west galleryadj.
/ˌwɛs(t) ˈɡal(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈˌwɛs(t) ˈɡæl(ə)ri/ Music (chiefly historical).
attributive. Of or designating a style of church music influenced by traditional folk music and typically performed by a choir with an accompanying band. Also: (of a musician or group) that performs such music, often from the west gallery of a church.In the second half of the 19th cent. the influence of the Oxford Movement and the growing predominance of the organ led to the decline of this style of music in church services.
ΚΠ
1881 Harper's Mag. Jan. 291/2 He recollected that the time appertained to the old west gallery period of church music, anterior to the great choral reformation and the rule of Monk.
1896 T. Hardy Under Greenwood Tree (rev. ed.) Pref. p. v The Mellstock choir and its old established west-gallery musicians.
1904 A. M. Richardson Church Music iv. 58 In some so-called advanced churches we now find a revival of the west-gallery choir.
1961 Galpin Soc. Jrnl. 14 37 The dumb organist—the half-way stage between the west gallery band and the church organist proper.
1995 R. G. Woods Good Singing Still 13 Some sections are aimed at groups reviving the West Gallery repertoire.
2001 Prayer Bk. Soc. Newslet. No. 100. 19 The proceedings will follow the format of an early 19th Century Evensong in the pre-Tractarian ‘West Gallery’ style—including the use of some period instruments.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1881