Cathedral Music: Spring 2004

Cathedral Music

ISSN 1363-6960 MAY 2004

Editor Andrew Palmer 21 Belle Vue Terrace Ripon North Yorkshire HG4 2QS ajpalmer@lineone.net

Assistant Editor Roger Tucker

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Cathedral Music is published twice a year, in May and November. Cover

Cathedral MUSIC Cathedral MUSIC

of the

of Cathedral Music

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‘ CM Comment Andrew

cool musical judgement. We now see that possibly his greatest musical legacy is more than 60 choral and instrumental works, all of which are not yet published. It is in fact a more enduring legacy even than the many highly acclaimed recordings. We pay tribute to him in this issue; his old friend Roy Massey recollects and Roger Tucker gives a personal tribute.

BBC under scrutiny

Palmer

Dr John Sanders

There was an impression of great strength about Dr John Sanders which was noticed by everyone who worked with him. He commanded respect and loyalty but in a completely nonauthoritarian way. His style was to convey a musical mood and carry his performers with him in an inspirational way. People sang and played for him for love of it. His was not the technique of fear or passionate storms. He used an understated charismatic approach rather than being temperamental or heavy-handed. He retired in 1994 after 27 years as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Gloucester Cathedral and we must not forget his three years as No 1 at Chester Cathedral (1964 – 1967), during which he revived the Chester Music Festival, which is still flourishing today. I once interviewed him for a column I wrote regularly for an American publication. This was shortly before he retired. He told me that during the war in 1943, at the age of ten, he was evacuated to Gloucestershire where he developed his fondness for the area in which he was to later make his reputation as a major figure in the cathedral music world. He was characteristically delightful company on this occasion. He impressed people not just by his quiet strength but by the way he used

The BBC has become a whipping boy for those who feel their own minority taste is neglected in either the television or radio schedules.

In connection with broadcasting religious services, this column has in the past picked on the lack of this, or the inclusion of that, yet we must all recognise that we are offered a formidable variety of religious programmes, taken across all the networks. Amongst these are the two longest running series of religious services on radio in the world: the Daily Service (since 1928) and Choral Evensong (since 1927). There is also Sunday Worship on radio but there are no regular televised services now, which is to be deplored. Songs of Praise is the one long-running television series, which periodically includes cathedral choirs and services, although nowadays it tends to present more popular styles of religious music and features about special events. It clearly has to try to be all things to all people.

The point at issue for us is that it is only a public service broadcasting organisation as large as the BBC that has the resources to staff a big enough department to provide so many programme strands. The size of the BBC depends on the revenue from the licence fee, the level of which depends on agreement with the government of the day. All this is

underpinned by the BBC’s Royal Charter, which is due for renewal in 2006. Any changes, such as scaling down the BBC’s size and reducing its funding could mean the end of all minority programming, including religious programmes. This is where all our members and readers can help: the Department of Media, Culture and Sport, which is responsible for our broadcasting services in the UK is conducting a public consultation exercise to find out what licence payers think about the BBC and the programmes which it offers, so as to decide whether to renew its charter. Everyone is invited to submit their views, so we should all take the opportunity to respond. It is inconceivable that any other system of funding could maintain the no-strings attached freedom, which enables the BBC to cater for minorities without commercial pressures, so maintaining the status quo is vital for our type of programmes. They can only be provided by a large public service broadcaster, which is free to follow its long-established programming traditions. Info: www.bbccharterreview.org.uk

Chitter chatter again!

As I have written before, we must do something about the constant chattering during organ voluntaries. Never was this more glaring than at the end of the memorial service for John Sanders in Gloucester Cathedral on February 28th Dr Roy Massey chose the superb first movement of Elgar’s Organ Sonata in G as the voluntary: it was accompanied by an horrendous babble from the huge congregation. We really must learn to respect our cathedral organists who put so much effort into practising, to delight us, the listeners. Please think twice before talking when the organ is

playing.

Founder – The Revd Ronald Ellwood Sibthorp (1911-1990).

Patron – The Archbishop of Canterbury the most Revd Rowan Williams.

Vice-Presidents – Sir David Calcutt QC, Dr Francis Jackson OBE, Anthony Harvey, Alan Thurlow.

Chairman – Professor Peter Toyne DL, Cloudeslee, Croft Drive, Caldy, Wirral, Cheshire CH48 2JW. peter.toyne@talk21.com

Council – Ann Bridges, Derek Bryan, Colin Clark,Donald Kerr, David Leeke, Jonathan Milton, Richard Osmond, Paul Rose, Geoffrey Shaw, Julian Thomas, Peter Wright.

‘His style was to convey a musical mood and carry his performers with him in an

SEARCHING

Impending retirement from St John’s provoked quite a barrage of questions from friends and well-wishers. Some asked whether I would miss the early-morning rehearsals (probably not), or would I be writing a book (certainly not!). Others pressed me on more searching topics such as girls’ choirs, or the present state of the organ scholar market. There is a general perception that the future of these scholarships is threatened by a shortage of talented applicants and that many who go down this road are not inclined to view cathedral music as an attractive career prospect. There is no doubt that in moments of gloom I have subscribed to these opinions but I believe that close examination of the facts reveals a rather different story.

In my organ scholar days most colleges just had one organ scholar at a time (my own college, Christ Church, being also a cathedral, was an exception). This meant that all positions were keenly contested. Opportunities today are therefore almost doubled at Oxbridge colleges. In addition many cathedrals are now also offering awards and this has to some extent revived and updated the articled pupil system which produced so many fine musicians in the past. The Oxbridge awards continue to be very much sought after and attract some outstanding talent. On the academic side this has not always been sympathetically nurtured by music faculties which had become unfriendly to organ scholars whose practical interests were often overlooked. It is heartening to note that real efforts are now being made to respect and enhance those skills which have so often in the recent past been dismissed as irrelevant or unimportant.

Not long ago there was a real anxiety that young people were not attracted to the organ and that the number of reasonably skilled players was dwindling dangerously. Thanks to some effective publicity campaigns (by the RCO, in particular) and the energy and inspiration of teachers like James Parsons and Anne Marsden-Thomas there seems to have been an impressive revival. David Sanger’s excellent tutor book has been notably influential. It is not yet clear whether the general level of

➤

After a distinguished career at Worcester Cathedral, St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and St John’s College, Cambridge, Dr. Christopher Robinson who retired last year, contemplates the future.

Photo: Helle Christiansen

talent is adequate to fulfil every need but the signs are good.

To return to the main question, is a career in cathedral music still a draw for ambitious young musicians? In order to answer this I shall attempt to examine how circumstances have changed. W ithout losing its importance as a national treasure, cathedral music has certainly declined in status, perhaps quite rightly. A century ago the musical world in this country was dominated by cathedral musicians or by others trained in that tradition. Though the world of education (school, university and conservatoire) needed to break away from this narrow influence, a number of establishments now offer courses specifically for aspiring church musicians. A cathedral organist has always needed multifarious talents. Not only did he need to be a skilled performer and accompanist at the organ, he needed liturgical sense, ability to improvise, transpose and all those related (and nowadays sometimes neglected) skills. He had to train the choir (probably with little full rehearsal time), to teach, compose, conduct choral societies and orchestras, to adjudicate and examine. I could go on and on. Some of these activities were

undertaken out of choice and others in order to make ends meet. Many cathedral organists in the past distinguished themselves as players (Alcock), composers (Bairstow) or scholars (Atkins); fewer probably made a feature of choirtraining which in the distant past was often a fairly routine matter. This skill, amongst others, was handed down rather than taught and success was often assumed rather than guaranteed. This has caused some to label organists of this period ‘gentlemen amateurs’. There is possibly a parallel here with cricket and I would not personally subscribe to the use of this expression in a derogatory sense. Plenty of talented amateurs played test cricket and matches against Australia were won from time to time in days past.

had the benefit of an organ scholar’s training may in the long run find the cathedral world musically stifling and will seek their fortunes elsewhere. The school world offers attractive opportunities; the level of musical performance is often very high and financial rewards can be significantly greater than in cathedrals (or universities, for that matter).

Pay and conditions of work have often been the cause of friction in cathedrals. Cathedral organists, like the clergy, were probably once expected to have private means; this relic from the past has perhaps never quite disappeared. An organist would have a grand house but without the means to pursue a matching life-style. Things have improved to some extent but it continues to puzzle me that chapters have to pay the going-rate for the professional services of accountants, architects and the like but the musician has often seemed not worthy of his hire.

Birmingham Cathedral.

Now that life has become more highly professionalised, there is a tendency to specialise more; formal training in all aspects of our work is more or less a requirement. If you are a brilliant player you will probably want to make a career as a concert organist. If your forte is choir-training or conducting, opportunities to work with large choral societies or professional chamber choirs may be sought, or perhaps a position as repetiteur in an opera house. Some who have

Relations between musicians and clergy have often been problematic. Musicians can be difficult of course, but on the other hand there has been occasional ambivalence on the part of clergy about what they expect from their musicians. There has always been

‘The emergence of the girls’ choir at many cathedrals has not only added to the burden of directors of music but has also provided a topic for heated discussions.’

some tension between high art and popular culture in the cathedral scene and I sense that this will not go away. But it can be discouraging for a young musician with serious ambitions to be expected to churn out Radio 1/2 style music as proof of his/her commitment. When music is perceived to be more inspirational than the average sermon, jealousies can arise.

What then are the prospects now for a young musician applying for a cathedral post? He/she still needs to be something of an all-rounder but with formal training in all aspects of the work. Many chapters look for a charismatic choir-trainer who will put their choir into the premier league. But charisma is not enough; he/she will need to be a trained teacher, to have expertise in singing technique and be conversant with all aspects of childcare. Administration (particularly in the context of a tight budget) is a high priority as is the ability to get along well with colleagues; fighting one’s corner or adhering to high musical principles might be seen as dangerous attributes.

Despite the fact that candidates for cathedral posts will be expected to have an almost superhuman range of skills, I am sure that the posts will continue to attract plenty of applicants. There may

indeed be greater competition than in the past, not only because a cathedral is no longer an all-male preserve but because a new breed of director of music is emerging which does not include organ playing as a necessary attribute. The magic of working in the atmosphere and environment of a vast historic building has always been an inspiration to many aspiring musicians. The only real stumbling block is the financial aspect and as the posts become increasingly demanding and time consuming, they really must be treated as full-time jobs with realistic salaries.

The emergence of the girls’ choir at many cathedrals has not only added to the burden of directors of music but has also provided a topic for heated discussions, frequently in the national press. Opinions on the subject continue to be divided and I am sure that many of us in the business have expressed views which do not stand up. Girls’ choirs are here to stay and many of them are excellent. Girls and boys sing in the way which they have been trained to sing and far too much has been made of innate differences. Girls’ choirs (particularly those with singers up to age 16-18) produce a pure but fairly mature sound which can seem more secure than that

of a boys’ choir whose older members voices may be on the verge of breaking. A boys’ choir is therefore a fragile instrument in need of careful protection. My own view is no doubt somewhat prejudiced but I have always found that boys aged 11 or 12 have an enormously robust attitude to music-making and are generally fearless and unselfconscious about it. Whether or not girls of a similar age have these qualities I am not sure. Older girls, I suspect, are sometimes thought to be more choosy about what they sing and this can lead directors of music into giving them a safe, unadventurous diet of ‘easy-listening’ music. I feel that they could often be challenged more. I suspect that running two choirs side by side has its dangers. Boys certainly thrive on a regular routine and if daily duties are shared with girls the momentum is interrupted. This can be unhelpful particularly in areas like psalm singing. My fear is that girls can do the job so well that, in time, boys may be put out of business; so tenors and basses in the future could be hard to come by. Both types of choir must be encouraged of course but boys’ choirs need a preservation order. They are, after all, part of our national heritage, not merely a sexist relic of a bygone era.

St John’s College: Helle Christiansen

What or who made you take up the organ?

I was a chorister at Coventry Parish Church (Holy Trinity).

What pieces have you been inspired to take up recently and why?

Gaston Litaize’s Douze Pièces. I’ve been trying to get a recording of his music up and running for some time and it now looks as if it might happen in the New Year. I have also been asked to record the six symphonies of Louis Vierne in France in September for Signum, so I am working on them again at present.

Have you been listening to recordings of them and if so is it just one interpretation or many and which players?

There are very few recordings of Litaize around. His music is very much overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Duruflé and Messiaen, if not by Dupré’s (his teacher) and it often sounds much closer to ‘re-invented’ Bach than his peers. His neo-classical textural economy and predominantly contrapuntal style recalls Stravinsky or Prokofiev in the 1920’s.

Which organists do you admire the most?

My erstwhile teacher Nicolas Kynaston –just a wonderful musician who ‘happens’ to be an organist. My friend and colleague David Briggs whose playing is so communicative and always inspired. Pierre Cochereau for the obvious reasons and Peter Hurford because no one has captured the ‘dance’ in Bach’s music more captivatingly than he has.

What was the last CD you bought?

Piano music by unknown 20th century Russian (and contemporary of Shostakovich) Anatoly Andropov (Hyperion) played by Hamish Milne, one

Seconds in Music Profile

of Britain’s finest pianists and too much of an unsung hero.

What was the last recording you were working on?

The solo piano music of Carl Johann Eschmann (for Guild); a Swiss 19th century Romantic composer whose music is sometimes a little too close to Schumann for comfort.

How did you go about preparing for your Dupré series on the Guild label?

A good deal of study, research (which one day may finally enable me to complete a Doctoral thesis) and the acquisition of all the notes under my fingers over a period of more than twenty years!

Who is your favourite composer?

Marcel Dupré (bien sûr) but Gustav Mahler, Sergei Rachmaninov and Arnold Bax all run him a very close second.

What would be the music list including organ voluntaries for your perfect Evensong?

Voluntary: Bach Trio: ‘Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr’ (en taille) BWV 663

Introit: Tallis In jejunio et fletu

Preces & Responses: Kenneth Leighton

Evening Service: Howells St Paul’s Service

Anthem: Parry Blest Pair of Sirens

Voluntary: Dupré Carillon (Sept Pièces Op 27)

What pieces are you including in an organ recital you are performing?

The latest concert I gave in Brighton combined piano & organ:

PIANO

Julius REUBKE (1834-1858)

Sonata in Bb minor (1857)

Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)

Preludes Op 23 no.4 D major – no.5

G minor

Etudes-Tableaux Op 39 no.2 A minor – no.9

D major ORGAN

Julius REUBKE (1834-1858)

Sonata on the 94th Psalm (1858)

Marcel DUPRÉ (1886-1971)

Prélude et Fugue en Sol (G) mineur

Op 7 no 3

Paul DUKAS (1865-1935)

arr. Jeremy Filsell

L’Apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice)

Any forthcoming appearances of note?

Organ recitals in the early part of the year include St Albans Abbey, Royal Holloway College, Temple Church, London and Bath Abbey (Bath Festival). In April and July, I shall be in the USA, giving concerts in New York City and State, South Carolina, Washington DC and teaching at Yale. In May I shall be the soloist in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no 3 (Guildford Philharmonic) and later in the year I have recitals in Germany, France and Switzerland.

What’s been your favourite organ to play?

There are too many with differing stylistic virtues – my choice would really be dependent on the repertoire. Of the finest eclectic instruments, the GlatterGötz/Rosales organ in Claremont Church

Jeremy Filsell on why he is learning music by Litaize and how a good snooze helps before a recital

of Christ California is possibly my favourite, but in England, undisputedly the Klais in Bath Abbey.

How do you cope with nerves?

A 20 minute snooze before a concert does wonders to invigorate the spirit… (but if one sleeps for too long, it has a negative effect!). Also – horror of horrors – a quick smoke before going on doesn’t half calm the nerves! But the best way to cope is to know that the time and work have been put in beforehand so that you are confident about what you are about to do interpretatively. I never find that (if playing from memory) visualising the music just before a concert helps; at that stage before a performance, one must be able to trust one’s instinct. For me, visualising away from the keyboard just creates second thoughts and conjures mind games about all the moments that could go awry!

Has any particular recording inspired you?

Nicolas Kynaston’s recording of the Vierne Sixième Symphonie at Ingoldstadt Münster back in 1980 (Mitra) and Arcadi Volodos’ live performance (1998)

of Rachmaninov from the Carnegie Hall. I would also have to take Klaus Tennstedt’s Mahler symphony cycle to my desert island.

What are your hobbies?

Playing club cricket and league squash with wholehearted enthusiasm and commitment if not abundant talent (my lifelong ambition has really always been to open the bowling for England!); A necessary foil to musical pursuits. And of course, my family.

Do you play any other instruments?

At school, the clarinet (my step-daughter, who plays it now, has long overtaken my own humble efforts with the instrument). Singing has been a life long love and I remain very privileged to be able to combine a playing career with being a lay clerk at St George’s Chapel Windsor.

What was the last book you read?

Over Here by Raymond Seitz (exAmerican Ambassador to Britain); a fascinating and eloquent appraisal of transatlantic politics and culture.

HARRISON & HARRISON are FRIENDSOF CATHEDRALMUSIC

Our recent work has included:

LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL

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ST DAVIDS CATHEDRAL

New organ of 54 stops based on Father Willis pipework.

RIPON CATHEDRAL, new mobile nave console.

ELY CATHEDRAL

Restoration of H&H organ, with eight new stops.

EXETER CATHEDRAL

Minstrel organ of 8 stops and new 32ft reed.

ST GEORGE’S CHAPEL, WINDSOR CASTLE

Clean and overhaul.

PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL

Restoration of Hill organ following the fire.

LEICESTER CATHEDRAL

Major renovation with console restored to original style.

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL

Overhaul of Willis organ with new console mechanism.

HARRISON & HARRISON

ST JOHN’S ROAD, MEADOWFIELD, DURHAM DH7 8YH Telephone 0191 378 2222Fax 0191 378 3388 e-mail h.h@btinternet.com www.harrison-organs.co.uk

Photo: Matthew Power

‘There are very few recordings of Litaize around. His music is very much overshadowed by that of Duruflé and Messiaen. His music often sounds much more like re-invented Bach than his peers.’

Photograph by C.R.A. Davies

Miserable, effete, troub

David Winpenny looks back at church music 160 years ago

What was English cathedral music like 160 years ago? A

This is the journal of the Cambridge Camden Society, founded in 1839 by Benjamin Webb, John Mason Neale and AJ Beresford-Hope with the aim of improving mid-nineteenth-century church architecture. The Ecclesiologist was first published in 1841, and by its 1844 volume it at last turned its attention to the vexed question of music – or more specifically, organs.

‘Few things give more trouble to church-arrangers or church builders than the position of the organ,’ is the forthright opening to the leading article for September’s edition. ‘The instrument has grown so enormously’ that if the organ were to be placed in the rood-loft of a parish church, ‘it would quite block off the Chancel’ (chancels were very important to the Cambridge Camden Society). In cathedrals ‘it very materially and incongruously destroys the vista of the roof.’

Nor does the writer approve of organs in the transept arches, ‘from its too great proximity to the choir.’ So does he commend the west end for an organ? Certainly not! ‘Who does not recollect a hundred instances in which a fine window is blocked by a hideous organ-case, surmounted by indecent angels blowing trumpets between crowns and mitres, and resting on a flaunting west gallery with prominent seats for the singers?’

Miserable and effete singers

The mention of singers is like a red rag to this bull of a polemicist. The church music of the Cambridge colleges comes in for a spirited lambasting. He writes of ‘the disgraceful neglect of this church-art in our University. A few miserable and effete singers running about from choir to choir, and performing, to a crashing and bellowing of organs, the most meagre and washy musick; how could

Churchmen learn anything, under such a system, of the depth and majesty and sternness and devotion of true church musick?’

‘The Motett Society of London’ and St Mark’s Training College at Chelsea are praised for underlining the fact that ‘church musick is almost exclusively vocal’. People who argue that ‘an organ is necessary to lead, and keep together, and give body to, the voices’ are told firmly that ‘in practice it is not necessary’ – the Rev E Shuttleworth manages perfectly well without it at St Mary’s Penzance, ‘where we have heard the whole service intoned admirably without instrumental accompaniment’.

There is a sop to those who want the support of instruments for singing – ‘We confess that we can see no objection to the use of a violoncello or horn to steady the chaunt’ –then the author weighs into the organ again. He complains that ‘it drowns the ‘voices’, that it ‘has practically introduced an entirely new kind of music into our churches’ and that the effect has been to bring in a showy but hollow secularity without a particle of solemnity or devotion.’

Often troublesome official

As well as condemning ‘the monster-organ’, The Ecclesiologist also questions the cost of the organist – ‘an additional, and very often troublesome, official’. The stipend can prove a burden, and any spare money a cathedral or parish church has should be used to fund an extra curate who could ‘be productive of good quite uncalculable to the district’. The writer puts the organist’s megalomania under the critical spotlight: ‘In cathedrals, before the Venite exultemus, the organ now must needs thunder a chant: for in the multitude of modern ‘chants’, so called, who could say which the organist might choose?’ But worse is to follow: ‘Then came

partial answer, at least –though it is one with its own idiosyncratic slant – can be gleaned from the pages of The Ecclesiologist.

blesome, disgraceful

‘expressive’ playing to represent sea and mountains, or thunder, or the like; it did not much matter whether the voices were heard at all... the old-fashioned idea of antiphonal chanting, the distinction between Decani and Cantoris, is now quite superseded; for the organ plays louder than all put together’. And what is the result of this domination by the organ? ‘We owe to it in great measure the disgraceful appearance of most of our choirs at the Divine office’. Antiphonal chanting is impossible – ‘we have seen in cathedrals two vicars choral on one side, and perhaps three boys on the other. The men sing indifferently to either verse; and we have known the boys laugh and play till they both got the same verse, so neither side wishing to give up, the Psalms ended by a sort of antiphonal duet between the organ and the whole choir’.

Ill-judged liberality

And what of the settings that the choir might sing? ‘We shall only hint at those obnoxious ‘Services’ which cannot be performed without an organ – a new characteristic this of church music –and which therefore have naturally enough superseded... the

authorised music for the Hymns’. There follows a comparison of a church ‘where the metrical psalms have been wont to be lustily sung with no accompaniment; and the same church, when some ill-judged liberality has given... a jingling, shaking barrelorgan, which plays about three tunes like Cambridge New.’ Then the coup de grace – ‘Give us the hearty singing of a conventicle before this’.

To balance this jaundiced view of organs and choirs, The Ecclesiologist offers a grudging counterweight – ‘We do not wish to deny that the grandeur and propriety of the publick worship of GOD may be increased by an occasional and judicious use of this stupendous instrument, particularly in cathedrals and important churches, and on particular occasions, and in anthems, the Gloria in Excelsis, and such parts of the service’.

Propriety is violated

If you must have to put this ‘stupendous instrument’ (and the writer says that if churches think they cannot do without it ‘we have answered with our favourite syllable – TRY’) where are you to place it, if not on the rood screen or in the transept arch? ➤

At the west end, but in a specially-built gallery? Certainly not! This would mean that ‘all propriety is violated by making the clumsy instrument a piece of the construction’. What about that ‘fashionable device... a small transeptal projection in the Chancel, which shall serve for “coal-hole, stove room, and tool-house” underground, vestry in the middle, and for organ above?’ Emphatically, no – ‘it is repugnant to all ecclesiastical propriety.’

The solution The Ecclesiologist puts forward is that ‘whenever an organ is allowed’ (which should, of course, be hardly ever) in parish churches it should ‘be placed at the west end, either of the Nave or of either Aisle, and on the ground’. In cathedrals ‘perhaps the triforia might receive it, as at Canterbury, where the effect is admirable, except that it is too near the choir’.

So what would The Ecclesiologist have made of music in cathedrals and parish churches in 2004? Have we progressed in 160 years? Or has the great church music tradition risen and fallen again between the publication in 1844 of the article in The Ecclesiologist and this one in CATHEDRAL MUSIC? Perhaps rather than read it as a historical document, we should see the 1844 piece as a severe warning against awkward authority with no interest in church music. Perhaps we need writers on church music with such fire in their ecclesiastical bellies as had the contributor of more than a century and a half ago.

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‘So what would The Ecclesiologist have made of music in cathedrals and parish churches in 2004? Have we progressed in 160 years? Or has the great church music tradition risen and fallen again between the publication in 1844 of the article in The Ecclesiologist and this one in CATHEDRAL MUSIC?’

Dr John Sanders OBE 1933-2003 OBITUARY

A Personal Recollection

Roger Tucker

Aficionados of the pipe organ knew that something pretty revolutionary had happened at Gloucester in the early seventies, so much so that it had polarised opinion. The cathedral organ had been drastically slimmed down, both tonally and structurally, and rebuilt to a more classical ‘continental’ tonal scheme. The cathedral organist, John Sanders, had engaged Ralph Downes as consultant to realise his dream: shock waves were bouncing around the Three Choirs triangle! Hereford and Worcester were determined it wasn’t going to happen to their organs.

I got in touch with John Sanders to ask if I could bring a party of members of the BBC Organ Society down one Advent Sunday in the 1970s to hear for ourselves. (One of our members, Joan Wake Cleveland, claimed to have given John organ lessons as a schoolboy and I have recently discovered that he in fact dedicated his 1998 Mass of the Creator to her.) John was most welcoming and informal and the visit was one of unforgettable warmth and excitement. He was still in the honeymoon stage with his beautiful new creature, enjoying opportunities to show it off: the (wonderfully) snarling French-style reeds and the purer, lighter timbre of the foundation stops and the unfamiliar sparkling sonority of the upperwork, which was surprising the ears of recital audiences.

The whole exercise had been an act of great courage: a determination to scaledown the heavily inflated organ, remove some of the louder 19th and 20th century stops and retrieve some of the baroque tone of the original Thomas Harris specification of 1666 by restoring to speech the surviving Harris pipework, which had been silent for 80 years. The original pair

of Harris cases had been expertly restored, the west façade of the main case now removed from the screen parapet and all the original pipe and case decorations renovated. It all looked wonderful: it was explained to us that there were now a lot of new ranks within the cases, including a West Positive. John had much admired Ralph Downes’s work in creating a ‘continental-style’ concert organ for the new Royal Festival Hall and wanted that sort of sound for Gloucester, knowing that in the reverberant acoustic there it would sound sensational.

A man of few, but always well-chosen words, John knew that if we had ears to hear, the rebuilt organ would speak for itself. I shall never forget the brilliant playing and obvious pride with which he showed it off to us. Organists always do demonstrations well but this was different. We were transported, we had never heard an English organ that sounded so distinctively refined. John knew exactly how to bring out all the tonal magic.

The player sits at the detached console, facing the south flank of the main case, and has the wonderful experience of

being able to hear the sound of the organ bouncing back from the nave on his left, whilst on his right it is reflected from the huge Crècy window, which, because of its slightly bowed shape, gives him a sensational sound perspective. The musical experience of playing this organ is overwhelming, it cannot be described. To our delight, John had thought of a way to allow us to enjoy that; whilst he went to lunch we were locked in the cathedral for a whole hour. This was a masterstroke, because we were freed from the intimidating experience of playing the superb organ right under the ears of its master and he was spared the tedium of having to listen to our fumblings, and there were no visitors to hear them either! What is more we were invited to come again and in fact did so at Advent for a number of years. The bonus for playing at lunchtime on Advent Sunday was that we could choose the best seats in the Choir for the Advent Carol Service at 3pm. This enabled us to experience John’s inspiring choir direction in the beautifully sung carols, with polished treble solos and descants. John himself would play the voluntary, perhaps a lively march by Parry or Smart, setting the seal on an uplifting service, the keynote of which was devotion.

It is clear that this quality stood out in every aspect of John’s life but it was his affable disposition, modesty and personal charisma that stayed dominantly in the memory. Generosity was so characteristic of this exceptionally relaxed and brilliant man, whose talent for composing singable cathedral music had hardly emerged by the 1970s, although we now appreciate it was to be the third major strand of his musical creativity and, with over 65 works, the one that will survive him.

‘...it was his affable disposition, modesty and personal charisma that stayed dominantly in the memory.’

OBITUARY

My old friend and colleague Dr Roy Massey recollects

One Saturday afternoon in the late-1950s I stood at the bottom of the organ loft stairs in Gloucester Cathedral waiting to ask Dr Sumsion whether I could sit with him for Evensong. As it happened, it was Dr Sumsion’s day off and a good-looking young man appeared in his stead who warmly invited me to join him in the loft and, at the end of the service, asked if I would care to play the voluntary. Thus began my long friendship with John Sanders which lasted until his untimely death on December 23rd, 2003.

John had come to Gloucester as Assistant Organist and Director of Music at the King’s School in 1958 after educa-

Seiriol Evans, a dean of the old school who looked the part, who thoroughly understood cathedrals and their music and had himself been a chorister and later a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. The Dean set about improving the musical standards by engineering the retirement of some of the elderly lay clerks and also initiated a visionary scheme for the financial endowment of the choristerships. The stage was set for a new organist and John Sanders, with his dynamic energy and vision, was exactly the right man for the job.

With a new team of lay clerks he transformed both the musical standards and the repertoire of the cathedral choir and

To be organist of Gloucester Cathedral means that one automatically becomes one of the conductors of the Three Choirs Festival working in collaboration with fellow Organists at Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals and John was outstanding in this demanding rôle. The chorus loved his genial but demanding rehearsal technique and the orchestras respected his musicianship and clarity of direction. His programming was innovative and often challenging and his adventurous spirit played a significant part in the remarkable success of the Three Choirs Festivals during the last quarter of the twentieth century. He was also a splendid administrator. Everything he did was organised with great clarity and in foolproof detail and I learned an enormous amount from him in all sorts of ways when I joined the Three Choirs team on my appointment to Hereford in 1974.

tion at Felsted School, the Royal College of Music, an Organ Scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and two years National Service. After five years he moved to Chester Cathedral as Organist and Master of the Choristers where the choir needed a good deal of attention and where he met his future wife, Janet. He returned to Gloucester as Dr Sumsion’s successor in 1967 to embark on what was to be his life’s work.

John took over at Gloucester at a crucial time in its musical history. The Cathedral was ruled by the Very Revd

for the rest of his working life maintained an enviable level of daily choral achievement. Gloucester Choral Society, the conductorship of which has always gone with the organist’s position, rapidly took him to their hearts and for 27 years their weekly rehearsals and his concerts with them were an important part of Gloucester’s musical life. He also conducted the Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra and in 1968 succeeded Dr Sumsion as parttime Director of Music at Cheltenham Ladies College where he also maintained an excellent choir and orchestra.

Seiriol Evans once said to me that one of the reasons he appointed John was because of his irenic personality. He wore his musical gifts lightly, with a complete absence of musicianly temperament and he had the great gift of getting on well with everybody. Amid the pressures of a Three Choirs cathedral and in the slightly claustrophobic atmosphere of the Close in those days, this was an important virtue. Certainly all the musicians who worked with him enjoyed the warmest of relationships even when he was demanding the highest standards of performance and insisting that they achieved them. His relaxed manner hid a quiet determination to have things absolutely right and those working with him knew exactly what he required and worked their hearts out to meet his expectations. But it was all done with an enviable lightness of touch and a warm humanity and humility which

‘He wore his musical gifts lightly, with a complete absence of musicianly temperament and he had the great gift of getting on well with everybody.’

endeared him to everyone with whom he made contact.

As an organ recitalist John was an excellent performer though he tended to play less as the years went by. He particularly enjoyed English composers from the 19th and early 20th centuries and rejoiced in the Gloucester organ which he had rebuilt in the early 1970s under the direction of Ralph Downes. I think he was surprised by the controversy this created as he had, perhaps, under estimated the fact that the old Willis/Harrison organ was much loved by many. Herbert Howells in particular was disappointed by the new style instrument as he always said he heard the old Gloucester organ in his mind’s ear when composing for the organ. However, time has justified John’s vision and the Gloucester organ is now much admired for its versatility and colour and increasingly well known by reason of the many recordings made upon it in recent years.

As with his predecessor Dr Herbert Sumsion, composition was important to John who throughout his career always had some piece or other on the go, often for a special occasion in the cathedral. While still Assistant Organist his Festival Te Deum for chorus and orchestra was performed under his direction at the Three Choirs Festival in 1962 and this was followed by a steady stream of liturgical music and a few pieces for organ. His Responses have an assured place in the repertoire of almost every cathedral and his Reproaches and St Mark Passion written

in 1993 are similarly widely used. After his retirement from Gloucester in 1994 he had time to compose more assiduously and the flow of commissions became more numerous and larger in scale. His music reflects his instinctive knowledge of what the voice and a choir can do and is superbly crafted to this end. When writing for instruments his orchestration is colourful and carefully balanced and, above all, his music has a memorable quality which remains fresh and interesting to performer and listener alike and I feel sure will gain even greater currency as the years go by.

As well as his manifold duties at the Cathedral and at Cheltenham Ladies College, John’s service to the Church, the community and to music in general was wide ranging. Over the years he did valuable work for the RSCM and the local organists’ association and was for many years a valued member of the Council of the Royal College of Organists and in 1990 became President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association. He was also Diocesan Adviser on organs to the Gloucester Diocesan Advisory Committee and took a lively interest in the organ problems of the local churches. In later years he expressed his support for cathedral choirs by becoming President of the Campaign for the Defence of the Traditional Cathedral Choir. Though far from being a musical misogynist, he recognised very clearly the extreme importance of encouraging boys to sing in cathedral

and parish choirs if our priceless tradition of English church music is to survive in its pristine form and, to this end, he recently helped establish the Traditional Choir Trust. His work for cathedral music was recognised by an honorary FRSCM and in 1990 by the award of a Lambeth D.Mus and the OBE in 1994.

John was a kindly, thoughtful, highly intelligent, humorous and modest person with a great gift for friendship. He loved his fellow men and they loved him in return and my friendship with him was life enhancing in every way. As a musician he was accomplished and versatile in the very best tradition of the English cathedral organist and his gifts enriched the lives of countless choristers, lay clerks, orchestral players and choral singers. His marriage to Janet was made in Heaven and was the bed rock of all his activities, as was his pride in children Jonathan and Anna and their young families.

Little did I realise on that Saturday afternoon at the foot of the Gloucester organ loft stairs just how much my friendship with that kindly young assistant organist would influence and enhance my own professional and personal life in the years to come or that I would, eventually, have the sad duty of playing for his funeral. I am grateful for the privilege which enabled me to have John as a close friend and confidant over so many years for, undoubtedly, my life has been immeasurably enriched by having known him.

May you rest in peace old friend.

Editorial Adviser

Roger Overend visits

Christ Church Christ Church

Christ Church Cathedral Oxford dates from the 12th century. It is the smallest of the English cathedrals, for this never very large Norman building lost four bays of its nave when, in 1525, Cardinal Wolsey laid out the big quadrangle for what was to be called Cardinal College, now Tom Quad of Christ Church.

The cathedral is unique as it functions as the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford and as the Chapel of the College. The Choir has attracted many distinguished musicians, including its first Master of the Choristers, John Taverner, appointed by Wolsey in 1526. Other notable names include William Crotch, Basil Harwood, William Harris, Sydney Watson, Simon Preston, and its present Organist, Stephen Darlington. Composers William Walton and Howard Goodall are former students at Christ Church, as was the doyen of British conductors, Sir Adrian Boult. The cathedral is renowned for training many of the country’s leading organists.

As you go through the archway passing under Tom Tower (built by Christopher Wren), you catch the first view of Tom Quad. The clamour of traffic in the busy street dies away; the large green space in front of you could be anywhere, and the imposing 13th century stone spire of the cathedral catches your eye as it soars upwards. You are almost taken back in time, yet all around you there is the bustle of university life, and the numerous tourists, seeing for themselves the beauty and grandeur that is Christ Church. Entrance to the cathedral is via an inconspicuous west front, which then transports you to one of the richest and most beautiful Norman works in England.

The choristers of Christ Church are educated, along with about another 100 boys, at Christ Church Cathedral School, which also educates the boys for the choir of Worcester College. Stephen Darlington does not appoint a Head Chorister at Christ Church. He feels uneasy in this day and age picking out one child over others as a leader, because he feels that the remaining boys of the same age can feel disenfranchised. It has been a positive move greatly valued by choristers and parents alike. Recruiting choristers, as in other cathedrals, is a little harder than in the past, and most at Christ Church now live within two hours drive of Oxford. Stephen Darlington auditions once a

Photo: Roger Overend

‘The clamour of traffic in the busy street dies away and the imposing 13th century stone spire of the cathedral catches your eye as it soars upwards.’

term and looks for intelligent, ‘sparky’ boys who seem, even at a young age, to have a real ‘love and feel’ for music. If they are a little extrovert, with a lively character, so much the better. Raw musical ability is what he looks for, and if it is there, he will certainly nurture it. The adults consist of six lay clerks, professional singers and six academical clerks, undergraduates who are studying for a degree at the College.

To the choir of sixteen boys and twelve men, the most important part of each day, and the reason they are there, is the singing of the daily office of Evensong. The beauty of the Psalms, the harmony of the music, and the glories of the cathedral architecture, all add to the experience of being a member of this prestigious choral ensemble. In addition to the daily services, the choir has a busy schedule of recordings and tours. Recent discs include, The Golden Vanity by Britten, choral and organ music by Janácek, and an Oxford Evensong, featuring music by composers of the University. Future plans include recordings of some music by Victoria not previously on disc, and a collection of hymns and works by Howard Goodall and Robert Saxton.

Stephen Darlington believes in trying to achieve the right sound for the right period. The Cathedral’s acoustic is dry and intimate and perfectly suited to music from the 16th century. Music from the Victorian and Edwardian periods is often far harder to bring off successfully, but of course, is part of their

Cathedral Oxford

core repertoire. The choir sings with a natural, fresh, openthroated sound, which clearly comes through in the long phrases and musical lines. It communicates well to the listener and is a choir of great versatility.

The composer Howard Goodall has had a close link with the choir since the late 1980s, when Stephen Darlington commissioned a Mass setting from him. Things have just developed from there and the choir provided the singing for the TV theme tunes to Mr Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. They were the subject of a TV documentary called Howard Goodall’s Choir Works, and have appeared in all the subsequent series. Future programmes are presently being discussed. After the documentary the choir was hailed as ‘one of the finest choirs on Earth’. When composer Robert Saxton took up his post at the University, Stephen Darlington was quick to commission some choral works from him. The first piece was performed in 2002 with future works planned for performance in 2004 and 2006.

Overseas Tours are now limited somewhat due to the increased academic workload of the choristers, their pastoral and welfare needs, (which rightly seems to be greater now than in the past), and the fact that Stephen Darlington believes that school holidays should be just that for his busy young choristers. However, recent tours have included singing in Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Japan and the USA, not to mention concerts in numerous venues in the UK. The choir certainly gains much from these ‘away fixtures’, both musically and socially, as it does from its Radio and TV recordings. Plans for a tour to the USA in 2005 are currently in hand.

Photo: Roger Overend

Photo: Matthew Power

Apart from Stephen Darlington, there is a Sub-Organist (Clive Driskill-Smith) and two organ scholars, both undergraduates at the College. The present cathedral organ was built by Rieger in the late 1970s, and has four manuals and 52 stops, all controlled by a mechanical action.

When the cathedral choir is not in residence, the services are sung by the Cathedral Singers. This choir is drawn from a rota of adult singers who live in and around Oxford. The College Chapel Choir sing Evensong in the Cathedral on most Mondays during term time.

Stephen Darlington has been Organist and Official Student in Music at Christ Church since 1985. Following his education at King’s School, Worcester, his musical career began at Christ Church as a student under his illustrious predecessor, Simon Preston. For four years he was Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral and then became Master of the Music at St Albans Abbey, where he was also Director of the world-famous Organ Festival. He was President of the Royal College of Organists from 1998-2000, and is currently Vice-President. At Oxford he is also Tutor in Music at Christ Church and Choragus (enabler of music) of the University. His study at Christ Church is full of books and CDs, covering all aspects of music, and his windows look out over the glorious Christ Church meadow. On the wall, facing his desk, hangs a painting of Sir William Walton, looking on as it has done so for many years over the music at Christ Church. Stephen Darlington is keen to attract more people to attend cathedral services and to dispel the myth that the services are some kind of private affair.

All around you is beauty, historic buildings, and a sense of utter professionalism. I ended my time in Oxford in the Cathedral prior to Choral Evensong. The quiet beauty of the building, the sun shining through the windows on the silver organ pipes, made a fitting backdrop for the arrival of boys and men for the rehearsal. The boys, straight from a busy school day, change from a gaggle of youngsters to professional musicians with one word from Dr Darlington. The lay clerks go to their places in the stalls, as the boys do some warming up exercises and are reminded about posture and breathing. They sing with youthful enthusiasm, following plenty of encouraging words from their conductor. The music for Evensong is rehearsed in great detail but never to the point of dullness. Stephen Darlington knows exactly what he wants. There is careful attention to words, dynamics and balance, the choir responding quickly and seemingly effortlessly to directions given.

Choral Evensong is a musical delight after which the Choir disperse as quickly and quietly as they arrived. The boys returned to school for supper and Prep, and the men, I presume will have gone for some liquid refreshment! Being a member of Christ Church Cathedral Choir is something of which to be proud, and certainly something the young choristers will never forget. How lucky they are.

As I leave the Cathedral and cross Tom Quad, I am transported back to the bustle of Oxford life outside Christ Church arch, but reflect on the unique musical and academic world that is Christ Church Cathedral. Here we have a first-class choir with a first-class choir-trainer, which daily maintains the musical glories of the past, whilst at the same time is adventurous in perusing music of the 21st century.

Life continues at a pace for them all, with 2004 looking as busy as ever outside of their cathedral duties, with concerts at the Aldeburgh Festival, the Haydn Festival, and Radio and TV broadcasts for the BBC and Channel 4. Look out for this choir, they will not disappoint.

Former Editorial Adviser Alan Mould charts the development of

May Morning on Magdalen Tower

The May Morning ceremony at Magdalen College, Oxford, the singing of a hymn atop the college tower at dawn, is understood (eg by R.S. Stanier, Magdalen School) to be of medieval origin. Amongst various suggestions as to the reason for its establishment, the ‘topping out’ ceremony for the 144 ft. tower in 1509 (or thereabouts) and its subsequent annual celebration, seems the most probable.

Stanier says that at the Reformation the washing by the President of seven choristers’ feet on Maundy Thursday and the Boy Bishop ceremony on St Nicholas’s Day were abolished, but not the May Morning singing. Understandably so: the two former were part of the apparatus of catholic piety from the Sarum Rite, all of which things were swept away (along with choristers’ tonsures) by the Royal Injunctions of 1547 and again in 1559 by Elizabeth after Mary Tudor had let them back for five years. But the May Morning ceremony is not part of Sarum Use; in fact it was unique to Magdalen – one reason for favouring the ‘tower’ origin.

There is evidence that, probably in Elizabethan times, it became secularised into a May Day celebration of the goddess Flora, with the singing of madrigals and the like at four in the morning, to anticipate dawn. But late in the eighteenth century one May Morning suffered appalling weather conditions, so the singing was put back by an hour and the 16 choristers and eight to 12 men sang the simplest thing they knew, the hymn Te Deum Patrem, words by Dr Smith, fellow, 1665-92, and music by Benjamin Rogers, organist, 1664-86. Thus it has remained ever since, both the hour and the hymn.

In the nineteenth century Oxford choristers and yoikish town boys sometimes came to blows. Sometimes the town boys would compete with the May Morning hymn by standing beneath the tower and loudly banging tin cans and blowing toy trumpets. On May 1st 1840 the choristers responded by chucking down onto them nearly a hundred rotten eggs.

A decade later J.R. Green, the future historian, was a pupil at Magdalen School. This from his pen:

‘Of all Oxford colleges [Magdalen] was the loveliest and... my boyish imagination was overpowered by the solemn services, the white-robed choir, the long train of divines and fellows, and the president – moving like some mysterious dream of the past among the punier creatures of the present....

May morning too was a burst of poetry every year of my boyhood....At first we used to spring out of bed, and gather in the grey of dawn on the top of the College Tower, where choristers and singing men were already grouped in their surplices. Beneath us, all wrapped in the dim mists of the Spring morning lay the city, the silent reaches of the Cherwell, the great commons of Cowley Marsh and Bullingdon, now covered with houses, but then a desolate waste. There was a long hush of waiting just before five, and then the first bright point of sunlight gleamed out over the horizon; below at the base of the tower a mist of discordant noises from the tin horns of the town boys greeted its appearance, and above, in the stillness, rose the soft pathetic air of the hymn Te Deum Patrem Colimus. As it closed the sun was fully up, surplices were thrown off, and with a burst of gay laughter the choristers rushed down the little tower stair and flung themselves on the bell-ropes, ‘jangling’ the bells in rough medieval fashion till the tower shook from side to side. And then, as they were tired, came the ringers; and the ‘jangle’ changed into one of those ‘peals’, change after change, which used to cast such a spell over my boyhood.’*

* From a letter quoted in Green and Robertson, Studies in Oxford History, (OHS)

‘Sometimes the town boys would compete with the May Morning hymn by standing beneath the tower and loudly banging tin cans and blowing toy trumpets.

On May 1st 1840 the choristers responded by chucking down onto them nearly a hundred rotten eggs.’

The world in one city

At the beginning of the 20th century, Liverpool was possibly the wealthiest city in England, and among the fastest growing. Nobody could then foresee that the Edwardian decade was to turn out to be its apogee and that external forces would, little by little, erode its economic base over the rest of the century.

Not that Liverpool was merely a product of the Industrial Revolution. Its growth was already apparent in the late 17th century and by 1800 its population numbered 80,000. The once smart Georgian terraces near the cathedral still give a hint of the proud wealth of the 1780s.

But it was the latter part of the 19th century which saw an explosion in mercantile trade so that, by 1900, at least 10% of all the world’s shipping fleet was controlled by a comparative handful of Liverpool families. They injected both pride and money into religion (principally the Church

Colin Menzies returns with another popular instalment in his occasional series of tours round cathedral cities. Here he explores Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008.

Liverpool Cathedral from Albert Dock. Photo: Graham Hermon.

of England) and were determined that the new diocese of Liverpool, created in 1880, should have a grand cathedral. Until the Reformation, Liverpool had been one of the further-flung parts of the enormous diocese of Lichfield. It then spent 350 years in the newlycreated diocese of Chester, before the growth of Liverpool and some of the surrounding industrial towns led to its own diocese.

The initial thoughts about a cathedral were remarkably muddled and inconclusive, partly because the first bishop was not keen on the idea, and it was not until 1901 that it was decided that the site at the end of Hope Street, where the new building would have a commanding presence over the city and the Mersey, should be the subject of an architectural competition for a cathedral on a grand scale. Out of over 100 entries, the assessors (Norman Shaw and G F Bodley) recommended in 1903 that the design submitted by an unknown architect named Giles Gilbert Scott should be accepted. He was 22, he was a Roman Catholic, and his only claim to fame was that he was the grandson of Sir Gilbert Scott, the busiest and most successful of the mid-Victorian architects. The authorities took a gamble and accepted the recommendation but insisted that Bodley should become the consultant architect. For several increasingly uneasy years, the young man and the 75-year-old doyen of church architects worked together; only after Bodley’s death in 1907 did Scott undertake some radical rethinkingof his original designs to produce the masterpiece we know now. It is perhaps the last great flowering of the Gothic Revival, rather than the initiation of a more modern style that was heralded at the time, and it createdsome

‘With five manuals and 145 speaking stops, it is by some way the largest church organ in the country – indeed only the Royal Albert Hall organ is of comparable size.’

All photos: Peter Kennerley.

spectacular spaces which are not always easy to use liturgically; but what a building it is both internally and externally. At 660 feet long, with the central tower 330 feet high, it is the largest church in the country – and it never leaves you in any doubt of that!

The great ship owning families played a major part in the finances: for example, the Vesteys (proprietors of the Blue Star Line) paid the major share of the cost of the central tower and the Ismays (proprietors of the White Star Line) gave most of the original stained glass, mainly designed by Powells of Whitefriars. That was, however, not enough to counteract the economic downturn after the First World War: Scott had to simplify some of his original concepts, and building work proceeded much more slowly than originally hoped. The west front was not finished until 1978, almost 20 years after Scott’s death at the age of 80.

So grand a building would undoubtedly lead to grand music, at least in the eyes of the founders.At an early stage, it was accepted that only an enormous organ would be adequate to provide a wealth of quieter colours for choral accompaniment and the punchy weight of sound needed for large services and recitals. Scott’s graceful cases conceal the sheer size of the organ, built by W illis in the mid-1920s and since overhauled by Harrison & Harrison and by the locally-based David Wells. With five manuals and 145 speaking stops, it is by some way the largest church organ in the country – indeed only the Royal Albert Hall organ is of comparable size.

The world-famous organ, and the celebrity recitals which have long been a feature of the musical life of Liverpool, have perhaps overshadowed the success of the choral foundation.

The present Dean, the Rt Revd Rupert

Hoare*, emphasises, however, that the regular singing of services (only Wednesdays are ‘dumb’) is an essential part of the corporate worship of the cathedral. In view of the lavish hopes of those who were responsible for the cathedral’s foundation, it is perhaps surprising that a choir-school was never among the plans. Instead, they decided to establish choral scholarships for boys at Liverpool College, then only a few minutes’ walk from the cathedral. When the College moved a few years later to new premises which were, crucially in those days, not on a direct tram-route to the cathedral, some of the scholarships were re-allocated to another school in the area: but when it in turn moved away in the 1960s, it was at a time when the cathedral’s finances were stretched close to breaking point. After a frightening few months when the choir teetered on the brink of financial collapse, Ronald Woan indefatigably began to forge links with all the primary schools within reasonable reach of the cathedral and built up strong relationships which have been strengthened during the past 20-plus years of Ian Tracey’s appointment.

Professor Tracey has been keen to continue the tradition, no longer observed at many cathedrals, whereby the titular organist actually plays for at least half the services. Ian Wells has been working with him, first as organ scholar then as assistant, since 1982 and also has the important task of running the probationers. Perhaps uniquely, Liverpool recruits its boys as young as five years old, so that the practices and services at the cathedral are an established part of their primary education from the start: in days when music is being squeezed out of the curriculum in some areas, it means that the music staff of the cathedral can fill some of the

gaps. The probationers participate in one service each term, plus some special services, becoming full choristersat around nine years of age.

There has been an organ scholarship for many years, funded in part by the bequest of Dr Francis Neilson, a wealthy American who died in 1961 leaving a substantial trust to support the infrastructure of the choral foundation –transport, musical instruments, food, support for individual financial need –but not the costs of running the choir itself. That’s where the recent FCM financial support has come in so importantly, enabling £20,000 to be used as a permanent endowment for the choir which could form the basis for a wider appeal for endowment funds.

The provision of lay clerks has not always been easy. Both the universities in Liverpool are secular foundations, without chapels, and attempts some years ago to recruit choral scholars were beset with timetabling problems. It’s perhaps significant that half the present lay clerks (as well as Daniel Bishop, the current organ scholar) are themselves ex-choristers whose motivation to continue their association is based on a deep love and respect for the cathedral and its worship. It’s perhaps slightly surprising that not one of them is a professional musician; they have flexitime jobs that enable them to continue their commitment to cathedral music. That underlines the very special place of the cathedral in the life of Liverpool.

With 2004 as the centenary of the start of the building works at the cathedral (marked inter alia by the Queen’s visit for Maundy Thursday this year), and with Liverpool looking forward to its place as a City of Culture in 2008, both the Dean and Chapter and Professor Tracey and his colleagues were anxious to make a musical mark. Last autumn, a centenary girls’ choir was formed. Drawn from local schools, but concentrating on the 10 to 15 age range, the new choir has spent its first weeks getting to grips with the cathedral ethos. It is intended that it should soon begin to alternate with the boys on Mondays (traditionally a boys’only service) and it sang its first evensong (including a specially-commissioned piece) with the lay clerks in midFebruary. Occasional Sunday services are beginning to be pencilled in and it has recently been confirmed that external funding has been raised to secure the existence of the girls’ choir for a

‘They have flexi-time jobs that enable them to continue their commitment to cathedral music. That underlines the very special place of the cathedral in the life of Liverpool.’

second year. The cathedral very much hopes that money can be raised to secure it on a more permanent basis.

Another centenary event has been the development of close links with the choir of Cologne Cathedral. Mutual visits will take place over the next few months and it is hoped that this will be the start of a permanent link. The Liverpool choir has, however, toured annually for some time, including two

recent visits to Prague and others to Catalonia and Belgium.

Cathedral music in Liverpool is not confined to the organ, as some people still tend to believe. The choral foundation has overcome some threatening moments towards the end of the last century and is now in more confident shape than for many years. FCM members will have the chance to confirm that, and to experience the

CANTICUS

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*Readers may be interested to note that we correctly refer to the present Dean as the Rt Revd Rupert Hoare (rather than the Very Revd). He was previously Bishop of Dudley and is an occasional assistant bishop in the Diocese of Liverpool.

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‘Another centenary event has been the development of close links with the choir of Cologne Cathedral. Mutual visits will take place over the next few months and it is hoped that this will be the start of a permanent link.’

CANTORUM III

Ian Tracey and Keith Orrell.

A pair of Liverpool Organists in conversation with CATHEDRAL MUSIC

Ian Tracey

Ian, you work in a 20 th century cathedral without the history and traditions of say, Canterbury, how does this fit into the worship patterns and the work at the cathedral? We have always considered ourselves to be ‘creating the tradition’. This has been aided, in the musical areas, by successors being handed the baton by predecessors. Dwelly, (the first Dean – in the 1930s) was oft heard to proudly proclaim that ‘the only book you will not find in Liverpool Cathedral is The Prayer Book’... he believed in designing services for those who came and in the fact that Our Lord came not to the churched but the unchurched, and so we should ‘go out to them’ and ‘bring them in’, hence his dislike of the ‘formal’ and ‘exclusive’ and his attempts to be as ‘inclusive’ as possible. This gave the Cathedral the nickname of ‘Dwelly’s Circus’ and later ‘Patey’s Palace of Varieties’ from the ‘churched’ , but foreshadowed, in a major way, current thoughts about liturgy. Prayer Book (quire) services existed alongside, of course, as now.

What are you doing to support new music?

We have always been in the business of commissioning new music, not least this year when we have commissioned a new ATMA Mass from Sir John Tavener, a set of Evensong Canticles for the men by Humphrey Clucas, a new anthem O Sacrum Convivium for the Royal Maundy Service, by Michael Jennings, and a set of evensong Canticles for the recently formed Girls’ Choir (to the new Common Worship words) by David Moore.

When you were appointed organist in 1980 you were then the youngest cathedral organist in the world. I believe there have only been three organists in the 100 or so years of Liverpool Cathedral – Harry Goss Custard, Noel Rawsthorne and yourself.

What are Goss Custard’s and Noel Rawsthorne’s legacies to Liverpool?

Goss Custard began our musical traditions, founded the choir, designed the Cathedral organ, developed the ‘in house’ style of registration/accompaniment/improvisation which still exists here today. He also taught Noel Rawsthorne, who was his assistant from 1949 – 1955. Noel taught me and I was his organ scholar and assistant from 1973 – 1980 when I succeeded him as Organist. Ian Wells, my assistant, was also his organ scholar from 1978 – 1980.

It is believed that Noel Rawsthorne did not direct the choir during his time as Cathedral Organist, as you do now in your role as Organist and Master of the Choristers. Did Goss Custard ever take the choir or was there a separate choir-master and conductor from the beginning?

‘We have always been in the business of commissioning new music, not least this year when we have commissioned a new ATMA Mass from Sir John Tavener.’

Liverpool Cathedral Choir: Reproduced with permission.

He did occasionally. Goss had both posts like me but there was still a choral conductor, Dr Robinson, who contributed when GC played. Ronald Woan was Robinson’s successor and on the choir training side he taught me about style, rehearsal planning and conducting. The cathedral is indebted to him for maintaining the music when it might seriously have crumbled.

As to the Liverpool Succession – is it essential that the Organist at the Cathedral is a home-grown product? Does that imply that Liverpool organists will always make it their life’s work?

The ‘apostolic succession’ is not essential but usual and helps secure our traditions. We have all made it our life’s work. Three of us spanned the last century, Gossy1955, Noel - 1980 and myself from then on. We all have a dedication to our work here, and certainly I would not see another cathedral as promotion (as so many do these days) this is my job, and when I leave, it will mean that I have tired of what I do... God forbid (probably more likely to be the constant paper chase, employment and equal opportunities legislation, European whatever, Childrens Act etc., etc., which will see me off!)

How many services are sung each week?

By the boys and men five, men only one, and boys only one.

You and the late Dean did a great deal to establish the tradition of a daily service so what are your secrets for maintaining a vigorous cathedral choir programme in such a cosmopolitan city as Liverpool, without a choir school?

Constant ongoing connections with schools and heads, and imaginative opportunities for recruitment publicity.

How does your recruitment programme fit in with the maintenance of the choir?

Like a good gardener, to use Gordon Reynold’s excellent analogy, it is constant. Acquiring new cuttings, tending lovingly, feeding, watering, muckspreading (a choir-master does a lot of that), pruning, often, sadly rooting out, and then sitting back and admiring one’s blooms (but not so much that one forgets that the process must continue and just because one has good blooms this season one must not be so self-satisfied as to forget to get out and start again for next season). One is constantly rebuilding the Dinosaur!

You do not have the luxury of a choir school so from where do you draw the boys? City wide state schools largely.

With no choir school is it harder to recruit boys who can cope with the huge commitment that such a timetable as yours poses? Yes but we do. We provide taxis to ferry them and get good parental support.

Is the recruitment and/or retention of choirboys hindered by the current lack of interest in singing by boys, particularly by older boys? Not as yet here.

Do you believe that there are some advantages in not being dependent upon a single residential choir school?

I can see only advantages.

What age do you take in your probationers and who teaches them?

Five upwards, taught by my Assistant who has excellent skills with that age.

Are the boys paid? If not, how are they recognised?

Not paid – they gain so much otherwise and recognise that.

You put the great space of the Cathedral to magnificent use, fusing sight and sound. Your choir procession (to the accompaniment of wonderful organ improvisations) is completely different from that of the traditional double crocodile, the main body of your men and boys walking four abreast. Who started that idea?

Dwelly – a dribble of pairs looks silly in the vast space so we use 4s, 6s. Everything has to be to scale.

What are the difficulties in singing into such a large space?

Clarity is a problem and allowing the building to assimilate what you do.

The original choir stalls are very far apart and now you have supplemented them with new ones which bring dec. and can. much closer together. What was it like singing in the original stalls?

We still do for certain big services. The key word is ‘Watch’; don’t listen.

Ian, you have the Liverpool organ at your fingertips every day, what are your reactions when you play elsewhere?

Like my predecessor, I have yet to find the instrument in the world (and we have played most of the greats between us) which excites me anything like as much.

The magnificent Willis organ with its vast array of tone colours and dynamic range is positioned very high up above the singers. Are there problems with the choir hearing it for pitch in very soft passages?

Yes, the organ is multi-directional and the choir does have to imagine some of it. It is all part of the assimilation process which takes years.

It is said that its necessary to get to the cathedral early in order to get a good seat for organ recitals such as the Easter Bank Holiday and October Anniversary recitals. Has there always been this tradition of support for organ recitals at Liverpool? Yes a huge following, usually c.1500.

You have made many LP and CD recordings of the organ at Liverpool. What are available of the choir?

We recently recorded a CD of Holy Week and Easter music, and one of Xmas music. Plans are afoot for a centenary CD.

2007 will see the 800th anniversary of Liverpool’s Royal Charter and in 2008 Liverpool is the European City of Culture. This means two years of celebration.

‘Dwelly, was oft heard to proudly proclaim that ‘the only book you will not find in Liverpool Cathedral is The Prayer Book... he believed in designing services for those who came and in the fact that Our Lord came not to the churched but the un-churched.’

How will cathedral music fit into the celebrations?

We will react, as we always have to these celebrations. The City will wish to have great civic services for each, but at the moment it is 2004 (our own Centenary) which is the major item on our horizon currently.

This year is the centenary of the Cathedral. Can you tell us a little more about the Improvisation Festival and the Heaven and Earth Concert with the Phil?

The improvisation festival will feature David Briggs and Frédéric Blanc from Paris and will consist of masterclasses and recitals and also a French Messe d’Orgue on the Sunday morning, where Frédéric will improvise at the major sections of the Eucharist, (as they do in the great French churches). The Heaven and Earth concert will feature the RLPO/RLPC/Cathedral Choristers and Girls’ Choir and 700 members of local choral societies in a first half of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (to celebrate the secular) and Messiaen’s l’Ascension interspersed with movements of Bruckner’s E minor Mass

How do you think the choir of 80 years or so ago would have sounded? Are there any recordings of the pre-war ‘Liverpool sound’.

Several of Goss’s on CD and very good too – very recognisable.

There is also a Centenary Girls’ Choir which you yourself are directing. What actually is it for?

To give the girls the opportunity to sing to the glory of God. Not sufficient any more to say ‘but they never have’ in these days of changed roles, education...

The next question FCM members will be keen to hear answered is this: if the girls are to take over any of the regular services currently sung by the boys, how will you be able ‘regulate’ what that amount is, in order to prevent any resulting deterioration in the current standard of singing of the boys?

The girls will eventually sing alternate Mondays with the boys and SATB with the men on their night as often as they can.

Will you be able to withstand demands for equality in the number of services sung by the boys and the girls, if indeed you thought that that was likely to affect the standard of the boys’ singing at Liverpool?

We promised them what they are getting – two services per week and some specials. Equality in that sense was never an option.

There is a new organist along the road at the Met: how will you be working with him (we are interviewing him too) and can you tell CM readers about the collaboration between the two cathedral choirs?

There is, and always has been, great musical collaboration between the two music departments. Keith is an old friend and we often worked together when he was at the Hallé. They are joining us for a Five Cathedral Choirs concert (for the centenary) on July 4th (with Chester, Blackburn, Manchester and Liverpool). We frequently collaborate for joint ecumenical services.

What is your a) favourite organ to play? Liverpool

b) favourite building? Liverpool Cathedral

c) favourite anthem? Not sure I have one

d) favourite set of canticles? Howells Coll Reg

e) favourite organ piece? Franck 2nd Choral

f) favourite composer? Howells for choir and organ, probably Bach and Franck for organ.

Have you played for an event or recital that stands out as a great moment?

Playing at the opening service of Liverpool Cathedral in 1978.

John Scott has recently been tempted away from St. Paul’s Cathedral and takes up his new appointment at the church of St Thomas New York in the summer. Could something tempt you away from Liverpool, bearing in mind that you have served its cathedral continuously as Organ Scholar, Assistant Organist, and Organist and Master of the Choristers, for some 35 years? Can you give us an insight into what your personal ambitions are? To stay here and do the job as well as I can for as long as I can.

‘The improvisation festival will feature David Briggs and Frédéric Blanc from Paris and will consist of masterclasses and recitals.’

Keith, what was life like before your appointment to Liverpool?

My previous work has involved a career in school music teaching in my twenties, then a gradual shift to freelance choral activities, conducting many choirs from youngsters to mixed choirs, large and small, and eventually chorus mastering, particularly work with the Hallé Choir in Manchester which I enjoyed for nearly seven years, principally during the reign of Kent Nagano. This brought me into contact with other international conductors such as James Levine, Mark Elder, Nicholas McGegan, Andrew Parrott, Owain Arwel Hughes, Skrowaczewski, etc. etc. Also work with other symphony choruses, particularly the BBC Symphony Chorus, the RSNO Chorus in Scotland and others which has included preparation for Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop and others.

What music were you conducting?

Works like Mahler 8 (in fact all of Mahler’s choral music), Stravinsky Les Noces, Daphnis & Chloë, Belshazzar’s Feast, The Dream of Gerontius, operas like Billy Budd, Tosca, and a hundred other large-scale works are in my repertoire, as well as a wide smaller-scale repertoire associated with my chamber choir, the Beaumaris Singers, which I still conduct for a little while longer until I move lock-stock-andbarrel to Liverpool.

I hear you have recently started to work as conductor of the Liverpool Welsh Choral Union.

Yes and it’s some conducting which I will be able to tie in neatly with my principal work at the Met. I continue to lead a number of choral workshops throughout the country, and will continue to be a choral tutor at Hereford International Summer School.

So what of the English choral tradition?

Throughout all this (in fact since my

Keith Orrell

Along Hope Street stands Liverpool

Metropolitan Cathedral where Keith Orrell has been appointed in succession to Mervyn Cousins. Despite a wonderful but extremely hectic start and although not yet living permanently in Liverpool he managed to take a few moments to talk to CATHEDRAL MUSIC.

teens) I have been involved in church music in various capacities, firstly as an organist and a very inexperienced choirmaster at my local URC church in Blackburn, then occasional playing in Liverpool during my university years. Later in various Anglican churches, culminating in a gradual drift to the Catholic liturgy, significantly when I met my wife Clare who is also a very experienced and knowledgeable Catholic musician.

Have you been involved in cathedral music?

Oh yes! I spent the last 12 years as organist at Shrewsbury RC Cathedral, sharing and developing the music there in partnership with my wife. Now I’ve been promoted to a full-time post in one of the country’s great cathedrals in Liverpool!

If you can describe the feeling, what’s it like taking over at Liverpool?

It feels like a massive career shift. However having not gone through the conventional channels of choir boy, organ or choral scholarship, or Oxbridge/famous cathedral associations. I have learned (and I am learning) the trade really through a genuine love of choral training and through a desire to explore the seemingly

inexhaustible church choral repertoire. The speed of the turnover of music at the Met has come as quite a shock, as have the 8.00am practices with the boys, after years of having time to carefully prepare during the day for predominantly evening rehearsals with adults.

I take it you have a good team around you? The good thing is there is a great team of supporting musicians here who are helping me to learn the role – organist and Assistant Director of Music Richard Lea, two enthusiastic organ scholars, a well-informed librarian together with support and welcome experience from the choir men. My secretary Oonagh Stott is a godsend, and the priests and cathedral administrative staff are being very supportive and understanding. The singing at services has gone well so far, I can now build up the job around that.

What of the future?

It’s early days yet, but I would like to take this wonderful choir out into the wider world. It is known for excellent singing in its home, and for leading and enhancing the liturgy here, but the choir deserves to be heard by a wider

Photo: Courtesy of Catholic Pictorial.

audience. We have been invited to sing Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony with the RLPO in May, an invitation which I gladly accepted, and I hope that we can do more of this sort of performing when time allows. The choir tours abroad every two or three years, and I hope to continue and develop this aspect.

What about new music?

I will do what I can to foster good relations with contemporary composers, and learn new and interesting repertoire, but as yet I’m coming to terms with the wonderfully rich and enormous library here in the cathedral. A previous director, Philip Duffy, has left an incredible legacy, from psalm settings to almost any day of the church’s year to responses and original compositions. Other former directors, in particular Mervyn Cousins, have also left some interesting music which deserves further outings. I also wish to promote the best of the more recent Catholic parish music by Inwood, Farrell, Walker, etc. when the appropriate opportunity arises. It is a question of balance. I would never abandon the rich tradition of Palestrina and Byrd, nor the great works by say Langlais or Vierne.

Do you have a good choir of boys?

The boys’ choir is flourishing, but as always one senses that the voices of some of the leading choristers will break in the near future, and it will be up to me rebuild the choir. We have just had voice trials, a lot of interest was shown, and I am presently sifting through the list of potential choristers to draw up a shortlist. Those chosen will have the fortunate position of having a period of intensive vocal and theory training, developing sight singing

skills and learning to be musically independent. There is no better or more effective way of learning to read and perform music than in this way. They also have a normal (and the very best) of schooling in all subjects at two excellent schools which welcome both boys and girls – St Edward’s Junior School (known as Runnymede) and St Edward’s College, the latter catering at secondary level.

At least you will have time to familiarise yourself before 2008.

The 2008 European City of Culture granted to Liverpool is a wonderful opportunity to reveal the strong musical and multicultural talent within this great city. I have yet to get my brain around this one, but it is hoped that the music of this great cathedral will be seen and heard both within and in other appropriate venues within the city.

There has been a good collaboration between the two cathedral choirs with singing Evening Prayer/Choral Evensong together from time to time, and I believe every effort is made to share common repertoire. Yes, long may this continue.

How is the organ shaping up?

For me I am getting to know the Walker organ. Similarly, I think the building here is the most awe-inspiring space I have ever experienced. The shafts of blue, red and other colours change remarkably according to the time of day, and the circular aspect of the building focuses one completely on the high altar. There is nowhere else I know where God feels to be in every particle of air within the building. I love the way we can sing music, for example a Gregorian introit on the famous ‘ramp’, and every note swirls round and round the building in a most unique way.

Do you have a favourite anthem?

I hate trying to narrow this down, as one is completely absorbed in whatever one is doing at any one time, but I adore anything by Bruckner, and equally the great English repertoire like V Williams’s Mass in G minor or the music of Howells. I discovered his Salve Regina for the first time recently, and think it is a stunning piece.

What else do you like?

I have always enjoyed Bach’s organ (and choral) music above anything else, but could listen to Messiaen’s unique colours and harmonies for hours on end.

Any recordings on the horizon?

We have not yet planned a CD but there is a tradition of recording, and I’m wondering whether we might go the whole hog and do a DVD of the choir – watch this space.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to Cathedral Music and good luck and best wishes.

‘It is known for excellent singing in its home, and for leading and enhancing the liturgy here, but the choir deserves to be heard by a wider audience.’

Keith Orrell.

Quires in colleges where they sing

by Paul Edwards

Iam conscious that this society is the FRIENDSOF CATHEDRAL MUSIC: but the fact remains that there is a goodly number of Quires and Places Where They Sing besides cathedrals where a tradition of Choral Evensong is maintained and chief among these are the college chapels of Cambridge and Oxford. Everyone knows of King’s College, Cambridge, of course, and the reputations of nearby St Johns, and the three Oxford establishments where a boys-and-men choir and daily sung services are held, are quite rightly at a very high level. The FCM brochure Singing in Cathedrals lists these foundations, but what is perhaps not so widely realised is the extent to which other Oxbridge colleges provide Choral Evensong also and the excellence of the choirs concerned. These are the mixed choirs, where the soprano parts are sung by young women undergraduates (many of them, though by no means all, winners of choral scholarships) rather than by boys as elsewhere. I hope I shall not provoke any hostile correspondence when I state my personal preference for the sound of these choirs – heresy, I know, in the eyes of many, but to my ears the many Evensongs I have been privileged to attend sung by the mixed choirs in Cambridge or Oxford have been the most rewarding and beautiful experiences of worship imaginable. Undoubtedly the setting helps - the architecture and the atmosphere – but if one appreciates the admixture of technical skill on the one hand and emotional, spiritual and aesthetic enrichment on the other, then one cannot help

feeling that the Oxbridge college chapel Evensong is about as good as it gets.

It is not always easy to ascertain the days and times when such services are scheduled. To the best of my knowledge, no general listing exists, and I have therefore attempted to compile one, as set out at the end of the present article. It must be borne in mind by any intending visitor that these times are subject to alteration for a variety of reasons, and that in most cases the services are sung only in Full Term – scarcely eight weeks long at Cambridge – so one has to be wary of making a fruitless visit. Enquiries to the Porters’ Lodge, to seek out the identity of canticle setting and anthem, are not always productive either, and a surprising number of colleges give no information about times or music on their websites. There is, nonetheless, a certain excitement in arriving for the service with no prior knowledge as to what one is about to hear. The surprises may often be extremely pleasant ones.

A choral foundation is maintained by at least 21 Cambridge colleges, and almost the same number at Oxford, although –curiously – far fewer of the latter’s choirs sing a weekday service than do their Cambridge counterparts. Congregations tend to be small but the welcome warm and, of course, the issue at stake is not the size of the congregation but the fact of the service happening at all – the worship of God with the finest quality music and words of which we are capable, on behalf of the entire collegiate (and wider) community. No one who belongs to FCM

will need any convincing as to the merits of Choral Evensong; what some may not appreciate is how amazingly good many of these lesser-known college choirs actually are. Bit by bit I am trying to hear them all in Cambridge at least, for I live less than an hour away. There may be yet more undiscovered jewels in the crown, but I have no hesitation in saying there can hardly be finer choirs anywhere than such places as Clare, Gonville & Caius, and, perhaps most of all, Trinity College: in terms of tone and blend, intonation, dynamics and diction, they are astounding.

Many of these chapel choirs have issued CDs in recent years, and the keen collector will find them irresistible. To take an example at random: what finer, or more moving, performance could one hear of Parry’s six Songs of Farewell than that by Pembroke College, Cambridge, on their eponymous disc (PRCD 647)? The beauty of detail throughout this programme is remarkable, with both the Harris double choir motets deeply expressive. Regrettably, this choir does not sing in the week, and on Sundays the custom is to have the canticles to Anglican chant. Indeed, not all chapels are without some unusual custom or eccentricity. Some choirs are run entirely by the undergraduates;

CAMBRIDGE COLLEGES

COLLEGE SUNDAYWEEKDAYSTEL No.

COLLEGE (01223)

CHRIST’S18.00Thursday 18.45334900

CLARE18.00Tuesday & 333200 Thursday 18.15

CORPUS 18.00Wednesday 18.45338000

CHRISTI

DOWNING18.00Thursday 18.00334800

EMMANUEL18.00Thursday 18.00 334200

(Choral Eucharist)

GIRTON18.00Days/times vary338999

GONVILLE & 18.00Tuesday 18.30332400

CAIUSThursday 18.30

(Choral Eucharist)

JESUS18.00 Tuesday & 339339

Thursday & Saturday 18.30

(Mixed choir Sun/Tues; boys and men Thurs/Sat)

MAGDALENE18.30 Thursday 18.45332100

PEMBROKE18.15 (none)338100

PETERHOUSE18.15 Thursday 19.00338200

QUEEN’S17.45 Wednesday 18.30335511

ROBINSON18.00 Tuesday 18.30339100

SELWYN18.00 Tuesday & 335846

Thursday 18.30

SIDNEY SUSSEX18.15 Friday 18.45338800

ST. CATHARINE’S 18.00 Wednesday 18.30 338300 (sometimes Choral Eucharist)

TRINITY18.15

Tuesday & 338400

Thursday 18.15

TRINITY HALL18.00 Thursday 18.30332500

FITZWILLIAM18.00 (none)332000

others have a professional director of music of riper years. Some may be as small as a dozen singers, whilst others may be 30 strong. In all cases, highest quality choral worship is proffered.

In these times when the winds of change are constantly swirling, the peace and beauty of an Oxbridge College chapel Choral Evensong is a great treasure. I venture to hope that more and more worshippers will discover this, and experience the immense enrichment and refreshment it provides.

OXFORD COLLEGES

COLLEGESUNDAYWEEKDAYSTEL No.

COLLEGE (01865)

BALLIOL17.45*(none) 277777

BRASENOSE18.00(none) 277830

CORPUS 18.00*(none) 276700

CHRISTI

EXETER18.00Tuesday & 279600

Friday 18.15

HERTFORD17.45(none)279403

JESUS17.45(none)279700

KEBLE17.30*Wednesday 18.15272727

LADY 17.30(occasional)274300

MARGARET HALL

LINCOLN17.45*(none)279800

MAGDALEN18.00Daily 18.00276000 (Tuesdays mixed choir ‘Magdala’, others boys & men)

MERTON17.45(none)276310

ORIEL18.00(none)276555

PEMBROKE18.00(none)276410

THE QUEEN’S18.15Wednesday & 279121

Friday 18.30

SOMERVILLE18.00(none)270600

ST. HUGH’S18.15(none)274900

ST. JOHN’S18.00Wednesday 18.30277300

ST. PETER’S18.00Thursday 18.00278900

TRINITY18.00(none)279900

UNIVERSITY18.00(none)276602

WADHAM18.30Wednesday 18.15277900

WORCESTER18.00Monday & 278300

Tuesday 18.15

Thursday 18.15 (Choral Eucharist)

(Full details of Christ Church and New College are given in Singing In Cathedrals (FCM).

Note. – * denotes that Choral Evensong may be alternated with, or replaced by, Eucharist.

‘Some choirs are run entirely by the undergraduates; others have a professional director of music of riper years.’

(Full details of King’s College and St. John’s College are given in Singing In Cathedrals (FCM).

Richard Osmond rounds up the news from DRs

Members will wish to congratulate John Scott (St Paul’s) on the award of the LVOin the New Year Honours list, and Sir Richard Armstrong, Music Director of Scottish Opera on the award of the CBE. Sir Richard was a chorister at Leicester under Dr George Gray and later assistant to Dr Martin Neary LVO at St Margaret’s, Westminster. John Scott will be leaving St Paul’s in the summer to take up his new post at St Thomas Fifth Avenue, New York. We wish him well. Dr Christopher Robinson CVO (lately of St John’s Cambridge) is appointed a CBE and is doubly to be congratulated as he received an honorary Fellowship of the Guild of Church Musicians (FGCM) at Westminster Cathedral, on 6th November, presented by the Cardinal Archbishop. Also receiving the FGCM was Dr John Sanders OBE, who sadly died on 23rd December 2003. An appreciation of Dr Sanders appears on pages 13 to 15.

Death of Eminent Musicologist

The musicologist and editor Robin Langley died suddenly on 26 th January 2004 at the age of 61. He was widely respected as an editor and may be particularly remembered by readers of his ten-volume English Organ Music and for the Novello Book of Carols. He was librarian of the RCO from 1990-2003, where he masterminded the design of the new library after the RCO had moved from its Kensington Gore home to St Andrew’s Holborn (a sadly shortlived move).

Meanwhile, at Lincoln Canon Gavin Kirk (formerly Precentor of Portsmouth Cathedral, succeeds Canon Andrew Stokes, who has retired. Joshua Jackson (aged 10) becomes the second Ronald Sibthorp Chorister, succeeding Richard Lynch.

Salisbury’s DR gets the wind up!

The annual gathering of the Friends of Cathedral Music of Salisbury Diocese took place on Saturday 31st January with an attendance of just under 100 members including members from other dioceses, some of whom had travelled long distances to attend. It was touch and go if the planned arrangements for the day, which included events in the cathedral, would be able to go ahead on account of the weather. At 7.30 that morning, the Diocesan Representative received a telephone call from the Cathedral advising that it might have to be closed on account of the extreme high winds and suggesting it might be advisable for alternative arrangements for the Friends meeting to be made! Fortunately as the day progressed the winds subsided and all the planned arrangements went without a hitch.

The day started with a communion service in the Cathedral Trinity Chapel taken by the Acting Dean, Canon June Osborne, who is herself an FCM member and who has since been appointed to the post of Dean, followed by a delightful half hour concert by the girl choristers under their director Simon Lole, accompanied by David Halls, the Cathedral Organist. Lunch was then taken in the medieval setting of the undercroft in The Cathedral School, which formerly was the home of the Bishops of Salisbury. After the splendid lunch, there were two admirable talks the first given by The Very Reverend Michael Mayne KCVO Dean Emeritus of Westminster, whose talk was called Of Choristers and Coronations. This was of great interest as well as being most amusing. (A copy of the talk appears on page 44). The second talk was by Timothy Hone, former organist and Director of Music Newcastle Cathedral, now Head of the Liturgy and Music Department of

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Salisbury Cathedral, who covered the wide spectrum of the development of cathedral music over the ages, where it is today and its future. Following tea, members attended Choral Evensong at which the canticles were Stanford in C and the anthem Elgar’s Give unto the Lord. The gathering concluded with an outstanding recital on the Willis organ by David Halls with pieces by Elgar, Bach and Bonnal. What promised to be a day of disruption on account of the weather turned out to be a highly successful, enjoyable and trouble free day.

Leicester Pulls Out The Stops

The fine 4-manual cathedral organ has now been restored by Harrison and Harrison and still contains pipework by Walker (1873) and Snetzler (1774). A full specification is to be found on the cathedral website www.cathedral.Leicester.Anglican.org

Thomas Trotter, Birmingham City Organist and an international recitalist, gave the opening recital on the restored instrument on Friday 5th March 2004.

Dr George Gray was organist at Leicester Cathedral from 1930 to 1969. After his death in 1981, the Old Choristers’ Association set up a trust in his memory. Today the fund stands at over £80,000 and currently provides nine scholarships to boy choristers including two in the name of the Friends of Cathedral Music.

Peter White, organist from 1969 to 1994, was appointed President of the Old Choristers’ Association in 2003 and celebrated his Ruby Wedding anniversary with his wife Doreen in the same year. Geoffrey Carter, assistant organist at Leicester under Peter, had been a chorister at Armagh Cathedral when his father was Master of the Choristers there. When his father died in 1998, Geoffrey decided that he wanted to set up some form of scholarship at

Where do lay clerks hang out in your part of the country? If your local hostelry is worth a mention drop the Editor a line along with a photo of the lay clerks partaking of a pint.

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Armagh Cathedral in his memory. The fund was launched on 16th March 2003, when Geoffrey gave an inaugural recital on the cathedral organ, and now stands at £7,000. Canon John Craig, Canon Precentor, has announced his retirement. To mark the occasion, a concert is planned in the cathedral for Tuesday 6th July 2004 to be given by Aurora Nova, an all female professional choir which is directed by his son, Patrick.

The cathedral is looking forward to welcoming delegates of the Federation of Cathedral Old Choristers’ Associations to Leicester for their annual festival from 17th to 19th September 2004. During the festival, the evensong on the Saturday will be sung by the combined girls’ choirs of Coventry, Derby and Leicester Cathedrals to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Leicester girls’ choir.

New Cathedral Centre at Derby

Visitors from far and wide to the FCM Diocesan Gathering at Derby on 27th on 27th September were rewarded by a special preview of the new Cathedral Centre, whose doors were opened to the public the following week. At the gathering two talks were given in the new centre, followed by a particularly delicious and plentiful tea (our Restaurant Critic writes). Evensong was followed by a Michaelmas Concert which featured Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. One of the preceding talks was on Walter Hussey, who commissioned that work (when Dean of Chichester). Interestingly, all who came to the FCM gathering stayed for the concert, no matter what distance they had travelled.

No Let Up at Canterbury

After the excitement (and work) surrounding the enthronement of a new archbishop, Canterbury might have been excused for easing up a bit. But the normal round (if there is such a thing) continued apace. The choir gave a concert in Sherborne Abbey as part of the festival there. This was not the easiest of engagements to fulfil as it was scheduled for a Friday evening, but thanks to careful planning and some ingenious travel routes for some of the lay clerks, it was a huge success and greatly enjoyed by all.

The choristers paid a short visit to the Netherlands and Germany for two concerts during the summer term. The

cathedral in Aachen was packed to the doors, whilst earlier that day the choristers and David Flood gave a lecture and demonstration for the Domchorsschule and their guests, in German: an exhausting morning!

During the period called “boarder choir”, when school is finished for the summer and choristers just stay to sing for two weeks, the choir recorded a new CD of the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems For the first time were able to record with a small orchestra, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Cathedral.

The autumn brought a Radio 3 Evensong sung very stylishly and an enormously encouraging voice trial at which Canterbury were able to offer all the vacant chorister scholarships for September 2004 and to ask a good number of talented youngsters to come back for the following year.

Winchester Remembers Former Organists

The first FCM Diocesan Gathering for several years took place on 11th October, when over 40 members heard the choir sing one of the great masterpieces of the nineteenth century, S. S. Wesley’s The Wilderness, with immaculate organ accompaniment from Sarah Baldock, Assistant Organist and Director of the Girls’ Choir. There are plans to take the girls to Norway this summer, while Sarah Baldock is planning a complete recording of the organ works of Maurice Duruflé. The 450th anniversary of the wedding of Mary Tudor and Philip II of Spain takes place this year in the Cathedral (25th July). There are a number of events to commemorate this important anniversary though as yet the musical details are not finalised. A large congregation gathered on 31st January to give thanks for the long and fruitful life of Mollie Surplice, widow of Alwyn Surplice, organist of the cathedral in the middle of the last century. The congregation included a number of former colleagues of Alwyn, including Richard Seal (formerly of Salisbury and a Southern Cathedrals Festival colleague). Music included some by Alwyn himself and other works sung at his own funeral, by Sir William Harris, and Anthony Caesar (a former Canon Precentor). Roger Job (another former Precentor) took part in the service and Roger Judd, a former chorister, and Clement McWilliam, also a former chorister and previous assistant organist, shared the organ playing before the service. Mention of SCF col-

leagues prompts the thought that this year’s festival will take place at Chichester from 15th to 18th July. Also in the Winchester Diocese, St Stephen’s Bournemouth will be holding its May Festival again this year (1st to 3rd): details from Ian Harrison (01202 485664). The Whitlock organ recital will be given by Gordon Stewart, while the festival organist is Andrew Fletcher.

Guildford joins the distinguished ranks of those who produce a diocesan newsletter. Among other interesting items, it announces O Be Joyful a CD of popular anthems featuring both girl and boy choristers. The CD costs, £12.99 and proceeds go towards the Music Campaign. There will be a diocesan gathering on Friday 21st May.

The other diocesan gathering particularly notified will be at Gloucester on Tuesday 4th May. Details will be sent to FCM members in the Diocese.

Neighbouring Portsmouth report a very busy and successful Christmas, including a Gala Concert in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief, with readings by Christopher Timothy. The Portsmouth Choir have been invited to make a return visit to Antwerp at the end of March. Importantly, they will make a visit to Caen for the D-Day 60th Anniversary Commemorations, singing with the Portsmouth Youth Choir and the Maîtrise de Caen, plus singers from the Caen Conservatoire. The highlight will be a concert on Sunday 6th June, the exact anniversary of the historic landings in 1944. Many heads of state are expected and the BBC will be making recordings over the weekend. A CD Portsmouth Remembers has been made for the Guild label.

At the other end of the country Carlisle reports full year in 2003. The Youth Choir has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of David Gibbs, and travelled to Norway in August for their first foreign tour, giving concerts in and around Stavanger.

Shortly after the Border Cathedrals Festival, which is held annually in October and involves the choirs of Newcastle Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh and Carlisle, bade an emotional farewell to Dean Graeme Knowles. The Choral Foundation has been singularly fortunate in having such a supportive and

Lay Vicars at the Wig & Quill.

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musical dean. A few weeks later the cathedral choir travelled to the Isle of Man in order to take part in his enthronement as Bishop of Sodor and Man. Within hours of arriving back in Carlisle the choir was on the move again, this time in order to sing Evensong in Burgh-by-Sands in celebration of the new peal of bells there.

At the end of January, Head Chorister Simon Newing took his leave. He and his elder brother Timothy have between them given 10 years unbroken service, making a 20 mile round trip from the village where they live six times a week. Without the benefit of a choir school, Carlisle relies heavily on the commitment given by the choristers and their families in order to maintain the tradition of daily choral Evensong.

The cathedral looks forward to hosting the diocesan gathering on Sunday 23rd May. Evensong will be sung at 3pm, after which tea will be served in the Prior’s Kitchen.

Liverpool Metropolitan has bade farewell to Mervyn Cousins, who has taken up a new post as Director of the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod. He has been succeeded by Keith Orrell (see page 27).

A Fenland Suite Kings College will be performing Bach’s St Matthew Passion on 10th April with the Academy of Ancient Music, and will be giving a concert of Hungarian music in the Chapel on 21st April. Future events include; May 9th –Opening Concert at the Perth Festival (Scotland); July 2 nd – Cirencester Parish Church; September 26 th –Reading Town Hall. There will be a Summer Tour from July 23rd (details to be confirmed).

St John’s reports a smooth transition from Dr Christopher Robinson to Dr David Hill and is planning to issue its first ‘own’ CD.

Jesus College has lost Timothy Byram-Wigfield to St George’s Windsor (in succession to Jonathan Rees-Williams). Daniel Hyde, formerly organ scholar at King’s, who was Acting Director of Chapel Music has now been appointed to the permanent position.

Apart from cathedrals and college chapels we are also indebted to a number of other Foundations. St Mary’s Warwick, continues to thrive and boasts five very active choirs. The main choir has 20 boys and 16 men. Among events this year will be the tra-

ditional Tower Service on Ascension Day (some 97 years after the first such in 1904). The choir will visit Hungary in the summer, while Collegium (a kind of choral society) will sing Passion For Our Time by Phillip Wilby at the War wick Festival in July. The Girls’ Choir will be in residence at Norwich Cathedral for a week in July, being joined by the men for the final weekend.

Southwark is reported to be in good form at the moment. The boys are on the crest of a wave with a number of seniors now at the zenith of their powers. The men have increased their workload with the commitment to singing an extra Sunday evening service once a month with the girls’ choir. In July, the choir will appear on Radio 3’s Choral Evensong. This is now an almost annual booking. In the autumn the choir plans to visit Wales and Ireland and in the summer of 2005, the cathedral’s centenary, they aim to undertake a major tour either to North America or Australia. The foundation has recently spawned a new youth choir, The Merbecke Choir, for singers under 25, which presently consist of a larger number of former choristers. They made their debut with a concert and have recently sing Evensong. The choir is conducted by Ian Keatley the retiring organ scholar who has just been appointed to the same position at Westminster Abbey. He takes over from Daniel Cook, also a former organ scholar at Southwark.

Spreading the word about FCM

Seeing a copy of CATHEDRAL MUSIC in the excellent Winchester Cathedral bookshop, in 1996, led Trevor Godfrey to join FCM. Little did he realise that sometime later he would be acting as FCM Public Relations Officer which he has done since June of last year. After a career spent in technical journalism and public relations in London and Birmingham, Trevor’s knowledge of writing for the media was seized on by FCM.

There is now a regular flow of information being sent to editors, music and religion correspondents of the quality dailies, and editors of music and religious magazines. For example, in 2003, Trevor wrote press releases on all eight of the cathedrals/churches, which received FCM grants in that year. This resulted in regional and local press coverage across the country

and, as a bonus, fostered closer relations with bishops, deans, masters of music, gatherings such as Peterborough, St. Davids and Rochester and Regional Gatherings including Derby.

He is also endeavouring to interest editors by offering feature articles such as one for the pre-Christmas edition of Anglican World and an article on Easter Music for the new BBC publication Songs of Praise – a seedbed for recruiting new FCM members. Longer term projects are in the pipeline. He has not overlooked the importance of using our chairman Peter Toyne’s willingness to act as FCM’s spokesman and, where possible, getting him to underline FCM thinking in addition to taking proactive stances on vital cathedral music issues.

If you are a diocesan representative and would like help in publicising and FCM event in your diocese, Trevor would be pleased to hear from you. The PR service is funded by FCM and will cost you nothing except some time. He also welcomes any press cuttings you can send him relating to FCM in your area and also copies and/or details of your diocesan newsletters. Help him to help you spread the news of the FCM. You will find his address etc in the box on page 61, which lists other FCM officers.

To ensure your contribution features in inQuire, all news and diary dates should be sent no later than 1st September 2004 to:

Richard Osmond

10 Hazel Grove, Badger Farm, WINCHESTER, Hants SO22 4PQ. Tel/Fax: 01962 850818

Trevor Godfrey

Children’s Crusade

Stephen Darlington discusses a new recording project.

Allegro Music

In a letter to William Plomer after the first performance of Children’s Crusade in 1969, Benjamin Britten referred to the tremendous impression of passion and sincerity made by the boys. The work had been written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Save the Children Fund, and with typical boldness and vision, Britten chose a tough and uncompromising poem by Brecht, the Kinderkreuzzug for his text. It is a gruesome story, tracing the desperate attempts of a group of refugee children lost in Poland at the beginning of World War II, to find safety. Their failure to do so is all the more touching because of the brilliant characterisation of the individuals in the party: the little leader, the Jewish boy, the Nazi sympathiser and the drummer boy amongst others, not forgetting the dog!

The musical forces assembled by Britten are ideal to reflect the starkness of the tale, as is the musical language he employs. The scoring is for boys’ choir, piano duet, chamber organ and a vast battery of percussion instruments, some untuned and to be played by as many children as possible, and others requiring considerable expertise. The result is a range of sonorities which seems perfectly matched to the harrowing nature of the story: in particular, the influence of Oriental music is noticeable. Each main character is associated with a percussion instrument, the most striking of which is surely the

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‘This is a narrative about children, told by children and performed by children, yet, as is so often the case with Britten, it offers a paradigm of the adult world.’

scraper which depicts the bark of the dog, a part sung by a broken boy’s voice.

For some years I had harboured a desire to perform this work, but was finally prompted to do so by several happy coincidences in 2002. First, there was the excellent Oxfordshire County Music Service percussion ensemble under the direction of Sue Lawrence. Secondly, I had a particularly large pool of soloists from which to draw, including an ideal ‘dog’, and the additional choral resource of the choristers of Worcester College Chapel, also educated at Christ Church Cathedral School. Finally there was the enthusiasm for recording the work by Lance Andrews who runs the Lammas recording company. After extensive separate rehearsals, the forces came together for two concert performances and then recording sessions. Also, more recently, we have reassembled to record part of the work for a BBC 2 documentary about Britten’s music for children to be shown this year.

There could be no better example of the special power of music to bring people together in a shared experience. The choristers were mesmerised by the skill of the percussionists, all from different schools in the Oxford area, and the percussionists were equally surprised by the expertise and professionalism of the band of singers. Above all, the performers were all affected by the poignancy of Brecht’s story in Britten’s powerful realisation. This is a narrative about children, told by children and performed by children, yet, as is so often the case with Britten, it offers a paradigm of the adult world and seems to strike to the heart of the deepest political and social issues of our times.

July 10th-17th 2004

(The recording of Children’s Crusade was released at the beginning of September on a disc which also includes The Golden Vanity, Missa Brevis and Ceremony of Carols. The disc is entitled The Golden Vanity and is on the Lammas record label.)

Saturday 10th July

7.30 pm

Mozart Requiem & Clarinet Concerto

Sunday 11th July

9 pm

Schubert Quintet for Strings by Candlelight

Monday 12th July 7.30 pm

Classic Buskers

Tuesday 13th July

7.30 pm

Fine Arts Brass

Wednesday 14th July 11 am

Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time

7.30 pm

Drop Another Hat:Homage to Flanders & Swann

Thursday 15th July

7.30 pm

A Summer Serenade of Opera & Song

Friday 16th July

7.30 pm

Carlisle Cathedral Choir & Youth Choir in Concert

10 pm

Silent Film Phantom of the Opera with live organ improvisation by David Briggs

Saturday 17th July

12 noon

Composition Competition

Final

7.30 pm

Vivaldi The Four Seasons works by Bach and Mozart

Call 01228 526646 for a Festival Brochure or visit www.musicinthecathedral.org.uk

Tickets £5

ALL EVENTS INCLUDE VIDEO PROJECTION

Further details 020 7236 6883

www.stpauls.co.uk

‘...the performers were all affected by the poignancy of Brecht’s story in Britten’s powerful realisation.’

‘...the performers were all affected by the poignancy of Brecht’s story in Britten’s powerful realisation.’

Lay Clerks Tales

Here are some of the Brecon Cathedral lay clerks (all of whom are voluntary singers) behind the bar at The Bull’s Head, which is situated at the bottom of Priory Hill just below the cathedral. The photograph shows you the hostelry, the bridge over the River Honddu from which Brecon takes its Welsh name Aberhonddu, and, on the right, the ladies’ and gentlemen’s toilets, which hang out over the river and one day will, the lay clerks are sure, dump some of them into its depths. Every time one of them visits the said loo he anxiously surveys the split in the tiles on the floor! The Bull’s Head landlords have included an eminent professional horn player known in the trade as ‘Drac’ (Terry Johns) and Chris Hair a baroque violinist, world expert on the life and works of Francesco Scarlatti, who edited his Miserere for 5-part choir and string orchestra which was given its first modern performance by Brecon Cathedral Choir and the Gwent Chamber Orchestra. The present landlord – another Chris – boasts 30 real ales every month, also the cheapest Sunday roast lunch in Brecon! The parties here after concerts, suppers after Friday Choral Evensong, plus the weekly Sunday lunch, are famous! The street outside the pub is called The Struet; it is claimed that many of the archers who fought in the battle of Agincourt lived here. In the Cathedral Heritage Centre is a large stone on which archers are known to have sharpened their arrows. On the opposite side of The Struet are King Charles’s Steps, so called because King Charles I left Brecon that way, having tried to rally Brecon citizens to the royalist cause. The town, however, remained neutral and so destroyed the town walls.

FCM members will be able to have a pint or two in The Bull’s Head at the national gathering from October 7th to 9th 2005.

LAYCLERKS TALE

Where do lay clerks hang out in your part of the country? If your local hostelry is worth a mention drop the Editor a line along with a photo of the lay clerks partaking of a pint.

David Gedge and the lay clerks enjoy a pint at The Bull’s Head.

Maurice Parry (tenor) Paul Jackson (alto former treble) Wynn Davies bass, Colin Chapman (bass) Kelvin Redford (also one of the assistant organists) David Gedge Organist and Choirmaster since 1966, Matthew Phillips (bass and also a former treble) Dudley Palmer (alto and also photographer).

Makin Organssetting the tone at Peterborough Cathedral

In November 2001, Peterborough Cathedral suffered a devastating blow when fire rendered their famous Hill/Harrison pipe organ unplayable.

Makin Organs quickly answered the emergency call to supply an organ capable of accompanying Cathedral services. Christopher Gower, Organist and Master of the Choristors says, “Immediately following the fire we were very quickly supplied with an organ which proved to be a very effective accompanimental instrument for all the Christmas services.

Its larger replacement, which we will retain for at least two years, has a wide variety of distinctive registers and is more than capable of supporting the singing of a large congregation in the nave.”

MAKIN ORGANS CHURCH ORGAN BUILDERS

Peterborough Cathedral

Heard the one about the Lay Clerk and the horse?

by James Saunders

Seventeenth Century jokes about cathedral choirs

William Whiteway was a resident of Dorchester, in the first half of the seventeenth century. A serious and godly man, his preference was for churches unadorned with ceremonial frills. Amidst his other activities, Whiteway kept a journal which is half diary, half scrapbook. W ithin its neat and careful leaves, now preserved in Cambridge University Library, survives his record of what he obviously believed to be a humorous story. Written down round about the year 1633, it involves a cathedral choir, a distressed woman from the country, and a dying horse:

“One of the singing men at Exeter Cathedral saw a country woman shed tears as she heard the singing service, which he, thinking she had done so out of devotion, after service met her in the church and asked her what moved her to weep. She answered that when she heard him sing, she called to mind her mare that was lately dead and dying made just such a noise as he did in his singing.”

The joke of this tale, such as it is, works on two levels. On first view, it is simply a rude slight on the vocal abilities of choirmen in Devon’s Mother Church. It is the sort of comment which would, no doubt, have provoked profane amusement among the vicars choral settled into their favoured alehouse. But examined more closely, the ‘joke’ appears something

From what we know of his life (helpfully sketched out by David Underdown in his study of seventeenth century Dorchester called Fire from Heaven), it is a fair assumption that William Whiteway had little interest in how well the choir in Exeter could sing. Whiteway was Puritan by inclination, and had clear convictions that choral music within worship was intrinsically harmful. In the 1630s, his views did not yet imply that he was anything but a loyal and orthodox member of the Church of England. Nevertheless, he was one of those who treasured the Church’s roots in Continental Protestantism and abhorred the obstinate stains of Catholic practice which still sullied its reformed purity. Whiteway’s views gave him ears which were sensitive to the controversial and political level of an amusing tale about a choirman from Exeter. He recorded his anecdote for posterity because he approved of stories which did down cathedral choirs.

It is worth noting the date when Whiteway recorded his joke carefully. 1633 was the beginning of a period when longstanding tensions within the Church of England would come to a catastrophic head, bringing down the monarchy and church itself. In this year, William Laud was translated from the bishopric of London to the Primatial See of Canterbury. The new Archbishop and other prominent ‘Laudians’ were already noted as enthusiastic promoters of choral music,

professional choir fostered a false and corrupt religion reeking of Romanism. In less than ten years, the austere, sermon-based piety of William Whiteway had collided headon with the ceremonial, sacramentalist religion of the new archbishop. From 1642, the result of the collision was civil war. By 1645, collateral damage included the complete silencing of England’s cathedral choirs.

All this means it is worth taking a serious look at any superficially humorous tales being told about cathedral singing men in the 1630s and 1640s. Cathedral choirs are not an immediately obvious thing to tell jokes about. The very fact that ‘common singing men’ could become a comic stereotype akin to twentieth-century mothers-in-law reveals a great deal about their status as causes célèbres of seventeenth century religious controversy.

It was John Earle (later bishop of Salisbury), who gave tired old ale-house jokes a certain literary polish, in his 1629 bestseller Microcosmography or a piece of the world discovered. Singing men, he wrote satirically, were ‘a bad society, and yet a company of good fellows’ who ‘serve God oftest when they are drunk’. Apparelled in gowns ‘laced ... with streamings of ale’, they took a debauched and short road to the grave, troubling only to ‘pollute the Gospel with two things: their conversation and their thumbs’. Read in full, Earle’s sketch, like Whiteway’s joke, is not explicitly hostile – but neither is it friendly jesting. It is pointed satire with decidedly political connotations. Choirmen are immoral enemies of true faith. What church (goes the implied question) should tolerate their employment?

Earle’s is an unusually elegant expression of antipathy towards cathedral choirmen. In tabloid form the jokes were less subtle, but ran along the same basic lines. The Owles Almanacke of 1618 predicted knowingly that if the singing men of the Chapel Royal, St Paul’s Cathedral and St George’s, Windsor met in the course of the year, then ‘infallible as Fate, some hogshead or other must that day be knocked soundly’. A few years later, in 1635, The Life of Long Meg of Westminster told two tales. The eponymous Long Meg is a feisty tavern landlady. In chapter 3, she approaches a singer from Westminster Abbey who refuses to settle his tab. The musician, ‘a tall lusty lubber and a stout franion who trusted much of his strength’ calculates that he can beat a mere woman should it come to fisticuffs. He is wrong! Long Meg begins ‘to sing a fair plainsong between the post and Master Vicar’s pate’, pounding him all the way back to his rooms. Chapter 7, meanwhile, tells of ‘Wodner, a singing man of Windsor’ who was ‘a great trencher man, and would eat more at once than five or six men’. He too receives a thrashing from the redoubtable landlady.

Other cheap pamphlets echo the comic motifs of Earle, Owles Almnacke and Long Meg, but in blatantly propagandist form. This tends to suggest that there was no clear division between comedy and polemic, just a variety of literary genres through which authors made the same basic point to a variety of audiences. Thus, further along the spectrum towards plain propaganda, but still with an obvious appreciation of the popular appeal of the ridiculous, comes The Organs Funerall or Quiristers Lamentation. Published in the first year of the Civil War, a fictitious ‘querister’ bewails the moral laxity of his life and reflects almost theologically on where his life went wrong. He has been ‘too much given to the tavern and ale-house, yea, and to play now and then at Venus game with loving citizens’ wives, whom I would almost persuade I could procure pardon

for that offence’. Faced with the abolition of choirs, he comforts himself that he can ‘as well sing without a surplice’ and is ready to embrace his new Parliamentarian masters. But conversion is only skin-deep. The reason for his change of heart is a realistic appreciation that it is ‘the best policy to serve the times and change with the wind, for by that means I may be safe when others are questioned’. A choirman’s irreligion is apparently ingrained. As a breed (the message r uns), they are incapable of sincerity.

True Newes from Norwich, meanwhile, was published in 1641 ‘to declare to the world the silliness of these cathedral blades’. Recounting in insulting detail the stupidity of a cathedral community which believes itself besieged by city apprentices, True Newes pictures five hundred priests, all ‘intoxicated with strong ale that was to be sold at the great cathedral’, lined up to protect the organs. Among them are the brave body of singing men and choristers, ‘ready to help at a pinch if need be – they must blow the rebels away... with their profound sounding roaring voices’. The anonymous author of the pamphlet has an idea how the choirmen might have turned the apprentice-boys away. Perhaps, he hints, ‘they should have been at their English Mass to call to the pope for a Bull’, or have ‘conjured the rebels away, as they do in the Litany’.

Yet the undoubted masterpiece of Puritan comic propaganda derives (surely not by chance) from Kent, directed against Archbishop Laud’s own cathedral. Richard Culmer’s Cathedral News from Canterbury appeared in 1644 and was later described by his son as ‘the finger in the bile and swelling ulcer of prelacy and cathedrals’. The sub-title alone made the ➤

book’s intentions crystal clear, claiming to show ‘the Canterburian cathedral to be in an abbey-like, corrupt and rotten condition which calls for a speedy Reformation, or Dissolution’. Culmer’s writing is a tour de force of sustained vituperation. Although it comes closer to ‘plain’ propaganda than any other work mentioned in this article, there is still inherentcomedy in the descriptions, which Culmer exploits to great effect. Throughout, he indulges a keen appreciation of the sheer ridiculousness (as he saw it) of goings-on in the cathedral. Laudian priests ‘crouch and duck’ towards the altar in ‘flaunting’ and ‘lady-like’ garb; the cathedral chapter loves the choir so much it is prepared to promote ‘Mr &c., late tobacco-pipe maker and reprieved from the gallows’ from lay clerk to minor canon; the cathedral clergy are utterly confounded when godly citizens of Canterbury sing the whole of the 119th Psalm in metre and bring Choral Evensong to a chaotic halt. Culmer repeatedly uses his readers’ laughter to hammer home the same point: a cathedral is not of God, and neither are those who work there. Satan’s tracks are everywhere. Even one of the choristers’ ruffs is possessed, as evidenced by a miraculous ability to starch itself overnight and jump from a blazing grate. Truly, concludes Culmer in an unforgettable sentence, ‘the Devil was the cathedral laundress’.

The subtext of stories like those considered in this article is that cathedral choirmen are dangerous idiots, irreligious to the core and unable to restrain voracious sensual appetites. It is not always clear whether they are written to be political or simply comic. The text alone does not give much clue

SALISBURYCATHEDRAL

Recital Series 2004

whether they are composed by people campaigning for the abolition of cathedral choirs or by jobbing jokesmiths who have exploited a Puritan stereotype for their own use. Yet whatever their origins, these humorous tales could never be innocent fun. At the very least, they brought Puritan arguments for further reform in the Church of England to a popular audience.

This is perhaps the serious point to be made about the comic propaganda. People sometimes imagine that England had a Reformation under Henry VIII, and then more or less immediately fell into ‘Anglicanism’, that marvellous via media between Rome and Geneva. This is far from the truth, as the persistence of derogatory jokes about choirmen almost a century after the death of Henry VIII goes to show. The first break with Rome happened swiftly, to be sure, but for a hundred years afterwards, battles raged for the soul of the Church of England. Men like William Whiteway believed its life and structures betrayed the gospel, and demanded further, radical reform. For such people, cathedral choirs were symbols of a spiritual darkness which covered England. The unprecedented patronage which Archbishop Laud and his fellow-travellers offered choral foundations was a massive provocation to them, and they made every effort to make their displeasure known. To us, the jokes they have left behind are an amusing footnote to the history of church music. At the time, they were deadly serious.

George

Sixsmith &Son Ltd Organ Builders

Revd James Saunders is Priest in charge of Whissendine with Teigh, in the Diocese of Peterborough.

2003 Roger Tucker Festivals Report

16th – 22nd August 2003

There is a symmetry to the city centre of Hereford: the Bishop’s Palace sits prominently on the north bank of the River Wye, close to the historic bridge; the cathedral and its ancillary buildings are just north of the Palace, Church Street leads due north from the north transept to High Town and everything else wraps round this central axis. It is an historic, nuclear city, which is very enjoyable to walk about in. Because the river, and the meadows on its other bank have prevented any development to the south it is all relatively unspoilt, although the harmony of the buildings along the streets to the north is broken at intervals by some deplorable 20th century intrusions.

It is a wonderful setting for a cultural festival of music and the arts: most of the venues are within five minutes’ walk of the cathedral, except, notably, the Courtyard Theatre, which is twenty-five minutes away to the northern edge.

With fifty ticketed events on the six days of the main festival, it is only possible to pick out highlights of the services and concerts in the cathedral:

The Opening Service on the Sunday was musically very rich, with the participation of the Festival Chorus and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

but it took on the mood of a concert for me as soon as the Prelude to Die Meistersinger followed the organ pieces as the processional music. This leads into a chorale whose words are a kind of prayer but the mood of the Wagner pieces is essentially secular. Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens was splendidly sung, as was Bairstow’s Blessed City, with the accompaniment very effectively orchestrated by Timothy Symons, an alto lay clerk in the cathedral choir.

That night, the Festival’s director, Geraint Bowen, was again on the rostrum, directing the same orchestra, the Festival Chorus and the Hereford Choristers in a powerfully done concert, opening with Parry’s I was glad, followed by Mozart’s Mass in C (K317), with an outstanding quartet of soloists, the alto part being beautifully sung by counter-tenor William Towers. There is no solo alto part in the third choral work, William Mathias’s This Worlde’s Joie but the other three soloists, Ruth Holton (soprano), James Oxley (tenor) and Jeremy Huw Williams (bass) all gave very polished renderings of their demanding parts, as did the Hereford trebles. The final section Adam lay i-bounden involved all the voices in a most moving climax. The fine performance of the Mathias

persuaded me that it should be heard more often.

Monday night brought us a single choral masterpiece L’Enfance du Christ by Berlioz, the bicentenary of whose birth was celebrated in 2003. The orchestra was again the Bournemouth Symphony with the Festival Chorus under a guest conductor, who had travelled down from Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury. The four male soloists, John Mark Ainsley, Stephen Varcoe, Michael George and Brindley Sherratt provided a strong line-up, topped out by the exquisite soprano voice of Marie Arnet. This was an exceptionally contemplative and expressive reading of this long and demanding work, which kept carrying us with the angels up to the lofty vaulting of the nave. Dr Cleobury obtained playing of the upmost refinement throughout, most notably for me, in

Writing this report in early March means that I can cover both a retrospect and prospect for the two festivals not included in the last edition: the Three Choirs and the Proms.

The 276th Three Choirs Festival at Hereford

the orchestral introduction to scene 5.

On Tuesday night the orchestra changed to the Royal Philharmonic and the conductor was the Organist of Gloucester Cathedral, Andrew Nethsingha. The opener was Lennox Berkeley’s Voices of the Night, which was commissioned for the 1973 Hereford Three Choirs Festival, an act of wise patronage deserving the gratitude of this year’s audience. Opus 86 in Sir Lennox’s underrated output, it is a superbly crafted and imaginative orchestral nocturne, which received a highly sympathetic reading, as did Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été , with Beethoven’s rarely heard Christus am Ölberge, an ecstatic work given the kind of persuasively convincing reading that ensures it will be heard again at the Festival.

On Wednesday night Vernon Handley was on top form conducting the RPO in Bax’s brilliantly evocative tone poem T intagel , immensely enhanced by the cathedral acoustic. Next came Finzi’s uneven but lyrical V iolin Concerto with Tasmin Little the incisive soloist. Finally a Three Choirs favourite: Elgar’s First Symphony, given a most stirring reading. Thursday night’s concert offered more Elgar, the overture Froissart commissioned for the 1890 Worcester Festival, followed by a 1903 Hereford Festival commission: Parry’s Voces clamantium, which

draws its text from Isaiah and alternates soprano and bass solos (Carys Lane and Matthew Brook) with stirring choruses, all finely sung on this occasion. After the interval we heard the world premiere of Anthony Powers’s Air and Angels, this year’s festival commission.

One of the great attractions of the Three Choirs is the way it offers this nightly feast of major choral and orchestral masterpieces, performed by international soloists and orchestras, with chamber music, lieder and organ recitals in the daytime, in a variety of venues. This year audiences made excursions to Tewkesbury and Dore Abbeys and to Leominster Priory.

Tewkesbury Abbey was the setting for a splendid recital by Roy Massey on the rebuilt Milton organ, which was ideally suited to his programme of English composers: Elgar, Whitlock, Bridge and Jackson.

The celebrity organ recital on the cathedral organ was given on Friday morning by John Scott (St Paul’s Cathedral) playing a nicely mixed programme of Whitlock (his centenary was in 2003), Handel, Bach, Franck, Bonnet, a lively arrangement of Grainger’s Handel in the Strand and as a virtuoso finale, Guillou’s transcription of a frenetic Prokofiev piano Toccata Both player and organ were impeccable and the festival CCTV system, which

had served us well all week, made this event doubly riveting, with Gwilym Bowen, a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, ably assisting his master at the console. The final concert on Friday was an electrifying performance of Verdi’s Requiem , conducted by Geraint Bowen, with a distinguished quartet of festival favourite soloists. The RPO was on top form and the combination of artists lifted this high up the week’s intensity chart and made it a ringing finale to an outstanding festival.

This year the 277th FESTIVAL will be at GLOUCESTER 7th – 14th August: [NB one week earlier than usual]

Highlights for me will be the Glagolitic Mass, Elgar’s Kingdom and Music Makers, Haydn’s Creation, the three cathedral choirs doing Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli , Poulenc’s Gloria, the St Cecilia Singers at Tewkesbury Abbey (Bach & Mozart), and Olivier Latry’s recital on the cathedral organ. It is overall a very rich mix, with something for everyone who enjoys music from all periods, in architecturally splendid settings; most certainly not to be missed. There is also the Fringe Festival programme –you just have to be in Gloucester for the second week in August! (See Gloucester Three Choirs Festival advertisement on page 37)

‘It is overall a very rich mix, with something for everyone who enjoys music from all periods, in architecturally splendid settings; most certainly not to be missed – you just have to be in Gloucester for the second week in August!’

Photo: Jack Farley

PROMS 2003

Although there were fewer performances of sacred music than in some seasons, choirs with boys’ voices did rather well last year, in terms of the number appearing. For the Coronation 50th Anniversary Concert Prom the combined choristers of Eton College Chapel and Winchester Cathedral and College Chapel (the Quiristers) sang in Walton’s Coronation Te Deum. The concert, attended by HM the Queen and Prince Philip was televised live. The treble voices blended superbly rather better than they did in the recording of the 1953 Coronation performance. There was a late prom featuring the Bach Choir from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, singing Bach cantatas and Mendelssohn motets in a very authentic style, although I found the choral tone rather harsh.

A nice opportunity for the choristers from King’s College, Cambridge had them joining forces with the BBC Singers under Stephen Cleobury (director of both choirs) in an a cappella chorus written by Richard Strauss as a tailpiece to his opera Daphne: An den Baum Daphne. This unfamiliar piece received a most stylish and inspired performance, the King’s boys singing the special top line, originally written for the Vienna Boys’ Choir, with great gusto.

One of the most powerful choral ensembles was heard when the choirs of St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedrals and the Abbey all combined to sing Lennox Berkeley’s Magnificat. This was superb and another example of this neglected composer’s genius; we should be grateful for centenaries and resolve to explore and encourage performance of his many sacred compositions, both liturgical and, as here, written for concert performance. The late prom which followed also featured sacred music in a programme of Renaissance polyphony sung by the Clerks’ Group, under Edward Wickham, who also sings bass. For this concert Robert Saxton was commissioned to write a work Five Motets, which were intended for interspersal with works by Tye and Byrd. The very polished performance achieved a highly devotional aura, in the best tradition of late night proms. Another late night prom, given by Les Musiciens du Louvre from Grenoble, opened with a Bach Cantata, delicately done, then after a new orchestral suite of dances by Rameau, we heard two arias from Handel’s Ariodante, superbly sung by Anne Sophie von Otter, which brought the large audience to its feet, demanding an encore. Von Otter at her best has no equal in my view and her impeccable

artistry commands great devotion and set the seal on a Proms season in which I had listened out for treble and soprano voices.

PROMS 2004 July 16th – 11th Sept

I can reveal that, as expected, the refurbished Father Willis grand organ in the Royal Albert Hall will feature prominently in the forthcoming season. It will be played as a solo instrument in no less than eight concerts by eight leading organists. These will feature the Glagolitic Mass , Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony and Barber’s Toccata Festiva. It will also make many contributions to orchestral performances throughout the season, including on the Last Night, which will include one of the eight solo works. There will be two world premières: a BBC commission from Judith Bingham and a recently discovered organ voluntary by Britten. One of the highest profile improvisers on the organ, Naji Hakim, will have a late night prom to himself. The Opening Night will include the best known organ piece in the repertoire presented in a most unusual way, played by an organist we haven’t heard in London for a long while. If that doesn’t start everybody guessing, I shall be very surprised. The prospectus will be on sale on 1st May.

‘I can reveal that, as expected, the refurbished Father Willis grand organ in the Royal Albert Hall will feature prominently in the forthcoming season. It will be played as a solo instrument in no less than eight concerts.’

A talk given by The Very Revd Michael Mayne KVCO Dean Emeritus of Westminster to the Salisbury

Diocesan FCM Gathering on Saturday

31 January 2004

Of Choristers and Coronations

‘In the beginning was the Word’: God (as it were) speaks the creation into being. First the Big Bang; then after some 100,000 million years the stars and planets are formed; then after another 4000 million years the first signs of life on earth; until gradually, out of what was once stardust, there evolves a sea cucumber and then a whale and then a baboon and finally not just any old thinking, emoting, self-conscious human beings, but Monteverdi and Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Others see creation in terms of music. For Aristotle and Plato and the Greek philosophers all earthly music is but an imperfect reflection of the music of the spheres. They believed that the galaxies and planets were divided by intervals according to the laws of musical harmony, each planet making a different sound. And that view survives until the late 18th century: this concept of the creation as an act of music, a kind of ceaseless dance, the planets, by circling in their orbits, creating the music with which the creation praises its maker. So Dryden writes in his Song for St Cecilia’s Day:

‘From harmony, from heavenly harmony,

This universal frame began; From harmony to harmony, Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.’ There is a lovely concept that Adam and Eve lost the capacity to hear this music of the spheres when they fell from grace, until that night when a few shepherds tending their flocks in the fields of Bethlehem were momentarily able to hear it once more in the form of ‘a multitude of the heavenly host’ praising God. We may dismiss that as bad science, but we warm to the concept that it is music, with its patterns of rhythm and melody and harmonies, which can take us into the heart of the mystery of what it means to be human; what it means to be made in the likeness of our Creator, able like him to create order out of chaos, whether with art or with words or with music. For many, music is the most spiritual of the arts. We find there is something being said through music which only music can say. That with its patterns of rhythm and melody and harmonies, it can take us close to the heart of the human mystery. ‘I must have been about six years old’ wrote the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth, ‘when one day my

father (began to play) some bars from The Magic Flute. They went right through and into me, I don’t know how, and I thought, ‘That’s it!’ Certain music has indeed a mysterious power to invade, and touch and change and even heal, the human heart. ‘From the heart’ wrote Beethoven on the manuscript of his Missa Solemnis. ‘May it go to the heart.’ We need, of course, to bear in mind the distinction between the spiritual and the religious. To be religious is to believe in God and to practise that belief, yet music has the power to feed our spirits whether or not we think of ourselves as religious or subscribe to a credal faith. And that’s because to be human is to be an embodied spirit, and certain music has the power to penetrate to our very centre and reflect our every mood, appealing to ear and mind and heart. ‘Lara was not religious,’ writes Pasternak in Dr Zhivago. ‘But sometimes, to be able to bear life, she needed the accompaniment of an inner music. (For her) that music was God’s word of life, and it was to weep over it that she went to church.’ And no doubt Alexander Pope was right when he wrote how ‘some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there.’

But John Powell has asked me to reflect on my years at the Abbey and the central and significant role played by music in the Abbey’s ministry. Which narrows my canvas to those of us who through worship, through words and music and silence and sacrament, seek to explore and relate to the God who is the source of our life and the ground of our being. And for centuries sacred choral music, from the haunting monody of Gregorian chant; the unearthly beauty of a motet by Palestrina; the dramatic grandeur of a symphonic mass by Schubert, Haydn or Mozart; the timeless polyphony of a Bach Passion; the beauty of a motet by Byrd, Tallis or Bruckner, to the mystical tones of John Tavener or Arvo Pärt, has been the most powerful medium for bridging the human and the divine. No account of worship, indeed no description of what it is to be human, that denies the supreme importance of music can be remotely true.

I spent ten wonderful and rewarding years as Dean of Westminster, and when I retired I knew that for me the number one priority was to come to a cathedral town where music and the liturgy were performed with the professional care they each demand and where one could

be fed day by day. Westminster Abbey is different things to different people. Perhaps no other church in the world is at once so well known and so little known. Some see it as a museum, reflecting in its burials of 30 monarchs and its hundreds of monuments and memorials, nearly a thousand years of English history, reflecting the style and opinions of different ages; some see it as the heart of the Establishment, a place of Coronations and memorial services for ‘the great and the good’; some as little more than a tourist attraction, drawing people from across the world like a giant honeypot. Yet at heart it is infinitely more than any of these things. Until the Reformation it had been the greatest Benedictine monastery in the land, and there was no mistaking its purpose: it was to do the Opus Dei, the daily work of God. To sing the divine offices and to celebrate Mass. The Benedictine rule that ordered the life of the monastery saw daily life under God as all of a piece: worship and daily work and feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and welcoming the stranger, were inseparable. Their daily life and work were not so much interrupted by, as contained within and stitched together by, those

seven sung offices and the daily Mass. The Abbey, like Salisbury Cathedral, was built in order that the Opus Dei might be done, not just with care and devotion, but aided by all the richness of architecture, all the subtlety of colour and ceremonial, all the beauty of words and music, of which human beings are capable when they open themselves to God’s presence in their midst. Those who built great churches created spaces intended to arouse in those who entered them a sense of entering a special space, evoking that sense of awe which is the beginning of worship. A space in which the offering of the Opus Dei, day by day by day for centuries, has created a kind of holy rhythm that invades the very stones. And so it continued after the Reformation, with certain significant changes, but still first and foremost the house of God, where for close on a thousand years prayer and worship have been offered, and where the music and liturgy seek to convey to the hundreds of people of different faiths and traditions and nations the best of Anglican worship.

Those of us responsible for ordering the Abbey’s life tried never to forget that it is not just a peopled space –

‘Perhaps no other church in the world is at once so well known and so little known. Some see it as a museum, reflecting in its burials of 30 monarchs; some see it as the heart of the establishment.’

All photos from the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Service in Westminster Abbey. By kind permission of Westminster Abbey/Picture Partnership.

a desperately busy and over-peopled space – but a sacred space whose chief task, the worship of God, has never changed, nor ever can. We sought to meet the needs of individuals and communities in imaginative, empathetic ways, but nothing mattered more than the quality of our worship. Nothing was more important than the corporate silence, the morning prayer and the Eucharist that began each day or the Evensong, sung by the choir six times a week, that ended it. On a bleak November evening, say, when for the space of 40 minutes those seemingly timeless words of scripture, psalm, anthem and prayers, brought us back to the reality that underlies those daily unrealities that threaten to take over our lives. It was as if they contained the day, contained it between these two steady poles, and after the often frenetic busyness of the packed church, the building seemed to sigh and settle for the night. We had four daily services, and five on Sunday, and each week, as the hundreds of visitors – from every Christian tradition and none – flooded out of the Sunday Abbey Eucharist, many would say it was an experience they wouldn’t easily forget, meaning (I believe) that the music, the liturgy and the beauty and ambience of the spacious building, had succeeded momentarily in taking them out of themselves, even perhaps enabling them to glimpse some truth about the love of God, or of their own mystery.

From the very beginning music was at the heart of the Abbey and its worship. The first choir was made up entirely of monks, and each day started with matins at midnight and ended with compline at dusk, with High Mass at 11 am. They sang certain sections of the mass in harmony: indeed, harmony is

said to have had its origins in monastic communities where those monks who found some notes too far out of their range to sing comfortably would sing the tune an octave – or perhaps four or five notes – lower or higher. This gradually developed into the singing of a counter-melody, a descant, which in itself was the forerunner of polyphony. Then in the time of Richard II, who used regularly to attend mass in the Abbey’s Lady Chapel, a professional group of singers alongside the monks was introduced; and in 1384 the first choir trainer. And it was in the 1380s that the first boys were recruited as a choir for him to train. Over the next ten years the choir was added to, its duties to sing at the daily mass and on ten major feast days at the offices, and this marks the true beginning of a professional choir singing at the Abbey for an almost unbroken 600 years. One hundred years later composers began to include parts for boys and basses, with works increasingly written in five parts and over three octaves, and the Abbey choir was described by a 15th century contemporary as ‘florid in melody, exuberant in rhythm, extended and virtuosic’. Not everyone agreed. The great scholar Erasmus, writing in 1513, complained that ‘in college or monastery it is the same: music, nothing but music. Words nowadays mean nothing. Men are to leave their work and go to church to listen to worse noises than were ever heard in Greek or Roman theatre. Money must be raised to buy organs and train boys to squeal’. Because Henry VIII was an accomplished musician, at the Reformation church music flourished; under the equally musical Elizabeth the Abbey became a Royal peculiar answerable to no bishop but directly to the monarch,

and the choir was increased, and more and more elaborate church music, by Tallis, Byrd and Weelkes, was composed; under James I, with new organs installed, Orlando Gibbons became the Organist. But then, after the execution of Charles I, came the Puritan backlash of the Commonwealth. The choir was disbanded. The Puritan divine, John Vicars, writes: ‘Whereas there was wont to be heard nothing almost but Roaring-Boys, tooting and squeaking Organ-Pipes and Cathedral-Catches, and I know not what trash; now the Popish altar is quite taken away. The bellowing Organs are demolished and pulled down, the Chanters or Inchanters driven out – and instead there is now set up a most blessed Orthodox preaching ministry.’ Mercifully, all was restored under Charles II, and there followed the glorious period when first John Blow and then Henry Purcell were Organists.

But enough of choristers: let me turn to Coronations, always the most spectacular events to take place in the Abbey, and from the start set in the context of the Mass and accompanied by music. A Te Deum was certainly sung at William the Conqueror’s coronation there in 1066, and from Henry I’s coronation onwards special anthems were sung at different points in the service. Zadok the Priest was always sung at the anointing (in various settings, Handel composing the one so familiar to us for George II’s coronation in 1727). I was glad was first sung at Charles II’s coronation, but (despite staying for several hours) Samuel Pepys missed it as he had to leave to relieve himself. Few coronations went according to plan. They were regarded as wonderful theatre, took most of the day, and the Dean and Canons sold seats in the nave to the highest bidder. ‘The prebends’ remarked Horace Walpole bitingly, ‘would like a coronation every year.’ At George III’s coronation the diarist William Hickey had taken a box for 12 in the triforium where they were ‘served a breakfast of cold fowls, ham, tongues, meat and liqueurs’, and as various politicians entered there were cheers and jeers. When the Archbishop of York reached the pulpit to preach the congregation, who couldn’t hear a word, took the opportunity to eat their meal to a general clatter of knives, forks, plates and glasses. On the eve of George IV’s coronation, with all the music arranged and rehearsed, he decided he wanted the Hallelujah

‘From the very beginning music was at the heart of the Abbey and its worship. The first choir was made up entirely of monks, and each day started with matins at midnight and ended with compline at dusk.’

Chorus played as he entered and the choir increased. His estranged wife, Queen Caroline, arriving in her carriage at 6 am, tried every entrance but was forbidden entry and retired hurt. Inside the Abbey were stalls selling ices, fruit, wine and sandwiches. It was a hot day, the King was grossly overweight, and he had designed his own robes that were so heavy that it required eight sons of peers to act as train-bearers. The King constantly wiped his streaming face, using 19 handkerchiefs which he passed to an increasingly cross archbishop, and at one point retired to the Confessor’s Chapel, took off all his robes, and had to be revived with smelling salts. When the Archbishop preached about ‘the burdens of royalty’ the King was seen to wink at the Duke of York and point to his immense train. Afterwards, at the Coronation banquet in Westminster Hall, they consumed 160 tureens of soup and 9,840 bottles of wine.

The 19-year-old Queen Victoria wrote a very sharp description of her coronation in her diary, recounting how the Archbishop was old and confused and put the ring on her wrong finger. ‘The Bishop of Durham stood beside me, but he was remarkably maladroit and never could tell me what was to take place’. So she depended on the Bishop of Bath and Wells on her other side, but he, thinking the service was finished, led her into St Edward’s Chapel, where the Dean hurried after them saying there were several more pages to go and they had to return. One elderly and corpulent peer, unfortunately named Lord Rolle, tripped while paying homage and (to the Queen’s private amusement) rolled all the way down the steps. ‘We should’ wrote the Dean in his diary that night, ‘have had a rehearsal.’

Hubert Parry wrote his setting of I was glad for the coronation of Edward VII, when the Archbishop, Frederick Temple, was old and frail. He put the crown on the King’s head the wrong way round, and it had to be removed and repeated. Everyone was nervous about the Dean, who (according to the diarist AC Benson) ‘was quite dotty. He was ever saying in a pause: ‘Might I do this? Should I do that?’ whether there was anything to do or not. The Archbishop was very weak on his legs and absent in mind. When he went to do homage he could not rise after kneeling. The King caught his hands and tried to pull him up. Then, failing, he said to the nearby Bishops: ‘You had better help him, I think’. The Bishop of Winchester went up and said: ‘Can I get you anything? There is some sal volatile close at hand.’ To which the Archbishop said: ‘No! Go away – I’m all right’ – and so he was. He said afterwards at tea: ‘I had made up my mind to get up on my right leg, and they pulled me over onto my left leg. It may have been kindly meant, but it upset me.’

I don’t know what the choristers’ reactions may have been to all these royal and archiepiscopal antics. They are of course highly disciplined children, and they don’t miss a trick. Only in the 1840s was a separate mini-school set up for them: just a room for 12 pupils. The top four boys were paid £20 a year, the next four £15, the bottom four £10, plus 5 or 10 shillings for singing at a festival. They had the privilege of free use of the boats and canoes in St James’ Park, and quarterly an elderly man travelled from Scotland, met them in the Cloisters and handed out packets of Callard and Bowsers’ butterscotch. Their only holiday was in Lent and they sang in an unheated Abbey. It was not until 1915 that the first proper choir school opened in Dean’s Yard. It’s beautifully placed, close to the Abbey, but unfortunately incapable of expansion. Which is why it’s the only one left in the country which is

Tossing Pancakes

News from Choirs and Places where they sing

The young probationers of Salisbury Cathedral Choir learnt about the meanings of Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday when they enjoyed freshly-tossed pancakes for breakfast with the Precentor, Canon Jeremy Davies, before helping him to burn last year’s Palm Sunday crosses to create the ash to be used in Ash Wednesday’s services in the cathedral. They heard that ‘Shrove’ comes from the early English word ‘shrive’, meaning to forgive. It is also a Carnival (literally a ‘farewell to meat’) when all the fats and flesh are eaten up to prepare for the forty days, fast of Lent.

Congratulations

The Royal Northern College of Music’s Organ Recital Prize is held every year on the college’s magnificent 1972 Hradetzky organ. In addition to a cash prize, the winner is awarded recital engagements at Chester, Manchester and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedrals, York Minster, and Bromley Parish Church. This year’s competition, which was adjudicated by David Titterington, saw the four finalists delight a responsive audience with music as diverse as Buxtehude, Alain and Stanford. The winner was Tom Bell, a second year undergraduate who is currently organ scholar at Manchester Cathedral and a contributor to CATHEDRAL MUSIC

CD Prize Draw

Thanks to the 559 CM readers who completed and returned the readers’ survey questionnaire, The CD Prize Draw took place at the February FCM Council meeting. The following people will each receive FCM 1 O how glorious, a full length CD specially compiled by Priory Records for the FCM: EC Myatt, John F Richards, Mark Hopper, Michael Wilson, Paul Rose, Anthony Wright, E R Andrew Davis, F J Bell, Chris Britton and Donald B Rees. In addition N Thistlethwaite won three Priory Records of his choice.

Travelling from ‘The Deep South’ to hear the traditional choral sound

Of all the FCM members who attend national gatherings, it’s doubtful if any travel as far as Thirza Sloan who lives in Memphis, Tennessee. She was introduced to FCM when she met an English scientist, Byron Purves, at a church musicians’ conference in the USA. Byron enthused about FCM and as a consequence Thirza become a member, which in turn led her to attend her first Gathering at Truro in 1996. Since then she has been to Gatherings at Lincoln, Derby (when her husband Tim came too), Edinburgh, Peterborough and the recent one in Rochester, which, she said she really enjoyed. An organ player herself, Thirza is not content to sit at home and listen to recordings but her love of the English choral tradition leads her to travel such long distances to hear and see the real thing. Memphis was not only the home in the late 19th century of Blues music, and Elvis Presley the great rock singer, but is also home to a lady dedicated to travelling thousands of miles to indulge her passion for cathedral music in all its forms.

all-boarding and all-boys. Just 36 of them. The life of any chorister is an unusual and demanding one, that of the Abbey choristers more unpredictable than most, with everything from a royal wedding or funeral to a memorial service for Les Dawson. It’s a discipline that produces socially assured and gifted children, able to cope with most occasions life can throw at them. I was having lunch one day in our small Abbey Choir School, meeting the new boys at the beginning of term. I did all I could to engage in conversation the eight-year-old on my right. I failed. Throughout the meal he was totally silent, yet as he ate his eyes never left my face. Which by the pudding course can be strangely unnerving. Finally, as the meal ended, he gave me a last hard look and said: ‘So, basically, you’re the Dean of Westminster.’ I wanted to respond: ‘Well, no, actually. Basically I’m me, a complex, vulnerable and reasonably-well integrated human being called Michael, not to be confused with the role I’ve been called on to play for a few years.’

And I guess that’s what we sought to do for the so-called ‘great and the good’ when we were asked to hold memorial services for them in the Abbey: to try and distinguish between the person and the role, and to produce with patient care a service which was not only all of a piece, but which was true to the integrity of the person who had died. And it was those special services that complicated the choristers’ lives and schooling; for as well as rehearsing and singing a service daily and three on Sundays, they were called on to sing at an average of forty special and less predictable services a year – some of them annual occasions, like Battle of Britain Sunday or the multi-Faith Commonwealth Observance; some of them memorial services; some services of thanksgiving for a hospital

or charity celebrating a centenary, or those to mark the 50th anniversary of El Alamein or Monte Cassino or the end of the Second World War; or, most memorably, to welcome South Africa back into the Commonwealth. Sometimes it might be to sing to Nelson Mandela on a State Visit, coming to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown War rior; once it was a special Evensong to mark the first-ever visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. We chose special music and a Rachmaninov anthem. They were due at 4.45 and all were assembled. Big Ben struck 5 o’clock: the unchanging hour for Evensong for centuries. Nothing. 5.5, 5.10, 5.15. A moment later small groups of orthodox priests with carrier-bags began to arrive rather shamefacedly at the West Door. ‘Where have you been?’

I asked the first, as calmly as I could. ‘Harrods’, he said.

Choosing the music for memorial services was always tricky: trying to steer the bereaved away from Jerusalem and the almost-unsingable ‘Mine Eyes have seen the Glory’. You may be interested in some of the anthem choices from my ten years: of the three former prime ministers Harold Macmillan had Then round about the starry throne from Handel’s Samson; Alec Douglas Home had Brahms’s How lovely is thy dwelling place from the German Requiem and a haunting Irish Air: I would be true for there are those who trust me; and Harold Wilson had Parry’s My Soul there is a Country For the Labour leader, John Smith, the choir sang Vaughan Williams’s Valiant for Truth from The Pilgrim’s Progress. Prince Georg of Denmark got Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring , and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, William Harris’s Faire is the Heaven. We did a fair number of memorial services for those in the world of the Arts: for the sculptor Henry Moore the choir sang Gerald

Finzi’s Salutation from Traherne’s Dies Natalis; for Sir Frederick Ashton, William Walton’s Set me as a seal upon thy heart; for Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Benjamin Britten’s setting of those extraordinary words by Christopher Smart Rejoice in the Lamb, (plus a performance of Mahler’s Third Song of the Earth played by the orchestra of the Royal Opera House); for Dame Margot Fonteyn, following a panorama of music from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, the choir sang Fauré’s In Paradisum. The opera singer Sir Geraint Evans got a feast of opera: Bryn Terfel sang Lord God of Abraham from Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Ehi! paggio! from Verdi’s Falstaff, Thomas Allen sang Tutto e disposto from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Gwyneth Jones sang Elizabeth’s Greeting from Wagner’s Tannhäuser; a distinguished quintet sang a quintet from Die Meistersinger, Dennis O’Neill sang Una furtiva lagrima from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore; and the choir didn’t get much of a look in. And Dame Eva Turner, not to be outdone, also had Gwyneth Jones singing from Tannhäuser and Cavelleria Rusticana, Dennis O’Neill singing from Verdi’s Requiem and Nabucco, the Duke of Kent reading a lesson and, somewhat spookily, a recording of herself singing In questa reggia from Turandot. By contrast the services for England’s former football captain, Bobby Moore, and the great comedian Les Dawson, were straightforward. For the first the choir sang Mendelssohn’s O, for the wings of a dove!, and for the latter Walton’s Set me as a seal upon thy heart A couple of years ago I had to speak at the annual nationwide Old Choristers’ Dinner, just before a cabaret by Kit and the Widow. So I wrote them some verses, and though they may seem trite, I’d like to end by repeating them as a small and grateful tribute to all who sing in church choirs, and all who support them.

‘The 19-year-old Queen Victoria wrote a very sharp description of her coronation in her diary, recounting how the Archbishop was old and confused and put the ring on her wrong finger.’

I could spend several hours Extolling the choirs That faithfully, weekly, With pride and uniquely Sing each day, after tea, (And weekly, on Wednesdays, on Radio 3)

Messrs Noble in B, or Kelly in C, Or Brewer in D, or Murrill in E, And dauntingly, hauntingly, Stanford in G.

We’ll not willingly funk The most dense Mag. and Nunc.,

And we revel in Masses By

And at Matins we slay’em With Walton’s Te Deum.

We make a real feast Of Zadok the Priest, And we drive them all mad With our fierce I was glad. Though not all that crazy About Pergolesi, We always aspire To an annual Messiah. And what could be finer Than Blair in B Minor?

(If you think I refer To young Leo, you err.)

We may go for a beer, But if we’re to sustain a Crucifixion by Stainer (Which is very much longer) We need something stronger

It’s a difficult art

To mix Like as the hart With the Messe Solennelle And The Shepherd’s Farewell, But we manage each day, Get browned off with our pay, Sing in Latin or German, Doze during the sermon.

And when we’ve praised the Lord

We may stay to applaud Our organist’s turn With Bach, Elgar or Vierne. If you slip him a whisky

Mozart

and Lassus. In Advent we sing long Dull patches of Plainsong. While in Lent Lamentations Tries everyone’s patience. We’ve been known to complain, ‘Oh, not Bairstow again’; And does Henry Purcell Need such endless rehearsal?

Our Allegri’s recorded, Our Schubert applauded, And we all watch our vowels In the Coll.Reg. of Howells. We’re modestly smitten

By Benjamin Britten;

Or a post-modern Ave

By Jonathan Harvey.

Our style is apparent In Morley and Farrant,

If Tavener’s In alium Is best taken with valium, Hail, gladdening Light! Will put everything right. If the Chapter’s unsure About Leighton and Brewer, Pie Jesu by Rutter

Sets all hearts a-flutter; Smooth Classics at Seven Think our version’s heaven, And they play it again And again and again.

We cannot in truth say ‘Hooray, it’s Duruflé!’, His Requiem we’d barter For a good Stabat Mater, And he can’t hold a candle To the best bits of Handel. After Ave Maria

Some critics have thanked us For our Vaughan Williams’ Sanctus; Our CD of Boyce Was an Editor’s Choice, And Sony have picked us For our Byrd Benedictus. Bruckner’s Locus Iste Turns eyes strangely misty, And even the Dean Sheds a quiet tear unseen When the boy bishop sings Mendelssohn’s O for the wings! We’re quite big on Brahms, A dab hand with the Psalms. Who else makes his mark? Willie Walton and Darke, And Gibbons and Byrd (The Short Service preferred), Finzi, Rubbra and Blow, Lennox Berkeley and Co. The Responses of Sumsion

We tackle with gumption, And we’re even preparedy For some tough Monteverdi.

Though we get faintly weary In long Dies Irae, We really make hay With a Libera Me.

He plays molto frisky, And needs that kind of starter Before Widor’s Toccata; Though he’d rather have plonk Before tackling Poulenc, And rehearses for hours In the wrong sort of bars.

So I’m sure you’ll agree That the English esprit At its finest is found In the choristers’ round, Where each day, after tea, (And weekly, on Wednesdays, on Radio 3)

It is Noble in B, or Kelly in C, Or Brewer in D, or Murrill in E, And dauntingly, hauntingly, Stanford in G.

Round the lunch table at the recent National Gathering in Rochester the subject of graces came up, and it reminded me of the one spoken on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Roy Massey’s appointment to Hereford Cathedral Choir, and also as Director of the Choral Society, which was marked by a dinner held in the town hall. Invited to this august binge were many ex-choral society singers, ex-choristers, former lay clerks and assistant organists and a jolly time was had by all. The Dean rose superbly to the occasion. He invited those present to stand for the grace and after much shuffling of chairs and clearing of throats, a silence ensued into which the Dean intoned the following:

Great God of Love, Ancient of Days, Whose name we hymn with choral praise, God of Creation and Messiah

Bless food and wine spread for this Choir.

God of Elijah and St Paul And other works that fill the Hall, Gerontius and Bernstein ‘Psalms’, Requiems of Mozart, Verdi, Brahms, God of the great Sea Symphony, Bless Roy’s great Silver Jubilee. Amen.

After the first couple of lines of this masterly work – which the Dean apparently thought up while in the bath –I peered round at others at my table to find smiles beginning to appear at the corners of mouths, then heads started to come up and eyes to meet each others’ until eventually, after the Amen, a great roar of approval and applause filled the air and the atmos-

phere was set for one of the most convivial evenings I can remember. Incidentally, the guest speaker was Sir David Willcocks who had taught the young Roy Massey at some stage in his career. He stood for a solid half-hour recounting stories of his former pupil as well as giving anecdotes from his own career, and he did this without a single reference to notes. A marvellous man.

Perhaps other CM readers can remember some special graces?

(I would welcome CM readers to send in their own particular favourite graces – Ed)

kind of ‘spoof’. I can assure you it is not, but I feel I should expand a little on the matter. ‘Why’, I hear you ask, ‘is this person interested in cathedral music and the contents of the magazine’. As a civil engineer, with close connections to the architectural profession, what better way to indulge in visual and aural beauty than by sitting in a cathedral during choral services and concerts. I leave it to those imbued with deep religious convictions to praise the Almighty for these wonders of construction and composition. For my part, I praise the human effort that, over the centuries, has gone into providing this feast of human delight.

Sir: May I congratulate you on the most recent edition of CATHEDRAL MUSIC. I found the article Never Sing Louder than Lovely of particular interest. Richard Hill is quite obviously an exceptional teacher capable of bringing out the very best in his pupils. Would that there were more like him operating in schools up and down the country. Singing is all too often pushed out of the music curriculum and peripatetic singing teachers (if a school is lucky to have such a luxury) often do not understand how to cope with young voices. It is refreshing therefore to hear of Richard Hill’s insistence on seamless legato, correct vowel training and the use of Aria Antiche for young singers. I have worked as an accompanist with a number of singing teachers and choir trainers and it is my observation that those who obtain the best results achieve an effective balance between acquiring good technique and enabling their students to ‘feel the music’. It is time for the drift away from singing to be halted. Allowing church, cathedral choir, youth choirs and choral societies to slip into decline cannot be in the interests of the musical culture of our nation.

Thomas P Hartley. Reigate, Surrey.

Sir: Looking at my replies to the questions in the Readers’ Survey questionnaire, you may conclude this is some

‘All achieved with God’s help’, I hear someone murmur. I am reminded of the vicar leaning over the cottage garden wall and congratulating the toiler on the wonderful display he had created with God’s help. ‘With God’s help?’ replied the old boy; ‘you should have seen it when he had it to himself!’ Many people throughout the ages have compared the ‘puny works of man’ with the wonders of nature. Many years ago as a business management student, I considered that given enough time and resources, anything and everything is possible. To the Almighty this presents no difficulty, but puny man has a short span to wrestle with many problems. The master mason constructing his fan vaulted roof; the maestro dicappella writing his masterpieces, whatever the inspiration, their works are to be admired for the human ability displayed. Therefore I sit and let the music wash over me whilst my eyes feast upon the architecture. I am conversant with the constructional aspects, but know little of the musical magic invoked in creating such works of art. This magazine opens the door, slightly, and I learn something of the musicians and their music.

Catherine Clark. Coventry

Sir: I dread to think that Radio 3’s Choral Evensong could drift the same way as BBC Television’s Songs of Praise, but having listened to the broadcast from Liverpool Anglican Cathedral on March 3rd I was left thinking that it is already happening. We had a similar scenario from Durham Cathedral a few months earlier.

Linda Arnold. Michaelchurch Escley, Herefordshire.

Mrs Ann Parsons, Royal Leamington Spa.

On Songs of Praise the sound of the organ has largely given way to singers and choirs being accompanied by instrumentalists and over-zealous percussionists with choirs sited in strange attitudes supposedly for dramatic effect. The Evensong broadcast from Liverpool was aurally so disappointing; I cannot speak of the visual effect, not being there to witness it. If this cathedral is noted for anything apart from its size it is the magnificent organ and acoustic. Why then, does Prof Ian Tracey (such a fine exponent of and ambassador for the organ) bring in the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cathedral’s Occasional Singers to virtually turn Evensong into a concert? To radio listeners it was particularly noticeable in the singing of Stanford’s Evening Service in C, when the crashing of the timpani virtually drowned out the sound of the organ – and that takes some doing.

Evensong is above all an act of worship, one that combines the wonderful liturgy with inspired music in the unique Anglican tradition. If I want to hear orchestral music I would choose to go to a concert hall. By introducing it into cathedrals to accompany Evensong the whole service is transformed into entertainment rather than worship.

Ro ya l Festival Hall

Queen Elizabeth Hall Purcell Room

ORGAN RECITAL SERIES

DANIEL CHORZEMPA

Mon 4 Oct 2004 RFH 7.30pm

Bach Three Choral Preludes

Mendelssohn Sonata in D minor, Op.65 No.6

Reger Toccata in E minor, Op.65 No.11

Reger Fuga in E, Op.65 No.12

Vierne Symphonie No.1 in D minor, Op.14

LIONEL ROGG

Thu 2 Dec 2004 RFH 7.30pm

Bach Fantasia in G

Bach Chorale prelude, ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland, BWV.599

Bach Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel Hoch

Bach Passacaglia, BWV.582

de Grigny From the Gloria of the Mass

Liszt Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, S.180

Rogg Meditation on BACH

Bach Chorale Prelude ‘Vor deinen Thron’

As Editor you summed up the arguments so well in Comment in Issue 2/02.

(I would like to hear other readers’ opinions on this point – Ed)

Barrie Jefferson. Spalding Lincolnshire.

Sir: I found your Comment in the recent issue of CATHEDRAL MUSIC most interesting and while in general I agree with your feelings about a North/South divide, you seem to be unaware of the Border Cathedrals Festival. This brings together the cathedral choirs of Newcastle, Carlisle and Edinburgh.

Last year’s Festival was held in Newcastle under the energetic and exciting direction of Scott Farrell. I travelled from Lincolnshire for the Festival and was richly rewarded with some fine music. The festival opened with the brilliant duo of David Briggs and Wayne Marshall in a Battle of the Organs, which was stunning; absolutely amazing; quite magnificent and also included choral contributions from the cathedral choir.

Over the weekend we were treated to music of the highest quality, both in a liturgical setting and in concert. Undoubtedly, the Border Cathedrals Festival is keeping the flag flying in the North; I’m already looking forward to next year’s Festival!

(This year’s festival is at Carlisle Cathedral 16th-17th October – Ed).

All readers whose letters are published will receive a copy of FCM CD O How Glorious a compilation of music from the Priory Records catalogue.

Letters may be shortened for publication.

All general points and comments welcomed. Please send letters by August 31st 2004 to:

The Editor 21 Belle Vue Terrace, RIPON, North Yorkshire HG4 2QS

Fax: 0871 224 7189

ajpalmer@lineone.net

DAVID HILL

Thu 24 Feb 2005 RFH 7.30pm

Mendelssohn Sonata in A, Op.65 No.3

Roger-Ducasse Pastorale Bach Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV.544 Vierne Symphonie No.2 in E minor, Op.20

SIMON PRESTON

Mon 11 Apr 2005 RFH 7.30pm

Wesley Choral Song and Fugue

Bach Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV.543 Schumann Four Sketches, Op. 58

Mendelssohn Allegro, Chorale and Fugue

Mendelssohn Overture to St Paul, Op.36 (arr. WT Best) Schumann Six Fugues on BACH, Op.60

Tickets £11 (concs £5 limited availability)

Box Office 08703 800 400 www.rfh.org.uk/organ

Southern Cathedrals Festival CHICHESTER2004

15th-18th July

The Cathedral Choirs of Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester at worship and in concert

Details from: The Royal Chantry, Cathedral Cloisters

Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1PX

Email: organist@chichestercathedral.org.uk

Registered Charity Number 239593

News from Choirs and Places where they sing

FCM tops 3000

Due to the success of the last year’s recruitment drive FCM now boasts more than 3000 members. Announcing the news at the Rochester Gathering, Chairman Peter Toyne said “the FCM was more than ever committed to supporting cathedral choirs like those we enjoy at our gatherings” he challenged the Society to grow to 5000.

Book Reviews

LONDON CITY CHURCHES

Paul Middleton & Leigh Hatts

Bankside Press £8.99 ISBN 0-9545705-0-2

www.banksidepress.com

This fascinating book has 41 drawings by Paul Middleton of London city churches and accompanying each one is a page profile by Leigh Hatts highlighting both the history and contemporary role. In the pages we learn about Dick Whittington’s tomb at Michael Paternoster Royal, and all sorts of interesting titbits, such as traffic lights turning to red and stopping fatalities just before a crane comes crashing to the ground. Don’t expect detailed notes, this is not that type of book. But it does inform about the music of the churches and all the addresses and opening times are listed. I won’t spoil the surprise of learning this or that fact because you will enjoy coming upon these details yourself. A good buy for anyone who likes that splendid pastime of church-crawling and in the City it is possible to spend a day engaged in that activity.

Andrew Palmer

Piping away

A great new opportunity now exists to support Hereford Cathedral and the restoration of its great Willis organ by adopting one of its 4,000 pipes. This will be an opportunity for people to donate towards the restoration of a specific pipe in memory of a loved one, as an unusual gift, to mark a special occasion or for themselves. ‘Pipes can be sponsored for as little as £10’ said Glyn Morgan, Organ Committee Secretary, ‘although we hope that people will give as much as they feel able remembering that the restoration is costing the cathedral over £85 per pipe. As the Willis organ has over 4,000 pipes, it is a very expensive project.’ All donations to the sponsor-a-pipe scheme will receive a specially designed certificate, which depicts the magnificent organ case as seen from the quire, and can be personalised to mark special events.

Anyone who would like to know more about the sponsor-a-pipe scheme or any other aspect of the restoration is asked to contact Glyn Morgan, Secretary of the Organ Committee on 01432 271990 or details can be found on the cathedral website www.herefordcathedral.org/

Essay Competition

To celebrate the Ecclesiological Society’s 125th anniversary this year, it is organising an essay competition, with a prize of £500 and a possible additional prize of £250 for those under the age of 25. The deadline for entries is 30th June 2004. Essays should be between 1500 and 3000 words long. No precise title for the essay is being specified, but essays should reflect the particular interests of the Ecclesiological Society – that is, ecclesiology as the study of the nature and the use of church buildings and their furnishings. Further details www.ecclsoc.org or by writing to the Ecclesiological Society, PO Box 287, New Malden, KT3 4YT.

THE HARMONY OF HEAVEN

Musical meditations for Lent and Easter.

Gordon Giles

£7.99 BRF ISBN 1 84101 334 X www.brf.org.uk

A delightful paperback, which dissects a whole range of music from Allegri’s Miserere to the Requiems of Duruflé, Fauré, Mozart Berlioz and Howells to name a few, through to Holst’s Planets and Cage’s 4’33’ and it doesn’t stop there. There’s lots more to find out. Along with a daily Bible reading, commentary and a prayer for every day from Ash Wednesday to Easter Monday, it is a fascinating insight into this specific part of the Church’s year. Gordon Giles is a vicar in Enfield, north London, previously based at St Paul’s Cathedral where his work involved musical and liturgical responsibilities. His grasp of how music fits into the scheme of meditation and prayer is absorbing. Reading a chapter a day for forty days or forty nights and a little bit longer is nothing and at the end of the process you will be wiser for knowing more about music. In fact you don’t have to wait until next Lent – it can be delved into at any time when one is in a mood for contemplation. Worth reading.

Patrick Mayhew

‘In the pages we learn about Dick Whittington’s tomb at St Michael Paternoster Royal, and all sorts of interesting titbits.’

STANFORD: ANTHEMS AND SERVICES

Choir of St John’s College

Cambridge

Morning Service in C (Te Deum, Benedictus); Three Latin Motets (Justorum, Coelus, Beati); Evening Service in C (Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis); Communion Service in C (Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, Gloria); Prelude in D Minor for Organ; Evening Service in G (Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis); Postlude in D Minor for Organ; For lo I raise up.

Director: Christopher Robinson. Organ Scholars: Christopher Whitton, Jonathan Vaughn. Naxos 8.555794 TT 70:09

Some may remember Rick Stein, in his Seafood Odyssey, reaching the rather surprising conclusion that Whitby fish and chips is the best dish in the world. We each have, among the little grey cells, a number of receptors which determine what for us is great music. Some months ago it fell to my lot to review the Finzi CD in this Naxos St John’s series. Thereby I ran into a problem because, for all the undoubted excellence of the performances, the music itself is not great. Not remotely. It does nothing for me. It comes across as mutton dressed as lamb or, as we in the North would say, all fur coat and no knickers. The experience of the present CD therefore is a complete contrast, because the music is superlatively great, and it does work. All of it. Each section seems to punctuate a period of my life, almost as if I were a guest on Desert Island Discs. The Morning and Communion Services put me in mind of the cathedral (Ripon in my case) in the prime of the day with sunlight pouring through the clerestory windows and bathing the Choir in light. I can almost smell the incense. The Evening Services take me back to my earliest days as a treble, when I first fell in love with this music. The three latin motets take me back to my undergraduate days at Cambridge, where I first heard them. The organ postlude takes me back to my time at Canterbury, where I remember it being played on the chapel organ at St Edmunds. The Prelude in G minor takes me back to nowhere, because I’ve never heard it before, and thereby has my experience been enriched. And so we come to ‘For lo I raise up. What a fantastic composition! – and what a way to round off a CD! Edward Higginbottom had the same idea with New College and Stanford – Anthems and Motets (recorded in 1996 CRD 3497) and both performances are brilliantly exciting. This music has everything including a somewhat dry and oblique sense of humour. For instance I do not believe that Stanford, nothing if not a man of the world, was oblivious to the butt of humour provided by the title. Also what treble has not sniggered as he stood upon his watch? And who at St John’s would not relish the fortissimo phrase “Yea, he scoffeth at Kings!” CVS must be laughing up his celestial sleeve! As for the performances I cannot conceive of a better context. The performances bristle with enthusiasm and dynamism. I could make some carping criticisms; over-enthusiastic trebles on occasions, and sometimes a rather harsh and almost ‘brassy’ tone in the organ. But I won’t. To do so is to reduce the Cup Final to twenty-two men chasing a ball, or to belittle a Strad. as a box with strings. Any blemishes here are simply swept up and disappear in the full momentum of a tidal wave. This surely is a CD to listen to before you go out to conquer the world. So there we have it: Stanford and St John’s right up there with Rick Stein and Whitby fish ‘n’ chips. The best dish in the world!

Harry Winter

LEIGHTON SACRED CHORAL MUSIC

An Easter Sequence; Crucifixus pro nobis; Give me the wings of faith; Evening Service ‘Collegium Magdalene Oxoniense’; The Second Service; Chorale Prelude on Rockingham; Veni creator spiritus; What love is this of thine?

Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Director: Christopher Robinson. Organ: Christopher Whitton. Trumpet: Crispian Steele-Perkins. NAXOS 8.555795 TT 67:54

The Choir of St John’s continues its splendid series of English choral music. The latest disc turns to Kenneth Leighton, the 20th century composer whose

CD Reviews

rhythms and distinctive harmonies must have caused many a choir practice to overrun in cathedrals up and down the land. Leighton’s musical output for the church was vast, driven by his early experiences as a chorister at Wakefield and then at Oxford under Bernard Rose. The music chosen for this particular disc features the very best of his work. Both evening services are included as well as two of his longer works: the Easter Sequence for trebles, organ and trumpet soloist, also the sublime Crucifixus Pro Nobis. The latter contains his unearthly setting of the Litany. The musicianship of St John’s Choir is flawless in its accuracy. The tone of trebles and choral scholars is rich and appropriately subtle or fiery as the music demands. The organ as in all Leighton’s music has an independent life of its own. Christopher Whitton’s accompaniment is colourful and exciting but never intrusive. Any devotee of English cathedral music, I hope, will cherish this addition to their collection. The disc as with all Naxos titles, is excellent value. I am left privately hoping that St John’s might find an opportunity to record a second Leighton disc, as this one left me with a real feeling of wanting more.

Nicholas Robinson

VIVALDI SACRED MUSIC 9

Laudate pueri; Salve regina; Ascende laeta; Gaude mater Ecclesia; Vos aurae per montes; Gloria Patri. Director: Robert King. Choir of the King’s Consort. The King’s Consort. HYPERION CDA66839 TT 66:42

The greatness of Vivaldi’s sacred vocal music does not lie in its historical influence, as it does not appear to have been widely known in his lifetime, nor to have been a great influence on any other composers; rather, it lies in its consummate artistry and inspiration. Even if Vivaldi does not appear to have the musical gifts of ‘great’ composers such as Bach or Handel, he has an unmistakeable and entirely individual manner of expression. In this, the penultimate disc in the critically-acclaimed series of Vivaldi’s complete sacred music, Robert King and his consort are at their distinguished best, and King introduces us to some fine music. He has selected a superb group of soloists, including some of the top names in the baroque performance world. Carolyn Sampson, Susan Gritton and Nathalie Stutzmann. All of whom have appeared previously in the series, perform to their usual high standards. Sampson in particular shows off the refinement and expressiveness of her singing. Joanne Lunn and Joyce Didonato are newcomers to the series, the latter turning in a thrilling performance in Ascende laeta. King’s Consort and Choir add ideal support, and the sound is full, well-balanced, and vibrant.

William Gaunt

VIVALDI SACRED MUSIC - 10

Gloria, RV 589; Nisi Dominus RV 803; Ostra picta RV 642; Ruggieri Gloria.

Sopranos: Carolyn Sampson, Joanne Lunn. Mezzo sopranos: Joyce Didonato, Tuva Semmingsen. Countertenor: Robin Blaze.

Contralto: Hilary Summers. The King’s Consort and Choir. Director: Robert King.

HYPERION CDA 66849 TT 76.37

This is the final flowering in the monumental series devoted to Vivaldi’s sacred music, which has fully justified Robert King’s championship of the less familiar aspects of the composer’s oeuvre. Vivaldi’s most famous choral work, his Gloria, has been saved until this final CD and is given an exemplary performance. The psalm setting Nisi Dominus (Except the Lord keep the house), until recently misattributed (see Michael Talbot’s excellent programme note), uses a colourful array of obbligato solo instruments, including viola d’amore, chalumeau and violino in tromba marino to accompany the three soloists, to delightful effect. Ostro picta, the only non-liturgical text is an introduzione for soprano, strings and continuo. Written for a Marian patronal festival, it may well have been intended to precede the famous Gloria.The final piece, Ruggieri’s Gloria, is of interest because Vivaldi ‘borrowed’ from it in his own Gloria. (Cum Sancto Spiritu is the most obvious borrowing. This would not

have been regarded as plagiarism at the time but rather as a compliment from the professional Vivaldi to the amateur Ruggieri.) It would be invidious to single out any single soloist, vocal or instrumental. The whole enterprise is a tribute to historical research coupled with the abilities of the performers to connect with a modern audience in bringing this wonderful music to life. Highly recommended.

Alan Spedding

SUCH A FEAST TREBLESOLOSSUNGBY JONATHAN RENDELL.

Directed by Matthew Owens in St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh.

LAMMAS LAMM 138D TT 57:57

Lance Andrews brings us the solo voice of fourteen-year-old Jonathan Rendell singing a variety of religious music, including Bach, Purcell, Fauré and Britten. Lammas must be congratulated for continuing to search out and to record new talent. Jonathan has a well-produced voice, singing beautifully in tune but there is not enough variety and flexibility in tonal colour. He generally sings with ease and his intonation is good, attacking the high notes cleanly. It is only in the longer passages that he does not support this voice through to the end of some of the phrases. My main criticism is that there is not enough use of head-tone or ‘light and shade’ in his singing, but this does not spoil the enjoyment of this CD. Handel’s I know that my Redeemer liveth tests the competence of any boy soprano and Jonathan acquits himself well in this, introducing more ‘colour’ than in most of the other items. He is accompanied by Matthew Owens on the organ, Kathryn Greely on the violin and William Conway on the violoncello. The music on the recording reflects that sung at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh.

Stephen Beet

JOHN TAVENER A PORTRAIT

HISWORKS, HISLIFE, HISWORDS

NAXOS 8.558152-53 2 CDs TT 2:35:26

This limited edition which includes the world premiere of Prayer of the Heart, is a marvellous innovation in recording history. The two CDs contain much of Tavener’s canon including Song for Athene, The Lamb, The Protecting Veil, Mother & Child but there is also over 45 minutes of John Tavener reflecting on his life in a recorded interview. It is a fascinating insight into his life and one hears about how David Lumsden inspired him and how he came to write Prayer of the Heart for the pop singer Björk. There is also a very detailed programme booklet about the composer, his life and career written by David McCleery. Naxos has moved us into another realm and I can already think of other subjects: Francis Jackson, Philip Marshall and Philip Moore, Richard Lloyd, Stanley Vann . For all those of you who want to find out more about Tavener and hear the diversity of his music then buy this CD.

Andrew Palmer

MALCOLM ARCHER –CATHEDRAL MUSIC

The Desert shall rejoice; The Wells Service; Blest are the pure in heart; The Clifton Service; Missa Brevis; The son of the most high; O where can I go from your spirit; A Hymn to Wisdom; O magnum mysterium. Wells Cathedral Choir. Director: Malcolm Archer. Organ: Rupert Gough and David Bednall. LAMMAS LAMM 165D TT 64:17

Malcolm Archer is a sort of Renaissance man of cathedral music, equally accomplished as an organist, choir-trainer and composer. He has more than two hundred published works to his name and he has the practical knack of tailoring his music to the aptitude of the performers – hence the number of commissions he has received. Most of the works on the CD have been written to a variety of commissions over the five-year period from 1998 to 2003 and they are performed persuasively by the excellent Wells Cathedral Choir. Archer’s musical language is based firmly in a recognisably English cathedral style with its mixture of cool restraint (as in the exquisite ‘a cappella’ Missa Brevis) and radiant exuberance (the Evening Canticles settings). In this age of superb cathedral choirs and musicians and where there is a market for

sophisticated and attractive liturgical music, one cannot help but feel that Malcolm Archer has his finger on the pulse and that Wells Cathedral is very fortunate in having him as its Director of Music.

Alan Spedding

CRUX FIDELIS

Purcell Hear my prayer; Sanders Reproaches; Blow Salvator Mundi; Walton A Litany; Bairstow The Lamentations; Casals O Vos Omnes; Lotti Crucifixus; de Séverac Tantum Ergo; Poulenc Litanies à la Vierge Noire; Byrd Haec Dies; Scott Easter Anthems; Shepherd Ye Choirs of new Jerusalem; Handel Since by Man; Leighton Drop, drop.

The Girls and Men of Sheffield Cathedral Choir. Director: Neil Taylor. Organ: Peter Heginbotham. LAMMAS LAMM 147D TT 73:58

I loved this CD especially the lovely singing by the girls’ choir performing wonderful repertoire for the season of Lent and Passiontide and well recorded by Lammas. Neil Taylor is doing sterling work at Sheffield which is ably demonstrated on this CD. Of particular note is the beautiful de Séverac Tantum Ergo. I look forward to more recordings from Neil Taylor and his choirs.

Ian Morgan

WEELKES’S NINTH SERVICE

Wood Hail gladdening Light; Tippett Deep River; Go down, Moses; Tavener Collegium Regale Canticles; Holst Nunc Dimittis; Haydn The Heavens are telling; Chilcott In the bleak midwinter; Bruckner Locus iste; Ireland Ex ore innocentium; Weelkes Ninth Service. The Chapel Choirs of Worcester College, Oxford. Director: Judy Martin. Organists: Tristan Russcher and Cameron Luke. OXRECS OXCD-97 TT 58:16

Worcester College has both mixed and all-male choirs, which sing together on most of the tracks in this recording of current favourites which includes two of the Tippett Spirituals and John Tavener’s Collegium Regale Evening Service. It is a robust but not particularly polished sound, with no assistance from the chapel’s acoustic, whose dryness seems accentuated by the conductor’s fondness for over-articulated, staccato singing: the effect in the Weelkes Service in particular borders on the ridiculous. This is sung by the mixed choir: the men and boys tackle The heavens are telling by themselves in an out-of-tune performance with some weak soloists, but In the bleak midwinter (Chilcott) and Ex ore innocentium (Ireland) feature a good solo treble, Peter Gardom, whose confident and well-projected singing is the highlight of the disc. This CD (rather short, less than an hour) is of interest as a souvenir of Judy Martin’s work at Worcester College (we congratulate her on her appointment to Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin) but all the music is available elsewhere in much better performances.

Timothy Storey

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Kaddish; Chichester Psalms; Missa Brevis; The London Oratory School Schola. BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. Director: Leonard Slatkin.

CHANDOS CHAN 10172 TT 71:00

This disc contains the premiere recording of the extended Missa Brevis and of Symphony No. 3

Kaddish with a new text written and narrated by Bernstein’s daughter Jamie, as well as the popular Chichester Psalms. The two major works are deeply rooted in the composer’s earthy, energetic and theatrical response to questions of faith in general and Judaism in particular. In contrast to the extrovert gestures of the Third Symphony and the Chichester Psalms, the expressive language of the Missa Brevis is more restrained. The work was prepared in 1988 when the composer’s seventieth birthday was being fêted across the globe. On this Chandos CD there is a consistently first-class sound and recording quality, which highlights the great accomplishment of the soloists. The treble Pablo Strong, is very good but reading the thirteen-year

old’s biography in the accompanying booklet he was not a cathedral chorister. He studies singing with Jennifer Lileystone and made his operatic debut as Cricket in The Cunning Little Vixen. This CD is a great tribute to Bernstein as a composer.

Andrew Palmer

VIVAT REGINA! MUSICCELEBRATINGTHE GOLDEN JUBILEEOF ELIZABETH II.

The Ebor Singers.

Director: Paul Gameson. Organ: Robert Poyser. Cloister CLOCD0103 TT 58:06

This CD celebrates the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The Ebor Singers is a young chamber vocal ensemble from the York area. The choir has recorded this CD in York Minster and the Very Revd Raymond Furnell reads the lessons and prayers from the Coronation Service of June 2 1953. The other added value is the use of trumpets.

Patrick Mayhew

THE BETTER LAND VOLUME 5 GREAT BOY SOPRANOS RECORDED 1927 – 1957

AMPHION PHICD189 TT 77:23

Ernest Lough’s world-famous recording of Hear my Prayer in 1927 set light to a movement which had been smouldering for more than a decade. Record companies such as HMV, Columbia, Decca and Parlophone competed to satisfy a growing demand for records of boy sopranos. There was a wide field to choose from since many parish churches and cathedrals maintained large choirs of boys and a great deal of trouble was taken in selecting and training their voices, especially those of the soloists. J Spencer Curwen’s fascinating book The Boy’s Voice (1894) ran to several editions and many other booklets and pamphlets were published, all extolling the virtues of training boys’ voices in a method concentrating on the head voice. This CD, the fifth in the series, presents a trawl through a considerable archive recorded over a thirty-year period. It is possible to criticise the suitability of some of the repertoire. Indeed, in 1933, a rather snide critic in The Gramophone wrote of one fourteen-year-old singer, ‘His first record of entirely unsuitable songs shows great promise... one can only hope he will come well through such experiences’. The CD gives a balanced survey of the material, however, and is a fascinating insight into a vanished world. There is some fine singing from many of the boys and there are some distinguished names among the accompanists, including George Thalben-Ball, Fela Sowande, Gerald Moore, Francis Jackson and one W Lloyd Webber.

Alan Spedding

ARNOLD BAX

St Patrick’s Breastplate; Nocturnes; The Morning Watch; To the Name above every name, Premiere recordings. The Huddersfield Choral Society. BBC Philharmonic. Director: Martyn Brabbins.

Chorus Master: Joseph Cullen.

CHANDOS CHAN 10164 TT 60:23

In his own words, Arnold Bax was ‘an unabashed romantic’ and much of the music on this CD would substantiate his self-assessment. He was receptive to many influences in his music – Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Sibelius –there is even a mischievous reference to Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps in the extended orchestral prelude to The Morning Watch. As a follower of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Elgar, Bax’s striving for ecstatic utterance is evident. A new generation is coming to appreciate his orchestral music as more recordings become available and this CD of vocal and choral works is timely.His was a complex and contradictory personality and the fact that he never had to earn his living may have meant that he had too many opportunities to indulge his romantic notions. Hence he espoused the Celtic muse although his roots were firmly in comfortable Surrey soil, and he chose to set mystical Christian texts in spite of his own pantheistic outlook. The choir is put through its paces (and sometimes the wringer), in

the full-scale works on this CD. The choral writing is instrumental in feeling at times, with some prolonged exposed passages which sound uncomfortable to sing. Nevertheless, there are some exciting moments and exultant climaxes as the choir enters into the spirit of the music, ably supported by the BBC Philharmonic. The two German songs (Nocturnes) have the feel of Berg or early Schoenberg about them. Christine Bunning sings with style, although her generous vibrato is sometimes distracting. The stars of the CD are the members of the Huddersfield Choral Society, proving once again that the spirit of great amateur choral singing is alive and flourishing in Yorkshire.

Alan Spedding

DUFAY & LOYSET COMPÉRE

Dufay (attrib) Missa Puisque je vis; Ave regina celorum; Compére Omnium bonorum plena; Anon Salve maris stella; Concede nobis domine. The Binchois Consort.

Director: Andrew Kirkman. HYPERION CDA67368 TT 68:17

The Binchois Consort, originally founded to perform the music of Dufay, displays a special affinity with his music on this disc, which contains some of his motets and the Missa Puisque je vis, as well as Compère’s Omnium bonorum plena, all of which music helps to colour our awareness of the richness and emotional devotion of pre-baroque music. Characteristics of Dufay’s music are its intricate workmanship and the development of independent balance among the vocal parts that lead us naturally to the satisfying clarity which has itself given old music a strangely contemporary feel. The singing is clean-cut and powerful, with detailed direction from Andrew Kirkman. The purity of tone and clarity of lines result in rich and complex colours; the muscular approach, particularly from the tenors, is the backbone of the performance. This is undoubtedly a valuable addition to the canon of recordings of this repertoire.

William Gaunt

CHARPENTIER

Salve regina à trois chœurs; Messe à quatre chœurs; Salut de la veille des ‘O’; Le reniement de St Pierre. Ex Cathedra. Director: Jeffrey Skidmore HYPERION CDA67435 TT 73:12

Until more recently, few compositions by MarcAntoine Charpentier (1643 – 1704) were known to the musical public. Described just after his death as ‘one of the most excellent musicians France has ever known’, very few of his works were printed until the middle years of the 20th century. Charpentier himself took such a gloomy view of his lack of general recognition that he wrote his own obituary in the form of a cantata. Yet he held a number of prestigious appointments in the Paris of Louis XIV, some on the fringes of the court, for which the King rewarded him with a pension. He also collaborated with Molière and his company after the latter split with Lully. Charpentier studied with Carissimi in Rome where he developed the taste for polychoral composition which he put to such splendid effect in the Messe á quatre chœurs and Salve regina à trois chœurs. Possibly his Italianate outlook militated against him within the hidebound etiquette of the French court. Spatial effects abound in the Messe and Salve Regina with contrasts among various vocal combinations. There is a surprisingly exuberant Agnus Dei in the Messe and David Ponsford contributes some delightful improvised organ interludes as demanded in the score, in the style of Charpentier’s contemporary Nicolas Lebègue. There are some startling shifts in harmony and Charpentier gives full reign to his imagination in the more emotional passages in Salve Regina and most notably at the end of Le reniement de St Pierre, a dramatic account of St Peter’s denial of Christ. Here, Peter’s words ‘flevit amare’ (‘wept bitterly’) are treated with an intensity as powerful as the Evangelist’s in Bach’s St Matthew Passion Le reniement owes a debt to his teacher Carissimi’s Jephtha. Equally inventive is the treatment of the Great Advent Antiphons (Salut de la veille des ‘O’) scored for a variety of solo voices and instruments, giving the musicians of Ex Cathedra further scope in their dramatic interpretation of this sumptuous music.

Alan Spedding

VIERNE, FAURÉ & SAINT SAËNS: SACRED MUSIC

Vierne Messe solennelle en ut# mineur; Tantum ergo; Ave verum; Carillon; Berceuse; Arabesque. Fauré Messe basse; Tantum ergo. Saint-Saëns Ave Maria; Prélude et Fugue en re mineur.

The Choir of Exeter College, Oxford. Director: Timothy Burke. Organ: Richard Hills.

HERALD HAVPCD 287 TT 66:42

This new release of Vierne, Fauré and Saint-Saëns forms an effective programme, combining Fauré’s well-known Messe Basse with Vierne’s fine but rarely-recorded Messe Solennelle, in addition to various motets and organ solos by all three composers. The magnificent chapel of Exeter College, Oxford is the ideal venue for such a recording, having been built in the 1850s in the style of the Sainte-Chapelle, and the powerful Cavaillé-Collinfluenced organ brings a convincingly French quality to the performance. Exeter College Choir makes an overall robust and musical sound, albeit with some intonation issues and a few weaknesses at more exposed moments: in particular the lower voices sometimes display a lack of vocal maturity, and there is some uncontrolled vibrato in the sopranos during certain tracks. There is some beautifully lyrical solo singing, however, and Richard Hills accompanies sympathetically throughout. The Westminster Cathedral Choir recording of the Vierne (coupled with Widor and Dupré) provides more polish and sheer power, but Exeter College Choir sings consistently with energy and commitment, which, in combination with an excellent programme and comprehensive sleeve notes, make this a thoroughly successful recording.

William Gaunt

SONGS OF HEAVEN & EARTH

Vaughan Williams Heart’s Music; Valiant-for-truth; Three Choral Hymns; Brockless Christ is now rysen; Now blessed be thou; Come Holy spirite; There is a garden; Harvey Come, Holy Ghost; I love the Lord; Britten Festival Te Deum; Five Flower Songs; Skempton Two poems of Edward Thomas.

The Choir of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Director: Matthew Steynor. Organ: Samuel Hayes. GUILD GMCD 7265 TT 67:50

Some Vaughan Williams, some Britten, some Jonathan Harvey, some Brian Brockless, some Howard Skempton. Brockless – sorry, but I knew nothing of him (though I do remember a musical boy, Brockless, at school...). The programme notes probably analyse him to death: his music is most accessible. The programme is interesting: sacred and secular - and beautifully, confidently, professionally sung. Jonathan Harvey’s I love the Lord is very closely recorded and works wonderfully. It’s often been given a ‘distant wash’ acoustic. This recording made me cry.

Andrew Davis

PATER NOSTER SETTINGSOFTHE LORD’S PRAYER

The Choir of The Abbey School, Tewkesbury. Director: Benjamin Nicholas.

Organ: Carleton Etherington. Various composers. PRIORY PRCD 787 TT 63:26

The programme reads ‘Pater Noster Pater Noster The Lord’s Prayer Pater Noster...’ and finally, track 22, Amen (Henryck Gorecki). Unpromising? Not at all: there is amazing variety and some fine performances. The range of composers and their responses is rich and strange: Palestrina rubs shoulders with Maurice Duruflé; Otto Nicolai and Kenneth Leighton sandwich Frank Martin and the latest settings bring us into the new millennium: Gabriel Jackson’s 2002 setting was written for this choir. The singing is mostly confident and accurate, a credit to what is going on at Tewkesbury with its young choir school (just 30 years old in 2003). A most interesting and enjoyable CD.

Andrew Davis

MUSIC FROM DOUAI ABBEY

Music by Gelineau, Lajos Bárdos, Roxanna Panufnik; Byrd, Mendelssohn, de Victoria and Handel. Monks Schola, Douai Singers. Director: John Rowntree. Organ: Terence Charlston. HERALD HAVPCD 285 TT 72:56

This eclectic programme is designed, according to the sleeve notes, to reflect ‘a snapshot of music in the life of a great abbey church’; this it does effectively, based around the Missa Quarta by Lajos Bárdos (a student of Kodály) and Roxanna Panufnik’s Douai Missa Brevis, interspersed with motets and antiphons ranging from plainchant through Byrd and Victoria to a contemporary setting of Psalm 103 by a monk of Douai, Dom Romuald Simpson. The Monks Schola sing two tracks on their own, presumably to fuel the (curiously popular) market for Gregorian Chant, and these are dealt with safely by the small group of singers. The Douai Singers, directed by John Rowntree, sing with good ensemble and generally secure intonation, with some excellent individual voices within the choir, especially among the tenors and basses. Occasionally the sound lacks clarity and could be more incisive, but accuracy and blend are never in question. There is some fine solo singing from baritone Edward Rowntree. In Mendelssohn’s Ave Maria, one of the few well-known pieces on the disc, the choir is again on good form. The tenor soloist, Richard Rowntree, produces a sound that is essentially sweet and lyrical, but one fails to detect any latent power which might have warmed up and dramatised the soaring phrases of the solo line. Howard Rowntree’s trumpet playing is outstanding, and provides a rousing finale to the programme.

William Gaunt

THE CRUCIFIXION JOHN STAINER

NEWLYORCHESTRATEDVERSION

BY BARRY ROSE.

Guildford Camerata. Guildford Philharmonic

Orchestra. Tenor: Peter Auly. Bass: Roderick Williams. Organ: Stephen Farr. Director: Barry Rose.

LAMMAS LAMM 154D TT 67:34

Only a few evenings ago I was examining Stainer’s autograph score of The Crucifixion. Should the fact that Stainer had apparently never felt the need to orchestrate it (though of course well capable of the task) be enough to condemn this new version out of hand? The quality of this recording could well win over the sceptics, for it is a very fine performance, with the vivid and colourful singing one associates with Rose’s choirs. Only the tenor soloist seems a little strained at times, but it is an ungrateful part to sing, with a curiously high tessitura. And what of the orchestration? Organists who know the work well (I first accompanied it when I was thirteen!) will be delighted by many subtleties of registration, if one may so describe it, but I was not as convinced by the addition of passing notes and other odd little bits of decoration. Each to his taste, though, and there are precedents for this: Howells did some extraordinary things when he orchestrated his Collegium Regale Te Deum. Devotees of The Crucifixion will find this version both fascinating and enjoyable, but I would recommend others to get to know the work in a more conventional performance, such as that by the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Timothy Storey

MOTHER & CHILD

Dove Seek him that maketh the seven stars; Pott The souls of the righteous; My song is love unknown; Swayne Magnificat; Tavener Mother and Child; L’Estrange Lute-book lullaby; Filsell O be joyful; Rodney Bennett

The seasons of his mercies.

Tenebrae. Director: Nigel Short. Organ: Jeremy Filsell.

SIGNUM RECORDS SIGCD501 TT 53:22

The CD’s title is taken from Tavener’s setting of Marian sources which fills a good portion of this disc. Despite the sleeve-note’s promise of “an exploratory approach which places the group artistically at more of a

cutting edge”, there is nothing innovative on this track, as even the introduction of a Hindu temple gong towards the end does little to convince the listener that Tavener has anything new to say. The same could be said about Jeremy Filsell’s O be joyful in the Lord, which admits its homage to several influential works but does not stand alone as an effective piece. Far more successful is Jonathan Dove’s Seek Him that maketh the seven stars, sung beautifully by Tenebrae and accompanied sensitively and accurately by Jeremy Filsell. The other well-known piece is Swayne’s Magnificat, now firmly established in the choral repertoire and here given the robust treatment it needs. The balance could have favoured the low bass a little more, but this is otherwise an exciting rendition controlled expertly by Nigel Short. Less well-known unaccompanied tracks of a gentler nature are the most successful items on this disc and all deserve further investigation. L’Estrange’s Lute-book lullaby, Richard Rodney Bennett’s The seasons of His mercies and Francis Pott’s The souls of the righteous are all sung with tenderness and show off Tenebrae’s warmth of tone. Francis Pott’s My song is love unknown is equally effective, but as a piece ideal for a choirs festival is too long at 17 minutes for normal cathedral repertoire.

Robert Thompson

ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

THE ENGLISH HYMN 4.

The Choir of Wells Cathedral.

Director: Malcolm Archer. Organ: Rupert Gough. HYPERION CDP12104 TT 63:54

I doubt whether children today have heard any of the lovely hymns on this disc. I recall so much from listening to this wonderful choir recite When a knight won his spurs, Morning has broken, Lord of the Dance, Loving Shepherd, All glory, laud and honour and other hymns that stir up the memories of school. Malcolm Archer’s team deals with the hymns on volume 4 with sensitivity and lots of rhythmical singing too. Most do not need the grand treatment. Archer’s own arrangement of Away in a manager is brought to vivid life especially with the unaccompanied singing and given fresh impetus. These simple examples are more than just another hymn, they are so well crafted. At first look the list of hymns did not excite me but once heard it becomes a treasure-trove of expressive beauty and simplicity. A delight.

Andrew Palmer

LO, THE FULL, FINAL SACRIFICE

Music commissioned for St Matthew’s Church, Northampton.

Britten Rejoice in the Lamb; Berkeley A Festival Anthem; Finzi Lo, the full, final; Richard Rodney Bennett Five Carols; Leighton Let all the World. St Albans Abbey Girls & Men Choir. Director: Simon Johnson. Organ: James McVinnie. LAMMAS LAMM 155D TT 63:00

This disc contains items commissioned for the church of St. Matthew’s Northampton between 1943 and 1967. A pleasing collection of contrasting items is the result, and the girls and men of St. Albans do the pieces due justice. A fine quartet of soloists complements the confident chorus in Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, where Smith’s strange lyrics could be just a little crisper to aid for the listener’s appreciation of their quirkiness. Having said that, the warm acoustic is just right and provides for a good balance. Lennox Berkeley’s A Festival Anthem deserves to be more well known but probably suffers from its length of over 14 minutes, thus depriving most cathedral music lists of a splendid piece. The central treble soloist section is beautifully sung by Hannah Watts, while the balance between chorus and tenor Mark Bushby is well-constructed. Finzi’s classic Lo, the full final, sacrifice is introduced by James McVinnie’s atmospheric playing and the choir’s quiet but confident opening words. All are able to cope with the subsequent compass of differing dynamics, although the quiet ‘soft self-wounding pelican’ section introduced by the tenors needs clearer diction, particularly as the accompanying booklet does not include the words. Richard Rodney Bennett’s Five unaccompanied Carols show a careful blend within the choir while Simon Johnson controls the pungent harmonies with ease. Let all the world, Leighton’s famous setting of Herbert’s Antiphon, rounds off this splendid disc with rhythmic and dynamic expertise.

Robert Thompson

COME, COME, MY VOICE, TREBLE SOLOSSUNGBY NICHOLAS FLETCHER, WITH SOUTHWELL CATHEDRAL CHOIR

Directed by Paul Hale; Organ, Philip Rushforth; Music by Andrews, Bach, Dankworth, Dyson, Handel, Hurford, Ireland, Lallouette, Leighton, Mendelssohn, Rutter, Stanford, Vaughn Williams. Lammas LAMM141D TT65:07

Lance Andrews is doing fine work in promoting boy soloists, and this latest CD featuring the voice of Nicholas Fletcher is a good addition to the series. Since Harry Mudd of Alpha/Abbey Records laid down the torch some years ago, Lammas have brought us several good boy sopranos, or ‘treble soloists’, as we are to call them these days. Paul Hale has a fine choir at Southwell and Nicholas has been one of his best soloists for some years. His voice is too strident for my taste but will appeal to many, as will the Southwell choir sound, which is certainly strong. The music is well chosen and features several old favourites, including Hear my prayer Stephen Beet

NICHOLAS GOMBERT MAGNIFICATS 5-8 WITHPLAINCHANT ANTIPHONS

The Tallis Scholars. Director: Peter Phillips. GIMELL CDGIM038 TT 58:23

One of the composers of the Flemish Renaissance generally considered to be of minor interest, Nicolas Gombert is gradually breaking free from his dungeon of mediocre repute, and his uniquely expressive style is being properly recognised for what it was. This becomes particularly clear with

WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHOIR

Organist and Master of the Choristers: JAMES O’DONNELL

Headmaster: JONATHAN MILTON

All boys are educated in the Abbey Choir School. They receive substantial Choral Scholarships from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster and have the opportunity of taking part in concerts, foreign tours, recordings and broadcasts.

If your son is 7 or 8 years old, why don’t you let him come for an informal hearing?

Details from:

Westminster Abbey Choir School

Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3NY

Tel: 020 7222 6151 Fax: 020 722 1548

Email: headmaster@westminster-abbey.org

reference to his ‘swansong’ and most substantial masterpiece, the set of eight Magnificats (this recording representing numbers 5-8), one on each of the eight Tones. They are his last major works, apparently written in a bid for release from imprisonment in a galley (whither he had been sent on the orders of Charles V after having been convicted of molesting a choir boy in his care), and as such are indeed the summation of all that Gombert had striven for in his music. With perfect intonation and ensemble and exquisite purity of voice, the Tallis Scholars are on excellent form, as one would expect from a group with such a fine international reputation. The age-old argument about over-edited and patched, and therefore passionless, recordings fails to convince. The group’s policy has long been to allow the music to speak for itself, without self-conscious performance. This recording is typical of this approach. There are no effects, just Gombert’s masterworks.

William Gaunt

THE COMPLETE NEW ENGLISH HYMNAL VOL 14

THE CHOIROF SELWYN COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

Director: Sarah MacDonald.

Organ: Daveth Clark and Timothy Morgan. PRIORY PRCD 714 TT 77:28

There is some very pleasing singing on this disc, with colourful and mature tone from ladies and gentlemen alike. Ensemble and intonation are generally beyond reproach, though vowel-sounds are somewhat dark – ‘God moves in ah mysterious way, Deep in unfathomable mines’ etc. – and some phrases are needlessly joined together to the detriment of the sense of the text. Variety is sought with descant and fauxbourdon, but some of the last verses are regrettable especially in Alleluia, sing to Jesus, the final track. This

is a somewhat sober group of hymns, and the emotional temperature is hardly raised by the inclusion of the plainsong Psalm 22 and the whole of Merbecke: the former, intended to be sung unaccompanied as the altars are stripped on Maundy Thursday, is inexplicably decked out with House of Horror organ harmonies, and the latter is served up in the unscholarly and unhistorical quasi-plainsong even-note version so regrettably included in NEH. This is surely taking completeness too far, and it detracts from an otherwise enjoyable recording.

Timothy Storey

MASS OF THE CHILDREN ANDOTHER SACRED MUSICOF JOHN RUTTER

Look at the world; To every thing there is a season; Wings of the morning; A Clare Benediction; I will sing with the spirit; Musica dei donum; I my BestBeloved’s am; Come down, O Love divine. The Cambridge Singers. City of London Sinfonia. Director: John Rutter.

COLLEGIUM COLCD129 TT 79:00

Any composer writing for children’s choir singing with adult performers r uns the risk of sounding like Benjamin Britten. John Rutter meets the challenge head-on and in his programme note he mentions his boyhood experiences singing in such works as Britten’s War Requiem. In Mass of the Children the ghost of Britten may be glimpsed at the outset and in the introduction to the Gloria, in the use of Tallis’s Canon in the Finale and in the device of setting separate religious texts in English alongside the Latin of the Mass. Rutter’s own melodic gifts are well to the fore, however, in this accessible and attractive piece. The vocal lines sound grateful to sing and the orchestration is supportive and colourful. The other pieces on the CD were mostly written for specified organisations or occasions. All display the

City of London Festival at St Paul’s Cathedral

Wednesday 23 June 8.00pm

TAVENER AT ST PAUL’S

City of London Sinfonia

Richard Hickox conductor

Patricia Rozario soprano

BBC Singers

Tavener Ultimos Ritos

Sir John Tavener’s monumental and rarely performed cantata dates from before his conversion to the Orthodox Church. His earlier Catholicism engendered this awe-inspiring meditation on Christ’s crucifixion, with five choruses and the unusual orchestral line-up (including six recorders and ten trumpets) deployed across the huge spaces of St Paul’s Cathedral to take advantage of the acoustic. The programme is completed by Tavener’s hauntingly beautiful Two Hymns to the Mother of God, The Lamb and Song for Athene.

St Paul’s Cathedral EC4 Tickets £10 £20 £25 £35

Thursday 8 July 8.00pm

RACHMANINOVAT ST PAUL’S

Tenebrae

Nigel Short conductor

Rachmaninov Vespers

Rachmaninov composed his Vespers at what he felt to be wartime Russia’s hour of darkest need in 1915. This dramatic and thrilling music is performed by one of England’s leading choirs, making spectacular use of the great spaces in the heart of St Paul’s by singing from different points around the cathedral’s interior.

St Paul’s Cathedral EC4 Tickets £10 £20 £25 £35

Tickets for both concerts are available from the Barbican Box Office on 0845 120 7502 or on-line at www.colf.org where you can find full details of all City of London Festival events

unmistakable Rutter hallmarks, harmonic and melodic, which give his music its popular appeal.

Alan Spedding

JANÁCEK:

The Lords Prayer, Choral and Organ Music. Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford. Director: Stephen Darlington. GRIFFIN. GCCD 4042.

In this recording, nicely timed for the sesquicentenary of Janácek’s birth, the cathedral choir is on top form. It must have been quite a feat to find an hour of his choral music, not all of it strictly speaking church music, but the performances are convincingand enjoyable even if the quality of the music is somewhat variable. A Chorale Fantasie for organ is well played, and indeed all the soloists distinguish themselves, although in the most substantial work, Otcenás(The Lord’s Prayer), Andrew Carwood sounds rather strained, certainly no match for the magnificent Arthur Davies in the 1987 recording by King’s College Choir directed by Stephen Cleobury, which used to be coupled with a very good performance of the Kodály Missa Brevis. Cleobury’s performance is a shade brisker than Darlington’s, and somewhat more lyrical and atmospheric; but the Christ Church tenors are more exciting. If a whole disc of Janácek excites your interest, don’t hesitate to buy this new recording.

Timothy Storey

SACRED AND SECULAR MUSIC MUSICFROMSIXCENTURIES PERFORMEDBY THE HILLIARD ENSEMBLE

Countertenor: David James. Tenors: Rogers Covey-Crump, John Potter. Baritone: Paul Hillier. Bass: Michael George.

HYPERION (Helios Series) CDH55148 TT 61.52

This recital is in the nature of a retrospective, since the recordings date from 1987 and 1989. It is an enjoyable European mix of 15 items, sacred and secular, incorporating antiphon, planctus, virelai, part-song, hymn, villancico, motet and chanson, sung in combinations from solo to five-part by the superb voices of the Hilliard Ensemble. The full ensemble conveys all the serenity of O nata Lux (Tallis) and the poignant grandeur of Byrd’s Ne irascaris Domine and Civtas sancti tui. Equally passionate is the two-voice Marian Planctus ante nescia by Godefroy de St Victoire. A lighter touch brings Matteo Flecha’s ensalada El jubilate to life and turns Dufay’s canonic Gloria ad modem tubae into a jolly romp. The whole programme is rounded off with a witty performance of Janequin’s famous chanson in celebration of love, Le chant des oiseaux. Performances to be savoured and enjoyed.

Alan Spedding

CD Reviews

THE ENGLISH CATHEDRAL SERIES VOLUME VIII

SCOTT FARRELLPLAYSORGAN MUSICFROM NEWCASTLE CATHEDRAL

Guilmant Sonata 1; March on a Theme of Handel; Saint-SaÎns Fantasie in D flat; Tournemire L’Orgue

programme, which suits the instrument. The mixture of popular and less well-known works is a winning formula, and the majority of this disc is performed with musicality and flair in equal measure. In the first movement of the Guilmant Sonata, the tempi are unsteady at times, however this is counterbalanced by a compelling and very beautiful performance of Tournemire’s Suite XXXV from L’Orgue Mystique, which is all the more reason for getting hold of this disc.

Stephen Power

SOUNDS INSPIRATIONAL ORGAN MUSICFOR PENTECOST PLAYEDBY GREG MORRISIN BLACKBURN CATHEDRAL

LAMMAS Records LAMM 159D TT 70:47

This recording really does what it says on the label. The rebuilt Walker organ by David Wood of Huddersfield is a glorious sight and sound, matched by a generous acoustic and a wonderful building. The reviewer, having played the instrument in recital, can also vouch for the quality of the console. Who would have thought you could programme over seventy minutes of music for Pentecost on one CD in a convincing order as if for a live performance? All the music fits the organ’s myriad of colours admirably, with dazzling execution from Greg Morris. I cannot recommend this disc highly enough. Congratulations Greg and Lammas Records.

REGER VOLUME 4 CHORALE FANTASIAS / ORGAN PIECES, OP. 59

ORGAN

Mystique Suite XXXV; Messiaen Apparition de l’Èglisè Èternelle; Vierne Carillon de Westminster. REGENT REGCD189 TT 79:51

As the English Cathedral Series from Regent takes shape, it is good to hear programmes from those cities that aren’t as widely known for their cathedral’s organ as for their football team. Scott Farrell really kicks any disparaging remark regarding the organ into touch with this all-French

Stephen Power

Joseph Still plays the Johannes Klais Organ, Trier Cathedral, Germany Chorale Fantasia on ‘Wie schon leucht uns der Morgenstern’, Op. 40, No. 1; Organ Pieces, Op. 59, Nos. 7-12; Introduction and Passacaglia in F minor; Chorale Fantasia on ‘Halleluja! Gott zu loben, bleibe meine Seelenfreud!’

NAXOS 8.555905 TT

‘Ah! A Klais. I’m bound to enjoy this one.’ Too true. A 76-minute recital of music by Reger, is a mammoth task to undertake, but it has been done, on just two consecutive days, which is all the more reason to commend this disc. The playing is stunning, as is the variety of colours (not all of them ‘romantic’) that Joseph Still employs to show off his cathedral organ at Trier. Sandwiched in between the massive Chorale Fantasias on ‘Wie schôn leucht’ and ‘Halleluja! Got zu loben’ are the last half of the 12 works that comprise the Op.59 Organ Pieces including the sublime Benedictus. Nestled in the middle of them is the equally colossal F minor Introduction and Passacaglia (Op63). It is a shame that Nos. 1-6 of Op.59 are separated on Volume 3, but it does not detract from the sheer enjoyment of the rest of this exciting performance.

Stephen Power

SOUNDS OF HUMPHREY CLUCAS

Robert Cowley plays the organ of the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban Urbs Beata Suite; Passacaglia; Sinfonietta; Toccata; Credo; Adoro Te; Three Plainsong Preludes; Qui Lux Es.

LAMMAS LAMM 151D TT 66:08

If you enjoy the music of Humphrey Clucas, then this disc is for you. If you enjoy contemporary British organ music based on traditional melodies and plainsong, often in the form of variations, this disc will not disappoint. There is more than a hint of a French influence in many of these pieces, though the eclectic English organ at St. Albans with its vivid tonal pallet serves the music well, with good handling from Robert Cowley. But for one slight rhythmic discrepancy between the parts, this is a musical performance of attractive music, which deserves to be heard and performed more.

Stephen Power

SWEELINCK

Robert Wooley at the Van Hargerbeer Organ of the Pieterskerk, Leiden

CHACONNE CHAN 0701 TT 73:24

SWEELINCK KEYBOARD MUSIC

Christopher Herrick plays the organ of Norrfjärden Kyrka, Norrfjärden, Piteo, Sweden.

HYPERION CDA67421/2 Compact Discs TT 152:00

Hot on the heels of the monumental Dutch set of nine CDs of Sweelinck’s complete keyboard music, overseen by Pieter Dirksen, come these two compilations. Each is a representative selection of Sweelinck’s 70-odd keyboard works in the forms he used for composition and improvisation, toccata, fantasia, variation (on sacred or secular themes) and echo fantasia. Unlike Sweelinck’s vocal music, which was all published in his lifetime in Amsterdam, one of Europe’s great centres of printing, the keyboard music has been passed down in manuscript copies made by the composer’s pupils. The 1643 Hagerbeer organ (restored in 1998) in the Pieterskerk, Leiden, serves Robert Woolley well in performances of 13 compositions. His approach is full-blooded and exciting, even though this leads to some unsteady tempi with a feeling of relentlessness in phrasing at times. The organ is quite well recorded, although some of the more rapid figuration sounds rather indistinct, especially in the lower registers. The pitch of the organ is approximately a semitone lower than modern pitch (A=440) and the tuning is, appropriately, meantone. There is much to enjoy on this CD, especially if your taste is for the dramatic in interpretation. There is the added bonus of an excellent sleeve note by Andrew McCrea. Confronted with pages of written music, it is fascinating to hear how two excellent players lift the dots off the page and it is very tempting to make comparisons. especially where the repertoire overlaps, as it does on the these two sets. Christopher Herrick’s two CD set of 25 pieces evokes Sweelinck’s era from the outset with the majestic Fantasia Chromatica, aided by the salty tang of meantone temperament and sharp pitch (A=467). The convoluted history of the Norrfjärdenorgan is set out in the excellent CD booklet, along with essays on Sweelinck and his music by Stephen Westrop, in addition to the organ’s specification and, most usefully, a list of the registrations used in the recordings, are excellent and a model of clarity. The discovery of this instrument, a modern reconstruction of an organ once played regularly by a brilliant pupil of Sweelinck, inspires Christopher Herrick to give some sparkling accounts of a balanced programme of 25 pieces. The performances are informed by control of rhythm and phrasing, clear textures and imaginative registrations (including the Stern stop and the Vogel, which chirrups in the Linden Tree and elsewhere).

Variety in expression ranges from robust treatment of the Fantasias to the exquisite shaping of such items as the Puer nobis Christmas variations and the melancholy Dowland/Sweelinck Pavana Lachrimae. As one listens to these authoritative performances of this wonderful music one can well understand why the burghers of the rising maritime city took honoured guests to the Oude Kerk to hear their own ‘Orpheus of Amsterdam’ play and improvise on the organs and harpsichord which they maintained in the church. The Hyperion/Herrick collaboration has born much fruit over the past 20 years and this Sweelinck set will give further pleasure to Christopher Herrick’s many admirers.

Alan Spedding

THE SPIRIT MOVES THE ORGAN MUSICOF PAUL FISHER

Kevin Bowyer plays the Wood Organ of Blackburn Cathedral.

Paean for a Royal Jubilee; Divinum Mysterium; Introit for Advent Sunday; Introit for Christmas Eve; Introit for Christmas Day; Jingle Bells Jingle; Love Song; For Thalia; Reflections on a Name; Columcille (narrator: Paul Fisher); Columba Invokes Spirit; The White Tiger; The Minstrels’ Gallery; The Coming of Light DINMORE RECORDS DRD 051 TT 67:15

Kevin Bowyer is the leading exponent of contemporary organ music, and a prolific recording artist. I had spoken to him about this project some time before it was recorded, and was pleased to be given the opportunity to review the CD. Paul Fisher is a retired clergyman who has always maintained an interest in the

organ and composition. The pieces presented here are intended for a wide variety of occasions, and are written for a number of different people, including John Scott, Ian Tracey and Kevin Bowyer. It is of paramount importance for any serious music lover to explore new and unknown music, and one’s tastes will always differ from others. I found that whilst I enjoyed listening to the disc, the music did not always hold my interest – it is not of consistent quality. Kevin Bowyer’s playing, however, is effortlessly musical, and the organ of Blackburn Cathedral sounds fantastic.

Tom Bell

A CLASSIC SELECTION 2

Roger Sayer plays the organ of Rochester Cathedral.

Franck Prière in C sharp minor; Dupré Variations sur un Noël; Op 20 Duruflé Prélude, Adagio, et Choral varié sur le ‘Veni Creator’ ; Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H; Reger Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H HERALD HAVPCD286. TT 71:30

This release demonstrates two things – firstly, that the organ of Rochester Cathedral is unjustly neglected. Secondly, and most importantly, that Roger Sayer, one-time St Alban’s prizewinner, is an excellent player. There are occasional moments in the Liszt where Sayer hits the accelerator perhaps a little too hard, but other than that the playing here is of consistent quality. My only other reservation is that some dynamic changes are handled rather abruptly. Besides these two relatively minor points, this disc is well worth buying. The Reger Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H in particular receives a heroic reading.

Tom Bell

ORGAN FIREWORKS X

Christopher Herrick plays the Letourneau organ in the Concert Hall of The Winspear Centre, Edmonton, Canada. Takle Blues-Toccata; Behnke Siyahamba ‘We are marching in the light of God’; Mulet Tu es petra et portae inferi non praevalebunt (Esquisses Byzantines No 10); Rutter Variations on an Easter theme: ‘O Filii et Filiae’; Johnson Trumpet Tune in G; Duruflé Toccata from Suite, Op5; Bonnet Matin ProvenÁal No 2 from Poèmes d’Automne, Op 3; Farrington Celebration from Fiesta!; Stride Dance from Fiesta!; Meyerbeer The Anabaptist’s Choral from Le Prophète; Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’

HYPERION CDA 67458 TT 73:49

I was pleased to receive another Herrick CD for review. Organ Fireworks X is characterised by the same high quality playing that one expects from this performer. The music, some familiar, some not so, is varied and the organ very fine. I have never been a fan of John Rutter, but his Variations for organ duo (Jeremy Spurgeon is the other player) is more substantial than the music one usually associates with his name. The Takle Blues-Toccata is fun in a rather odd sort of a way, and the Farrington pieces are interesting discoveries. Liszt’s monumental Fantasia and Fugue on ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’ receives a welcome airing, and lends the programme a weight which it otherwise would have lacked.

Tom Bell

ALEXANDER GUILMANT

Symphonies Nos 1 & 2 for organ and orchestra and Marche Élégiaque.

Organ: Edgar Krapp. Bamberger Symphoniker. ARTS MUSIC 47662-2 TT 63:43

This recording of Guilmant’s popular arrangements of his first and eighth sonatas would make a welcome addition to any collection. The balance between organ and orchestra is perfect – too often one hears the orchestra recorded too closely, or the organ being ‘turned down’ in loud sections! The acoustic in the hall used is very dry, but despite this the organ sounds well (though not French). The Bamberger Symphoniker produce a very warm tone, and there are some really very beautiful moments, particularly in the Pastorale of the first Symphonie. The faster sections are also played very well indeed, with great vigour and drive. Occasionally the tempos are slower than I expected, the Introduction et Allegro of the first Symphonie being over a minute and a half slower than my other recording of the work (which was made in Liverpool Cathedral, complete with ten

second reverberation!). In the case of that particular movement, a little excitement is lost, but given the sheer energy of the playing elsewhere this is hardly a major complaint. The booklet provides an essay about Guilmant’s life and work that is excellent and a model for others to follow.

Tom Bell

ORGAN MUSIC FROM HADDO HOUSE

Francis Jackson plays the Father Willis Pipe Organ. Bach Prelude & Fugue in G BWV 535; Chorale Prelude Ách bleib bei us’; Menuetto & Polacca from Brandenburg Concerto 1; Trio Sonata 5; Smart Andante in F; Postlude in C; Grieg At the cradle; Boëllmann Ronde Française;Camidge Concerto No 1; Ireland The Holy Boy; Villanella; Ravel Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis; Vierne Divertissement.

AMPHION PHICD 193 TT 77:18

This latest recording from Francis Jackson is made on a delightful instrument in a stately home in Aberdeenshire. As such it partners Jackson’s earlier recording from Castle Howard rather well. The programme itself is colourful, and all the music is performed with a virility that belies the great man’s age. There is much music here that is rarely, if ever, heard. I enjoyed listening to all of it – it was nice to hear some of Boëllmann’s music other than the Suite!! The Ravel is particularly beautiful, but really it is hard to single out any individual track. A pleasure.

Tom Bell

SOUNDS MESSIANIC

Jamie Hitel plays the organ of St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Akro, Ohio. USA

Messiaen Les Corps Glorieux; Franck Choral No 1. Lammas Lamm 145D TT 58:34

Les Corps Glorieux has always been one of my favourite Messiaen cycles. Hitel’s tempi are too fast to capture the spiritual qualities of the music; moments of stillness are shattered by the fact that the performer does not allow any space – something he could easily have done despite the acoustic. Moments of drama are also lost to excess speed, particularly in the first section of Combat de la Mort at de la Vie which in this performance lost all its tension and power. The Franck Choral no.1 is given a worthy performance, though not as well shaped as some, my only reservation being the unnecessary intrusion of the tubas at the conclusion.

Tom Bell

THE FRIENDS OF CATHEDRAL MUSIC

SECRETARY

Michael Cooke

Aeron House, Llangeitho, Tregaron, Ceredigion, Wales SY25 6SU Tel: 01974 821614

joycooke@aol.com

TREASURER

Mrs Anita Phillips, Rowan Lodge, 53 Fourth Avenue, CHELMSFORDCM1 4EZ. Tel:01245 352035

anita@rowans.force9.co.uk

PUBLICITY OFFICER & ADVERTISING MANAGER

Roger Tucker

16 Rodenhurst Road LONDON SW4 8AR Tel: 020 8674 4916 roger@cathedralmusic.netlineuk.net

RECRUITMENT OFFICER

Philip Emmerson King’s House, 8 Church Street CUCKFIELD RH17 5JZ 01444 413264 philipemerson@tiscali.co.uk

FCM ARCHIVIST

Dr Rosemary Smith

136a Southbrae Drive, GLASGOW G13 1TZ. Tel: 0141 959 0704

PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER

Trevor Godfrey Meadow Croft, 12 Spilsbury Close, Old College Park, LEAMINGTON SPACV32 6SW Tel/Fax 01926 831820 trevorgodfrey@onetel.net.uk

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY

Tim Haywood

FCM Membership Department, PO Box 207, Scarcroft, LEEDS LS14 3WY

Tel: 0845 644 3721 (UK local rate) or +44 113-293 7000 info@fcm.org.uk

SECRETARY FOR NATIONAL

GATHERINGS

Peter Smith Paddock House, 7 Orchard View, Skelton, YORK YO3 6YQ Tel: 01904 470 503

PeterSmith@robertpeter.fsnet.co.uk

MERCHANDISE OFFICER

Joy Cooke Aeron House, Llangeitho, Tregaron, Ceredigion, Wales SY25 6SU. Tel: 01974 821614 joycooke@aol.om

FRIENDS OF CATHEDRAL MUSIC

EDITOR SINGING IN CATHEDRALS

Due to the retirement of the present editor, a replacement editor is required.

This interesting post involves contact with cathedrals, collegiate chapels, churches and festival organisers around Britain. The Editor is responsible for updating, printing and distributing the directory, once a year. About 11,500 copies are printed for the national tourist agency, ‘Visit Britain’, and for cathedrals and FCM members. WP skill and access to the Internet are essential and desk top publishing experience would be helpful.

ADDITIONAL OFFICERS REQUIRED

Following the recent increase in FCM membership, Council has approved the appointment of additional officers to fill the following new positions:

ASSISTANT TREASURER

To assist the Treasurer, principally with the financial work relating to membership applications and renewals, and the sale of Cathedral Music through retail outlets

MERCHANDISE OFFICER

To plan and implement a programme to increase the range of merchandise sold by the Society. Prior sales, retailing or marketing experience would be preferable, though central marketing support will be available

PUBLICATIONS MARKETING OFFICER

To plan and implement a programme to increase the number of retail outlets selling CATHEDRAL MUSIC and other Society publications. Prior sales, retailing or marketing experience would be preferable, though central marketing support will be available

WEB SITE OFFICER

To co-ordinate the upgrade of the Society’s web site, working closely with the web site programmer. Responsibilities will include developing a site map and contents list, writing and/or editing copy, inviting people to contribute text and and ensuring a high standard of graphic design. An appropriate level of computer literacy and familiarity with web sites are essential, though web site programming per se, is not.

These positions are entirely voluntary though all expenses incurred will be reimbursed.

For further information please write to the Chairman, Professor Peter Toyne DL at Cloudeslee, Croft Drive, CALDY, Wirral CH48 2JW, or e-mail peter.toyne@talk21.com

Cathedral MUSIC Cathedral MUSIC

Advertisers and Supporters

Allegro Music........................................34

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Common Praise....................................18

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George Sixsmith...................................40

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Lammas.................................................11

LCM Examinations...............................62

Makin Organs.......................................37

Oakham School....................................63

Organists’ Review.................................11

Oxford University Press.......................12

Regent Records.....................................63

Royal College of Organists...................26

Royal Festival Hall................................51

Salisbury Cathedral..............................40

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St Davids Cathedral Festival.................28

St Paul’s Cathedral...............................35

Three Choirs Festival...........................37

Viscount Organs...................................23

Westminster Cathedral.........................62

Westminster Abbey Choir....................57

WESTMINSTER

CATHEDRAL GRAND ORGAN FESTIVAL JUNE 2004

Tuesdays at 7pm

1stD’ARCY TRINKWON

‘Astonishing virtuosity’ – music by Liszt, Guillou &Reger

8thROBERT QUINNEY

Dupré Vespers with the Lay Clerks of Westminster Cathedral

15thMARTIN BAKER with the Choristers of Westminster Cathedral

22ndNICOLAS KYNASTON

Romantic masterworks by Franck, Reger &Boëllmann

29thCARLO CURLEY – 7.30PM

Showpieces on ‘the best organ in London’

Admission £10 (£7)

organ@westminstercathedral.org.uk

Cathedral MUSIC Cathedral MUSIC

day school, Oakham provides an

boarding

where our strong musical tradition is maintained alongside a high standard of academic excellence. Students are offered tremendous opportunities in music and perform individually or as part of our orchestras, bands, ensembles or choirs. Oakham School has become widely known for developing new ideas in education and making them work. In keeping with our established reputation for innovation, Oakham now offers the International Baccalaureate as well as AS/A2 Level in the Upper School.

The Directorof Music, Department of Music, Oakham School, The Barraclough, Ashwell Road, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6QG.

Tel: 01572 758526 www.oakham.rutland.sch.ul