursue musical study that eventually brought him to the Peabody Conservatory (now known as the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University.). A scholarship student, he studied with Paul Callaway and George Karkey, receiving at graduation the Artist Diploma and the Bach "Horstmeier" prize. He later went to Paris to study at the Conservatory with the Catholic Impressionist composer Olivier Messiaen.

Many of the service music settlings sung for the past 50 years were written by Bob and are included in the major Catholic hymnals of the US. The choral piece performed by the Cathedral choir at the 50th anniversary concert was Bob's Magnificat. Bob had conducted a number of Magnificats and decided to compose his own. His choral work, originally commissioned for the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in 1980, had its world premiere on May 5, 1980. Since then, it has been performed across the country with rave reviews.

The first five movements are titled after the names for Mary that are found in the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen: Mystical Rose (Rosa Mystica), Morning Star (Stella Matutina), Refuge of Sinners (Refugium Peccatorum), Mirror of Justice (Speculum Justitiae) and Ivory Tower (Turris Eburnea).

Bob's wife Eileen is herself an accomplished musician. She drew poetic inspiration from the Marian images in the walls and windows of the Lady Chapel at the Cathedral. Eileen expanded these metaphors in five poems using historical documents about Mary. Bob set these five poems to music. Her English texts are juxtaposed with the Latin text of the Magnificat in what is termed a macaronic text. The result is amazing.

The sixth and final movement, Gloria Patri, is a joyous explosion of organ and choral mastery that typically leads the audience to a standing ovation.

Dr. Quentin L. Van Meter was a member of Robert Twynham's Choir of Men and Boys at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen while he was a fellow in Pediatric Endocrinology at Johns Hopkins from 1978-1980. Bob's Magnificat so moved Dr. Van Meter that he has spent the subsequent years carrying around the score, giving an original recording to the Choral Directors of symphony orchestras in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, as well as the Directors of the Roger Wagner Chorale, and the Westminster College Choir, in hopes of getting the work performed and perhaps recorded so that a much wider audience could enjoy it.