Cathedral Music: Autumn 2005

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Simon Lindley

Cathedral Music

CATHEDRAL MUSIC is produced twice a year, in May and November

ISSN 1363-6960 NOVEMBER 2005

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‘CM Comment Andrew Palmer ’

Crisis, what crisis?

There seems to be a series of mini crises brewing across the cathedral music world. Concern for the future of the tradition, as we know it, is once again under the spotlight. More and more cathedrals are looking at the financial implications of running a cathedral choir. It’s imperative that standards in cathedral music are not compromised by these pressures. The cathedral choir’s raison d’être is its participation in the opus Dei, the singing of the offices in the daily round of worship. Each generation holds the succession of cathedral music in its hands and that is why it is vital that cathedrals do not dilute the tradition and find ways of keeping it alive. Just count the number of cathedral appeals that are ongoing. Deans and chapters are constantly thinking about fundraising events.

Interestingly, Ripon Cathedral deliberately does not use the word ‘appeal’ as it is seen as having negative connotations; instead it has the Ripon Cathedral Development Campaign. More creative ways of funding should be sought. Hereford has its Perpetual Development Trust working to support the urgent restoration programme

being undertaken on the fabric of the cathedral and its environs, along with ensuring the financial security of the foundation’s choral tradition. The play on language is extremely creative and this is the kind of thing I am talking about. For most deans and chapters the largest single item in the annual budget, apart from maintenance of the fabric of the building, is the cost of the musical foundation: lay clerks’ meagre salaries, choristers, organs, music libraries etc. The escalation in costs over recent years is taking its toll. To help meet this, cathedrals have to look at endowments, made easier by FCM grants and commercial sales of recordings, Christmas cards and so on. There has to be an outlay first, which cathedrals often can’t afford. This highlights the work of FCM all the more strikingly. We are a unique charity which aims to supplement appeals and grants to choral funds in UK cathedrals to perpetuate the tradition.

Ecumenical developments

During the reign of Henry VIII, Britain broke away from the Roman Catholic Church by the Act of Supremacy in 1538 to found the Church of England, which then became the established Church with the monarch as its head. In this anniversary year of Thomas Tallis, who remained a Catholic until his death (yet serving the Church composing settings for both the Latin and new English liturgies) it is encouraging to report some ecumenical news. The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster has agreed to become a joint patron as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Rt Revd Thomas McMahon Bishop of Brentwood has been appointed as a vice-president. It is heartening in the name of ecumenism that the FCM is forging stronger links with the Catholic Church. The warmth of the welcome extended to FCM members by Brentwood Cathedral at the recent AGM weekend exemplifies how this joint partnership can thrive. Long may it flourish.

No longer at your service

The Times used to publish details of Sunday services in the major cathedrals. Well, no longer! Along with its excellent series At Your Service the newspaper has relegated these regulars to Times Online I always looked forward each Saturday to opening The Times and sitting down to read At your service, as it gave thoughtful insight into worship attended whether at a cathedral or church and covered different religious establishments. The move by the paper is a retrograde one. In its new tabloid size it obviously has no room left for such regular features and is sidelining religion and incidentally, the music, just as other media have done.

Leeds’ Star Organist

Earlier this year the indefatigable Simon Lindley, received the Honorary Freedom of the City of London, the highest honour the Corporation of London can bestow. Honorary freemen are invited by the Court of Common Council to take the freedom. No one deserves it more than Simon whose enthusiasm for the tradition of cathedral music is tireless. Well done Simon and warmest congratulations from us all.

‘Each generation holds the succession of cathedral music in its hands and that is why it is vital that cathedrals do not dilute the tradition and find ways of keeping it alive.’

‘To help meet this cost cathedrals have to look at endowments, made easier by FCM grants, and commercial sales of recordings, Christmas cards and so on. ’

Marcus Huxley

Music in Birmingham Cathedral 1905-2005

When I transferred from Ripon to Birmingham in 1986, I exchanged a large cathedral in a tiny city for a petite cathedral in a substantial municipality. Although Birmingham can justifiably call itself the Second City of England, its Anglican Cathedral would fit several times over inside St Paul’s – although architecturally it is from the same period, having been designed by Thomas Archer (the architect of St John’s Smith Square) and completed in 1715. The original organ by Schwarbrick (a pupil of Renatus Harris) survives at least partially to this day, though it has of course been enlarged, modified and moved from west to east end over the centuries. Its glorious main case still stands, however, as does the diapason chorus on the Great. Its most recent, felicitous re-build was undertaken by Nicholson’s in 1993, exactly 100 years after they first took responsibility for the instrument.

From their start in 1768 until 1834, when the Town Hall was built, the Birmingham Triennial Festivals – later to become famous for commissioning, among many other works, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius – were largely based in what was then St Philip’s Parish Church. The enormous expansion of the city in the 19th century meant that eventually Birmingham would need its own diocese and in 1905 a chunk was carved out of Worcester Diocese and the Bishop of Worcester, Charles Gore, enterprisingly gave up his throne in Worcester Cathedral to become first Bishop of the new Diocese. (He was later translated to Oxford.) Thus St Philip’s Church (it only acquired its dedication, incidentally, because some land was given by the Phillips family) became Birmingham Cathedral 100 years ago, chosen principally for its central location in the city.

‘As a building, it has the feel of a light and airy City of London church and enjoys a good all-purpose acoustic. ’

Birmingham Cathedral entrance.

Photo: Dorrette McAuslan

As a building, it has the feel of a light and airy City of London church and enjoys a good all-purpose acoustic. It has north and south galleries and four notable stained glass windows designed by Burne-Jones, who chanced to be born in the parish.

The city centre has been transformed in recent decades into a pleasant modern European city with tree-lined pedestrian streets, elegant modern buildings and impressive shops. The CBSO is an orchestra to be proud of and Symphony Hall is universally admired. The historic Town Hall will re-open in a couple of years and the Royal College of Organists has already relocated here. Both BBC and ITV maintain a presence and the Birmingham Royal Ballet has established itself in recent years. We are well served educationally, too, with 3 universities, a Conservatoire officially rated as ‘excellent’ and the various schools of the King Edward Foundation (2 independent and 5 grammar), which consistently figure high in national league tables. There is also a fine Roman Catholic Cathedral (St Chad’s) built by Pugin and for many decades the city’s only cathedral. Under the leadership of David Saint (and before him John Harper) they have built a fine musical tradition and there is regular interchange between the two cathedrals.

A time traveller from 1905 would find many differences, but also many similarities were he/she to visit Birmingham Cathedral today. Evensong then was held daily except Friday with boys’ voices (for an experimental year with full choir, but the funds ran out). The Sunday service was always with full choir, though. Just as it is today, tea was provided for choristers on their arrival from school, but records omit to say whether Edwardian choristers played the same vigorous games of table tennis or cricket or football while waiting for rehearsal to begin. Although the Blue Coat School was then on the edge of the churchyard, most if not all choristers apparently attended

King Edward’s School, then a block away in New St. Today the choristers, 20 in number as then, attend 11 different schools from all around the City and boast a colourful variety of ethnic backgrounds (e.g. in recent years: Sri Lankan, Indian, Vietnamese, Afro-Caribbean, South American and Chinese as well as white European). They are paid bursaries of up to £125 per term, but we are still very dependent on and grateful for the good will of parents in ensuring boys maintain regular attendance. On one wintry night when the Birmingham traffic was famously grid-locked, only 6 choristers made it to Evensong and amazingly the three on Cantoris were brothers.

An obvious difference from 1905 is that today we have in addition a Girls’ Choir, started in1992 by Rosemary Field (then Assistant Organist and when appointed the only female cathedral musician in England) and thus one of the earliest in the country. In 1995, when Rosemary left, I took the girls’ choir over and have been their director ever since. The girls, too, come from several different schools, but tend to be older than the boys (10 to 18) and they are led by three undergraduate choral scholars, who also on occasion join their male opposite numbers to form Schola Philippi, a small choir able to tackle enterprising repertoire in services, recitals and broadcasts. A number of girls have gone on to Choral Scholarships at Cambridge and other universities. Rosemary Field, incidentally, also founded the St Philip’s Singers, the Cathedral’s voluntary choir, who in dedicated fashion fill in the gaps when the Cathedral Choir is on holiday.

As there is no choir school and as this is a mostly secular society we live in, recruiting is a major operation. I visit dozens of schools of every conceivable type (primary, prep, comprehensive, grammar and public schools) hearing children sing briefly and inviting the most promising to the Cathedral for a more thorough trial. Many are deterred by the

Marcus Huxley

commitment required, but the more determined characters proceed to the next stage. Very often this results in a revelatory experience for an otherwise unchurched family, a very diverse social mix in the rehearsal room and the likelihood of a chorister leaving some years later with musical literacy skills far beyond those of most adults. From the Cathedral’s point of view, the lack of a choir school can be a positive advantage in that no potential chorister is prevented from joining for financial reasons. It also means that a boy can continue singing while his treble voice lasts, which, if it is treated with care and luck is on your side, can in my experience stretch well into his 15th year.

I have some distinguished predecessors as Organist, including Willis Grant (1936 – 58), who went on to be Professor of Music at Bristol University, Tim Tunnard (1958 – 67), whose Responses are still widely sung, and Roy Massey (1968 - 74) ➤

Corporate members of FCM who fully endorse its support for cathedral music.

The College welcomes applications to join the choir from ex-cathedral choristers who can still sing treble or alto at age 13+.

As well as services in Chapel, the choir sings in cathedrals by invitation.

West End of Birmingham Cathedral.

Photo: Dorrette McAuslan

‘...the lack of a choir school can be a positive advantage in that no potential chorister is prevented from joining for financial reasons.’

before he went to Hereford. The first Cathedral Organist, Edwin Stephenson (1906 – 14) was selected from some 200 applicants and was evidently both enterprising and a very successful choir trainer as well as being an accomplished orchestral conductor. He collaborated with S Royle Shore, the Cathedral’s honorary Lecturer in Ecclesiastical Music and Diocesan Instructor in Plain-chant (both positions now sadly defunct) in pioneering performances of Tudor music at daily services well before Terry and Fellowes produced their editions, while a movement of Palestrina’s MissaPapae Marcelli was performed at his very first service in charge, which happened to be an ordination.

The Cathedral Choir has in recent years regularly commissioned new compositions from such as Andrew Downes, Andrew Carter (Come Holy Ghost) and John Sanders (The Firmament), while Alan Ridout dedicated his hauntingly beautiful 6th Set of Sacred Songs to the Cathedral’s Choristers. As in Stephenson’s day, the Choir also makes a point of exploring earlier repertoire than most so that music from the Eton Choir Book and by such composers as Josquin des Prez and Taverner is frequently to be heard. Psalms are prepared with especial care and it was interesting to discover while researching for this article that in the earliest days of the Cathedral Choir psalms would be preceded and followed by antiphons as in the Catholic office. The Choir has also regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and made a number of CDs, most recently My Dancing Day (Regent Records). Given our busy city-centre location, recording has to be done in the quiet of the evening, though keen-eared listeners can still sometimes detect the rumble of a motor bus or the buzzing of a mechanical road sweeper.

Tours are undertaken regularly both in this country and abroad and some unforgettable experiences have resulted. Performing Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices for 1000 people in

Lyons Cathedral, for example, or singing in the amazingly resonant acoustics of the Basilica at Maastricht or the Cathedrals of Chartres and Liverpool (both Anglican and Catholic in one day!) or processing in at St Eustache, Paris during Jean Guillou’s apocalyptic improvisation. But also the more informal moments, such as supper in a Dutch parish room or a spontaneous rendering - in parts! - by boy choristers (on a particularly grotty coach) of a double choir Kyrie by Mendelssohn.

We also enjoy regularly taking cathedral Evensong to one or other of the churches in the Diocese. The boys tend to rate these experiences on the stickiness of the cakes served up at tea, but it’s a welcome break in routine for all of us and a chance to visit some fascinating and beautiful churches –nearly always older than our own!

We also come in for a fair number of carol services when it gets near Christmas. One of my favourite memories is of the printed programme prepared for its service by a nearby department store. One of the readings concerned the “shepherds’ visit to the manager”!

Otherwise, memorable services include the Royal Maundy service in 1989, but also a service to commemorate the Centenary of the Football League. Concert performances have included collaboration with the CBSO, with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge in Symphony Hall, with the City Choir in Britten’s War Requiem, with the San Francisco Boys’ Chorus and with many others. A thespian diversion was to take part in the first night of the musical Scrooge, which also meant visiting Abbey Rd Studios to record the accompanying CD and seconding one of our smallest choristers to take the part of Tiny Tim. Individual musicians who have performed with us include Emma Kirkby and Carlo Curley, but we have also performed alongside Cliff Richard, Harry Secombe and Rolf Harris for the switching on of the City’s Christmas lights. TV

Choir of Birmingham Cathedral

‘An even more exciting prospect is the plan to set up a Music Foundation to secure the future maintenance and development of music...’

appearances have included Frost on Sunday and the Bullseye Christmas Special as well as the more predictable Songs of Praise and Pebble Mill at One (on location in Warwick Castle). Other more or less exotic occasions we have performed at include a meeting of the International Olympic Committee at the International Convention Centre, the draw for the Euro 96 Football Tournament and the World Indoor Athletic Championship (attended by representatives of 145 countries). We also whenever possible find opportunities to sing jointly with other choirs, whether from cathedrals, parish churches or schools.

We are fortunate in a big conurbation to be able to find a ready supply of adults to sing the lower parts, though in common with other cathedrals we find it easier to engage deputies to sing occasionally than lay clerks prepared and able to commit themselves week in week out. In this connection mention should be made of the enormous contribution made these days by choral scholars, many of whom are much more proficient than their title suggests.

The regular pattern of services now is Eucharist and Evensong on Sundays (likely to be sung by boys and men or girls and men); while Evensong on weekdays is sung by various combinations of boys, girls and men, though again, as in most cathedrals, the boys and girls usually sing separately. Boys rehearse on Mondays (a plain day), Wednesdays and Fridays, while girls meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since 1988 we have had the use of a splendidly furbished Undercroft with Choir Vestry and kitchen adjacent (at the time reputedly the most expensive square feet in Birmingham and till then full of bones). In addition to choir practice, choristers are all taught music theory and given Christian training, while we hope to extend voice coaching to the girls imminently.

There are numerous distinguished old choristers, though the best-known in the cathedral world is undoubtedly David Briggs, formerly Organist of Truro and Gloucester Cathedrals and now an international recitalist and composer. distinguished choir parents have included Simon Rattle and George Caird, Principal of Birmingham Conservatoire.

The Cathedral is also used as a concert venue, both during the lengthy repairs to the Town Hall by the phenomenally talented City Organist, Thomas Trotter, successor to the fabled G D Cunningham and George Thalben-Ball, and by such bodies as the Birmingham Bach Choir, Ex Cathedra, the CBSO Chorus, Birmingham University, the Birmingham Early Music Festival and many others, including on one occasion the Swingle Singers. There are also informal recitals on Friday lunchtimes with free admission.

The Cathedral has recently established its own website: www.birminghamcathedral.com , so that up-to-date information may be readily obtained. An even more exciting prospect is the plan to set up a Music Foundation to secure the future maintenance and development of music in the Cathedral so that Birmingham may continue to play its part in sustaining this country’s unique tradition of cathedral worship.

In March 2006 we look forward to welcoming Canon Bob Wilkes as our new Dean, replacing Gordon Mursell now Bishop of Stafford and later this year we will also lose our Bishop, John Sentamu, when he heads north to become Archbishop of York. Thus, as the Diocese enters its 2nd century, this really does feel like a ‘brave new world’. The Cathedral faces its next century in good heart and surrounded by a city full of confidence for the future.

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All things come from y

Michael Hampel Precentor of St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Last June, the Choir of St Edmundsbury Cathedral returned from a visit to Romania. The focus of the visit was a series of concerts given in Transylvania for a hospice, the Casa Sperantei, which was designed by our Cathedral Surveyor. Concerts were given in Brasov, Sibiu and Sighisoara and at the Casa Sperantei itself. All of the usual things may be said of the tour: that it gave the choir a chance to move beyond the boundaries of its domestic vision; that the choir was able to share its talent with people for whom the Anglican choral tradition is little known or, indeed, unknown; and that the ‘holiday humour’ of such tours was good for morale and ‘team-building’.

All of this was true of St Edmundsbury Cathedral’s Romanian tour but there was a moment, after the recital given

at the hospice itself, which I remember particularly. The hospice is principally a children’s hospice and the day of our visit was Romania’s ‘Day of the Child’. Our choristers wandered around the day lounge after the recital and gave their young hosts gifts from home: sweets inevitably and the like. Needless to say, it was a deeply moving moment and I noted, as I have done in the past in these situations, how much more than a musical performance is given by a cathedral choir.

That is an emotional illustration and I had promised myself that I should not be ‘site-specific’ in what I had to say about cathedral music. I am clear, however, that any one of our cathedral choirs put into this situation would acquit itself as well and as movingly as this particular cathedral choir regardless of its rank on the league table of cathedral music.

Cameron Crabtree, Matthew Elstone and Pip Shepherd.

Photo: Ian Hulland

myou and of your own do we give you’

I say this because the feeling and emotion which are so important in liturgical performance are qualities which must be experienced beyond the parameters of the liturgical space and articulated within the liturgical space as an intrinsic part of the skills which permit musical excellence. This may say something about the importance of life experience in the formation of our musicians, an element of their profile which is often omitted when considering what makes a good musician.

And these are things which money cannot always buy.

Even if I were to be less dramatic and consider experience solely within the liturgical space, we should observe how much more than musical excellence is the experience of an act of worship which is led by a cathedral choir. The pacing and delivery of the members of the clergy participating in the act

of worship, the resonance of the building, the shape and colour of the scene wherein the act of worship takes place, the mood of the architecture, the attention of fellow worshippers are all catalysts in the pursuit of excellence which, if held in a correct tension with each other, should themselves inspire the musicians as much as the musicians should inspire the congregation.

In other words, there is something organic about the pursuit of musical excellence which must take consideration of aspects of our liturgy, buildings and people which may go far beyond musical ability and which admits a responsibility for the success or otherwise of a cathedral choir on the part of everyone who comprises the cathedral community. It also obliges those of us who oversee the musical life of cathedrals ➤

to consider the identity of our musicians: their experiences of life, their backgrounds and their priorities outside the cathedral, as well as their workloads, their involvement in decision-making and their resources within the cathedral.

I wonder if our musicians would rise to the challenges with which they are presented on a daily basis in our cathedrals if they thought that the communities of those cathedrals treated them as musical automatons rather than recognising the organic development of their choirs as groups of individuals. There are few people within our cathedral communities who can say to God with more feeling than the musicians. ‘All things come from you and of your own do we give you’, as they expend themselves mentally and physically in the leadership of our worship.

None of this is an excuse for poor quality in the execution of choral music in worship but it is a reminder of a shared responsibility in the care and development of our musicians.

I am not certain that our role is to preserve anything in quires and places where they sing. ‘Tradition’ and ‘heritage’ are words which we all use and we generally know what we mean when we use them but it is no bad thing to be economic with their use and to try to find other ways of saying what we mean. Preserving our traditions and heritage tends to rule out any form of risk-taking and, without risks, we find ourselves back with automatons — and coin-operated ones at that.

There are all sorts of risks involved in the world of cathedral music, which make it considerably less rarefied than people think. What does one do when presented at voice trials with a boy or a girl who suffers from autism or attention deficit disorder? The discipline and routine of the cathedral choir may be a golden opportunity for the child to rise to the challenges presented by his or her condition but it may be some time before the burden which the child’s appointment to the choir places on the director of music’s shoulders and the

distraction which it causes to the child’s fellow choristers is ameliorated and the duckling becomes a swan. In the meantime, some of the perfection for which we all strive may be compromised — but for a perfectly good reason.

And, as the prevalence of these sorts of conditions, not to mention general behavioural problems, increases, so there is a shared responsibility on the part of the cathedral community — and the chapter in particular — to ensure that directors of music are offered training in the issues and needs associated with today’s youngsters. In other words, things are seldom what they seem when one walks into the quire for Evensong.

At the same time, there are the practical risks associated with the repertoires of our choirs and musicians. It is quite right to suggest that one’s coat should be cut according to one’s cloth but risks must be taken if choirs are to be stretched — and the risk may well not pay off. But no one will experience the pain of that sad fact more acutely than the person responsible for directing the choir.

I cannot express how much admiration I feel for anyone who must stand before a group of musicians and a congregation, continually, for approximately forty-five minutes without losing concentration for a second. The sorts of people who are inspired to perform within this context must be the sorts of people who are readily diminished when things go wrong — as a result of personal pride if nothing else. Equally, when a member of the clergy or the congregation commend a performance which has clearly been substandard, such a director of music will know that the compliment is misplaced and personal integrity will spur him or her on to improve what is lacking.

Where there are musicians who feel no compunction about the quality of their performance, that is a wholly different issue and not one which relates directly to the issue about the direction of cathedral music. Such people sit in a similar category to the priest who is content to bleat his or her way through a celebration of the Eucharist with no consideration for phrasing, tempo and expression, or the preacher who preaches such a long sermon with too many sideshows that it is clear he or she has spent little time preparing it, or the verger who appears to be preparing for the service while it is unfolding rather than beforehand. These are flies in the ointment and, I hope, exceptions that prove the rule. I offer these non-musical examples as an indirect way of emphasising my earlier point about shared responsibility.

Perhaps these people lack stamina: another vital ingredient in the performance of music of the highest quality. The schedules which cathedral choirs follow are of necessity demanding. Daily choral services are not a luxury. They are, of course, offerings in themselves but, more practically, they are part of a training programme without which much of the more exacting musical items in the repertoire might not be performed. Parish church choirs visiting cathedrals in the vacations may occasionally sound as good if not better than the home team but they rarely manage to sustain a musical programme which is otherwise alien to them.

A good instance of what I mean is the singing of the psalmody which, like the incessant practising of scales, only reaches a decent standard by daily effort. But, here is something else to add to our risk assessment: the risk of exhaustion. Cathedral choirs cannot afford to sacrifice practice but service schedules may occasionally need to be thinned out for the health of the musicians. This is why directors of music must be part of the decision-making

‘I wonder if our musicians would rise to the challenges with which they are presented on a daily basis in our cathedrals if they thought that the communities of those cathedrals treated them as musical automatons rather than recognising the organic development of their choirs as groups of individuals.’

concerning routine schedules and special services.

Once the director of music is thoroughly exhausted, he or she must consider recruitment. There is the general difficulty of recruitment as a result of fewer children associating themselves with church life in order to spot the musical opportunities which exist there and fewer former choristers coming through the system to occupy the back rows later in life. There is also the particular difficulty of doing any recruiting at all — especially (but not only) where there is no choir school and/or no local higher education institution from which to draw singers whose work schedule fits that of the cathedral music department.

A good reaction on the part of those who see room for improvement in their choir is not to criticise the standard but to offer help with the business of recruitment. Visiting local schools and publicising lay clerk or choral scholar vacancies are time-consuming activities and the initial stages of such efforts may well be undertaken by lay people as a positive means of addressing quality while increasing quantity.

I have to admit that I have rarely heard a director of music or assistant criticise the quality of a particular performance but I imagine that this is because I am present in the Song School either immediately before or immediately after services: by far the worst time to offer criticism — when a choir is either filled with anticipation or exhaustion. Nor would I expect such criticism to be offered in front of clergy and vergers. As a result, I am not party to the dissection of a performance, which may well be undertaken in the context of rehearsal, and this is where such dissection should be undertaken. In other words, our musicians may not be as complacent as we think.

There are, of course, members of cathedral communities who only ever have kind words to offer our choirs. This may be because of their humility just as much as, although one hopes more than, their naivety. However, such people may not be so lacking in discernment as has been claimed. If musical expertise is not necessary to recognise when music is being sung or played simply as notes on a page, it may also not be necessary to recognise something of beauty and therefore truth in a particular performance — even where such a performance would not bear comparison with that of some of our highest-ranking foundations. This brings us back to the importance of feeling and emotion as intrinsic parts of performance. These qualities may be present in a choir which has the common touch even if cannot yet walk with King’s.

Much of what I have said might well be taken as a providing of excuses for a lower quality of musical performance than the excellence for which we strive. I think it is intended as an explanation while admitting room for improvement. One of the most important ways in which such improvement may be elicited from our musicians is by considering an approach to performance in our cathedral, which is considerably more collaborative than it might be at present.

One way of achieving this is to think in terms of the shared responsibility of which I have spoken. Another important way of achieving it is by the earning and showing of respect between clergy and musicians. That may partly be accomplished by the sharing in decision-making to which I have referred. Perhaps more important, however, is the obligation which the clergy have to inspire the musicians. It is obvious to talk about the need for the music to inspire but who is inspiring the musicians? We may be thankful that God

has a part to play but the clergy are not thereby excused their own role. And this is not just by encouraging self-belief on the part of the director of music; it is also about earning the respect of the director of music by one’s own ability, humility and effort. Then, one hopes, the musicians will feel inspired to rise to new challenges by a healthy combination of their own self-belief and their trust in their ordained colleagues.

At the same time, it is quite right to say that the naturally inspiring musician who picks up the baton of a cathedral choir is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and it is equally right to say that these people are more and more difficult to find. So, cathedrals should take more risks with their organ scholars who may be tomorrow’s directors of music by allowing them the reins a little more; appoint organ scholars where they are currently not employed; and even visit universities to recruit them with offers of one-year contracts when they graduate.

A healthy understanding of the organic nature of cathedral choirs and their members is important to the development and improvement of our choral foundations. This organic nature must of necessity permit errors and learn from them. This involves risk-taking which itself cannot but entertain room for manoeuvre. Problems should be approached with solutions. And all of this should be considered within a climate of respect and trust.

Even the best of us may offer no more than inarticulate groanings while we strive to accomplish the task but we must not give up. God, our own integrity, and the very music we perform will ensure that we never do.

The Story of

Suffolk’s Cathedral Millennium Project

By James Atwell Dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral

There is a field in the parish of Bradfield St. Clare, some eight miles from Bury St. Edmunds, known as Hellesden. If that is the place where the young Christian Saxon King of East Anglia named Edmund lost his life following defeat in battle against the Danes in 869AD, it would explain how his body had been brought to nearby Bedricsworth by 900AD. The township was re-named Bury St. Edmunds or St. Edmund’s Town. By the time of King Canute, in the early decades of the 11th century, a Benedictine abbey had been founded around the shrine of the martyred king. The momentum was established that created the great medieval abbey of St. Edmund as one of the glories of England and artistic treasure-houses of Europe. Every English monarch from Canute to Henry VI came to pray at the shrine of St. Edmund and renew their allegiance to his memory and example. The spectacular Bury Bible produced at the

Abbey by Master Hugo remains to this day one of the foremost Romanesque treasures of Europe. It is kept in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The spiritual momentum of Bury St. Edmunds was halted when in 1539 Henry VIII dissolved the great abbeys of England. Although the Tudor despot had it in mind to turn the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds into the Cathedral of a new diocese, as he had succeeded in doing for the Abbey of Peterborough, his plan never materialised. The library and treasures of the monastery were dispersed and the once great Abbey Church became a ruin.

There was a long wait until 1914 when the hopes to turn Suffolk into a single diocese, created from parts of Norwich and Ely, were cast in a parliamentary bill and received the royal assent. The great spiritual spring that Edmund’s dignified defeat and conscientious martyrdom had created bubbled up again in Bury St. Edmunds.

It became the cathedral town for the new diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. By Act of Parliament the Bishop of the new see was resident in Ipswich, spreading the ecclesiastical favours across the county.

The Church of St. James, a church-inwaiting on the ancient Abbey, was declared the new Cathedral. Its Norman bell tower had been the ancient gate from the town to the Abbey Church. The vision to give the Parish Church of St. James the architectural dignity of a Cathedral Church had to wait for two world wars and their intervening period of austerity. Stephen Dykes Bower was appointed as Cathedral Architect in 1943. It was his vision that the Victorian chancel should be carefully dismantled and Wastell’s medieval nave given a substantial additional east end of quire and Crossing. The style of the addition was to be harmonious with its context and therefore in the great English Gothic

style. The crossing was to canopy a central altar, and the quire provide the stalls for the Canons of the new cathedral. The re-creation of monastic cloisters was also part of his architectural vision.

Work began at the end of the 1950s and continued through the 1960s. It began with a new cathedral porch with chamber above, and with the commencement of an arm of cloisters along the north side of the nave. A detached quire was built with a lofty and colourful roof in the medieval tradition, which was only subsequently joined up to the cathedral nave by a crossing with four great pillars capable of receiving a substantial tower. To the north of this new crossing provision was made for a north transept should the resources ever be available to afford it. This leap forward concluded with a transformed cathedral internally, but clearly incomplete externally. That incompleteness was proclaimed by metal rods sticking out of a tower stump, and builder’s felt protecting wooden boarding that sealed otherwise open arches waiting for a north transept. This external impression of an incomplete industrial warehouse marked the breaking off of a great overture still awaiting its symphony.

In the 1980s development work resumed with the construction of a Cathedral Centre to the north of the new quire of the Cathedral. These much needed facilities included Song School and Sacristy, Conference Centre and Refectory. The development was

overseen by Stephen Dykes Bower working with the Whitworth CoPartnership. The building in brick with stone windows and doorways is in a clearly domestic style of architecture, but designed to complement the Gothic Cathedral. Sir Joshua Rowley, Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, opened the building in 1990. It represented an enormous step forward in establishing the Cathedral’s role as an increasingly significant centre of worship and public gathering. The inflationary period of the 1980s necessitated some economies at the moment of completion. The Cathedral and the Centre were only temporarily connected at ground floor level, and an intended linking chapel was omitted. The Centre was designed to take cloisters at such time as they might be affordable. Once more the challenge of opportunity was left for a future generation to garner.

A unique conjunction of opportunity heralded the most recent phase of construction. Stephen Dykes Bower died in November 1994, and the significance of his Will was communicated to the new Provost on his arrival in January 1995. The Architect Emeritus had set up a Trust to become effective at his death. The Trust enabled the trustees to spend the generosity of the bequest on outstanding works for St. Edmundsbury Cathedral provided the spirit of the benefactor’s vision was maintained. In the event the Trust amounted to £3 million; the instructions accorded a priority to the north transept, the unbuilt chapel linking the Cathedral to the

Cathedral Centre and additional cloisters. At the same time the Millennium Commission was inviting the second of three rounds of applications. The Millennium Commission had been set up by the Government to use funds from the newly established National Lottery to part-fund capital projects to mark the Millennium. The opportunity to complete the Cathedral including the crowning glory of a central tower seemed like a potentially millennial project. Not only would it be a new landmark, but it celebrated 2000 Anno Domini in a way that almost nothing else could. The Millennium Commission funded 50% of the cost of the projects it decided to support. There was, therefore, the tantalizing possibility of matching Dykes Bower’s generosity with a County Appeal and the whole being doubled by the Millennium Commission.

A cathedral tower is not an obvious priority in our own generation. The Millennium seemed to provide a oneoff opportunity to complete a cathedral which otherwise would remain for ever a monument to dreams unfulfilled. The Trustees agreed to support the Cathedral and an application was submitted to the Millennium Commission with plans from the Dykes Bower archive. The worst happened. The application was turned down.

The Chief Executive of the Millennium Commission agreed to meet the Dean. From the encounter it seemed that a further application but with different plans, would be worth trying. A seminar of those locally and ➤

nationally involved with heritage architecture was called and held in September 1996. The seminar backed a further application. New plans had to be funded, and the Cathedral congregation responded generously to the summons to join a ‘300 Club’. Three hundred people were invited to come forward with £400 to fund the application. A further bid with a more modest compromise tower, once drawn up by Stephen Dykes Bower but rather against his better judgement, was put in for the third and final round of applications to the Millennium Commission.

Indication was given that the design was not sufficiently millennial. Concurrently, a design on the scale of Dykes Bower’s original solution was published in The Times in July 1997. It was written up by Marcus Binney, The Times Architectural Correspondent, under the heading ‘Cathedral Tower offers soaring crescendo’. The design was by Hugh Mathew, former partner of Dykes Bower, who had himself worked on the building of the crossing in the 1960s. This design was switched for the

one originally put in for the final round, with only six weeks left to run. Deft footwork put together the paperwork to support it. This time the Commission was keen, and an award of half of what turned out to be a £12 million scheme was announced in the November.

Assembling a team of professionals, choosing a contractor, sourcing stone and tying up all the legal agreements took a further eight months. Meanwhile a major County Appeal had to be launched: Appeal Chairman, Appeal Director and Appeal Committee needed to be appointed. HRH The Prince of Wales agreed to be Patron of both the Project and the Appeal. Lord Belstead, the Lord Lieutenant, initiated the endeavour and kindly became a president along with the Duke of Grafton and the Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The project was launched on site just in time for the Millennium in December 1999.

It has taken five years of painstaking work by the architects Hugh Mathew and Warwick Pethers of the Gothic Design Practice to bring the vision to reality. The contractors Bluestone have

conscientiously worked with the architects’ high standards and in association with Ketton Stone, the stonemasons, produced work of exquisite beauty and immaculate craftsmanship. Project managers, engineers and scaffolding contractors have all played their part. As the tower neared completion, stonemasons, brick layers, carpenters, flint craftsmen, glaziers and plumbers were all working together on site. It has been an opportunity to train apprentices, to encourage craft skills and develop new standards of working with lime mortar. Meanwhile the Cathedral’s normal round of activities has had to be accommodated. The honorary Millennium Project Co-ordinator has had quite a task to oversee.

2005, the sixth year of building, saw the five phases of the development brought to conclusion. The north transept, two phases of tower work, a new crypt with chapel above and finally a cloisters project are all coming to completion. Suffolk will have a visible County Cathedral. In the words of our royal patron ‘A spiritual beacon for the new millennium’.

‘The Millennium seemed to provide a one-off opportunity to complete a Cathedral which otherwise would remain for ever a monument to dreams unfulfilled. ’

St Edmundsbury Cathedral Tower

Photo: Ian Hulland

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60

Mark Williams, Assistant Sub-Organist St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Seconds in Music Profile

Age: 27

Education details:

Bolton School & Trinity College Cambridge

Career details to date:

Organ Scholar of Truro Cathedral (96 – 97)

Organ Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge (97 – 00)

Assistant Sub-Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral & Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral School (since 2000)

What does your role at St Paul’s entail?

It is rather a strange title for a job isn’t it? In the cathedral I share the responsibility for the playing of all the services - daily Evensong, four services on a Sunday and a whole host of extra occasions - with the Sub-Organist and the Organ Scholar, and I conduct services as and when necessary. The advantage of having a larger than usual music staff is that we can split our chorister rehearsals into smaller groups (quite useful when there are 40 of the little angels to deal with), so I also enjoy a good deal of responsibility for the training of the boys, especially the juniors. And of course, I run the music in the Cathedral School (with the help of a wonderful department adminstrator), teaching, directing the orchestra, dealing with peripatetic staff and all the other joys one associates with such posts. So I’m kept quite busy on the whole.

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

I recently learnt Duruflé’s magnificent Veni Creator, simply because I had thought it to be immensely powerful for some time, but hadn’t managed to find a convenient time to get inside the piece. I found myself in America for a few days with a lot of practice time and not much else to do, so I launched myself into it – a hugely enjoyable experience.

What or who made you take up the organ?

As a little boy, I would go along to our local church (which had an ancient mechanical-action organ) and watch in awe as the keys of the Swell moved, seemingly by themselves, as the organist played the Great. I then joined the Voluntary Choir of Manchester Cathedral as a treble. At the time it was directed by Gordon Stewart, who was an absolute inspiration to me and to

all the boys in the choir (five members of that choir went on to Oxbridge organ scholarships during my time there!) Being asked to turn pages in the loft after a service was an unspeakable treat, and soon I began organ lessons.

Which organists do you admire the most?

John Scott’s extraordinary rapport with seemingly the entire organ repertoire was something to behold. It was a great privilege to see and hear him play on a regular basis at St Paul’s. It’s also a great pleasure to work with Huw Williams who has an equally extensive organ repertoire and who regularly performs frighteningly difficult pieces quite brilliantly despite the considerable limitations on practice time in the Cathedral.

What was the last CD you bought?

Brahms Intermezzi played by Glenn Gould.

What was the last recording you were working on?

I recently went back to Trinity to finish a recording of Duruflé’s Requiem and Messe Cum Jubilo on the Metzler organ with Richard Marlow conducting. It was a recording begun during my time there, and which is due to be released in the autumn.

What is your a) favourite organ to play?

Notre-Dame in Paris.

b) favourite building?

Ste Etienne du Mont in Paris

c) favourite anthem

Probably Sing Joyfully by William Byrd, but I seem to change my mind every day.

d) favourite set of canticles

Brewer in D was the first set of canticles I sang as a boy, and so has a particular resonance for me, but for sheer musical quality I’d find it hard to choose between Leighton 2nd, Gibbons 2nd and Howells Gloucester.

e) Your favourite psalm and accompanying chants?

There’s a lovely Walford Davies chant in E major, which we sing to Psalm 91 at St Paul’s, but everyone marries different texts to different chants – I’m sure it suits many other psalms beautifully.

f) favourite organ piece

At the moment it’s the Duruflé Veni Creator, but in terms of alltime favourites, Bach’s Clavierübung III would be the collection I’d take to my desert island.

g) favourite composer

I couldn’t bear to choose between Bach, Byrd & Brahms.

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

I’ve taken to including Elizabethan keyboard pieces in recitals – Gibbons, Bull and Byrd etc. There’s some tremendously inventive and colourful music there, and I think they act as a rather pleasing sorbet after a weighty romantic piece in the middle of a programme.

Any forthcoming appearances of note?

I’ve just returned from playing in Salisbury which was a real treat, and I’m off to Portland Oregon in the USA next week. Tonbridge School, Gloucester Cathedral and St Thomas Fifth Avenue all beckon next year...

Have you played for an event or recital that stands out as particularly memorable?

I was called back from half-term to play at St Paul’s for the memorial service immediately after the Bali bombings. It is the sort of occasion that makes me feel proud to be part of a cathedral that can mount a televised service in the presence of the great and the good at just three days’ notice. It was deeply moving and particularly poignant for me as my brother was in Bali at the time (though mercifully unhurt).

Has any particular recording inspired you?

As a boy, I recall my parents investing in a CD player and somebody giving me an Argos recording of the great works of Elgar, Parry, Stanford and Bairstow. At every opportunity I would sneak into the music room at home, turn the volume up and conduct Winchester Cathedral Choir, the Waynflete Singers and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with great enthusiasm and with a knitting needle for a baton...

How do you cope with nerves?

I don’t look at the audience, or think about who might be in the congregation before I go to the organ. The problem with playing in a well-known building is that terribly important people and musicians have a habit of turning up. I find myself far more nervous giving a recital in St Paul’s with a number of well-known musicians listening than playing for a service on television with the Queen and the Prime Minister sitting under the Dome. It doesn’t really make a great deal of sense, but there you go...

How do you cope with the reverberation in St Paul’s?

You stop noticing it after a while, which may seem odd, given that everything lasts nine seconds longer than it would in most places. It does affect the way one plays but it’s a myth that you have to play everything slower in St Paul’s – it’s all about giving the music more space, which is not the same thing as playing more slowly.

Do you play any other instruments?

The harpsichord, piano, harmonium (somebody has to be on call for the Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle after all!) and, many years ago, the flute.

What was the last book you read?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (if you teach in a school, it’s naturally your duty to keep up with these things)

What are your favourite radio and television programmes?

Just a minute on Radio 4 and the American series 24 on television.

What Newspapers and magazines do you read?

The Spectator, The Gramophone, Private Eye, Country Life (it’s a vicarious way of enjoying the countryside from the city), and I alternate between the broadsheets depending on which has the easiest Su Doku in it.

As a new member of FCM Council what do you think FCM should be doing in the 21st century?

I would like to see FCM take on a greater international presence. British cathedrals are alive in a way that so few cathedrals are across the rest of the world, and that is in no small part due to the continuation of a rich musical tradition in our historic buildings. I believe that there are many people across the world who would love to share in, and feel a part of this special and unique tradition. In the global-minded 21st century, FCM could play a very important role in involving a wider international community in the support, fostering and financing of cathedral music well into the future.

CM Editorial Adviser Matthew Owens on

CATHEDRAL

COMMISSIONS

Investing in the Musical Heritage of Wells Cathedral and beyond…

As a cathedral organist, I feel highly privileged to be part of a great choral tradition stretching back over a thousand years. Matching this tradition is a body of music which has its roots in medieval times, and within this body there is an enviable choice of repertoire available to any choir director. This repertoire is vast and varied, and includes some of the finest music ever written – so why seek to add new works, sometimes at considerable cost?

Composer Gabriel Jackson argues that ‘…if the Anglican repertoire is not to ossify and become insulated from the world outside it desperately needs the challenge and stimulus – for choir and congregation alike – of new music. Rather than reassuring us with the cosy and familiar, genuinely new music speaks powerfully of that which we don’t yet know and it is this quality of revelation that can make the work of living composers such a potent force in the daily liturgy.’ He adds, ‘…in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, church music was written by the

‘It is important that each generation leaves its own legacy of music which will, in turn, give future generations an insight into the social and musical history of our particular time.’

Line drawing of Wells Cathedral by Trevor Godfrey

greatest composers of the day; by inviting major figures from outside the loft tradition to compose new works for our cathedral and church choirs, this can again be the case.’

It has always been my aim, as a cathedral musician, to embrace new music and to actively encourage contemporary composers to work within the liturgy. Whilst I was the Organist & Master of the Music at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh from 1999-2004, I sought to engage major figures within the wider musical world to compose works for the choir. This led us to work with composers such as Arvo Pärt, James MacMillan, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Philip Wilby, Gavin Bryars and Howard Skempton. Each is highly regarded for chamber, orchestral and instrumental music, as well as, in most cases, choral music. Similarly, we often worked with composers more closely, though not exclusively, linked with church music, such as Francis Jackson, Richard Allain, David Briggs and Gabriel Jackson. Whilst an enormous privilege for me, the experience and excitement it brought to the choir and the wider church community was remarkable. The choristers in particular enjoyed the challenge of learning this new music and it gave them a truly unforgettable experience by working with and meeting some of the greatest living composers of the day. Imagine if this had been Handel or Elgar or Britten!

I am certainly not unique in my desire to commission new music – many people and institutions have gone before me. Particular examples spring to mind, with other cathedrals, chapels and churches often commissioning new works for specific occasions such as festivals and anniversaries. Many of these works are now firmly embedded in the English choral tradition repertoire. But it has been my desire to take this oneoff commissioning a step further and create a scheme which will ensure the constant development of contemporary music for cathedrals and churches. It is important that each generation leaves its own legacy of music which will, in turn, give future generations an insight into the social and musical history of our particular time.

All this is very well, but where does the money come from? Arts Council funding is severely limited and trust funds are often over-subscribed. The solution I came up with in 2001 was to follow the example set by an organisation which has nothing whatsoever to do with the church, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG). It was formed by Sir Simon Rattle in 1987 from within the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and established itself as one of Europe’s leading ensembles. The core of BCMG’s work is the performance of new music, and the group has premiered over ninety new works by leading British and international composers.

The group has a special scheme to assist with funding for new music, creatively named Sound Investment. This seemed such a excellent idea that I began to operate something similar in Edinburgh, only this time it was to enhance the repertoire for the church – Capital Commissions (the pun was intended). Having already written a piece for the choir, James MacMillan agreed to be the scheme’s Patron and commented that ‘…this commissioning scheme gives a great opportunity to audiences and the Cathedral’s wider congregation to put themselves right at the heart of the process of musical creation. [These] commissioners become the midwives to new music – music for the cathedral, music for the liturgy, music for the new century.’ It was a great success in Edinburgh, and now at the other end of the UK we have launched a similar

scheme for Wells Cathedral, entitled Cathedral Commissions. The Scheme So how does the scheme work? Cathedral Commissions is run by Wells Cathedral to raise funds for the commissioning of works from today’s most exciting composers, and to share the thrill of commissioning with as many people as possible. The scheme is open to anyone and is a rewarding and enjoyable way to support living composers, the Choir of Wells Cathedral and the English choral tradition.

This scheme enables the Cathedral to commission a greater number of pieces from a wider range of composers than would otherwise be possible from existing funds. With support from interested individuals, Wells Cathedral can create a group of Cathedral Commissioners to help bring each new work into being, ensuring that composers continue to add to our rich musical heritage. To launch the scheme, one of the most sought-after composers in the world, and the Master of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, has been commissioned to write a Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for the Cathedral Choir. He has also accepted the invitation to be President of the scheme. In the pipeline there will also be new works from other leading composers including Richard Allain, Gabriel Jackson and Tarik O’Regan.

As a donation scheme, Cathedral Commissions does not provide financial return; rather it offers the following benefits: the satisfaction of knowing that each individual commissioner will have helped bring a new work into being; each Cathedral Commissioner will be invited to meet the composer, and receive a signed copy of the new work’s score; the name of each Cathedral Commissioner will be printed on the service order and/or concert programme; each Cathedral Commissioner will be invited to rehearsals and to a special reception at the world première. Above all, the Cathedral Commissioners will be directly supporting a composer’s work and actively contributing to the choral repertoire.

The total amount needed for each new work is divided into individual Commission Units at £100 each. From December 2005 these will be available for purchase either towards a specific work or, if there is no stated preference, Cathedral Commissions will direct the money as appropriate. Single payments may be made or spread over a period of ten months.

There will be a great diversity of composers and composing styles in this scheme and the following biographies of the first selection of (confirmed) composers demonstrates the breadth of experience and expertise which they will bring.

There is a considerable amount of excitement and eager anticipation at Wells about this project and I am confident that Cathedral Commissions will greatly enhance the repertoire of our celebrated choral tradition. Through supporting this new venture Cathedral Commissioners will actively play a part in making musical history.

For further information, please contact:

Cathedral Commissions

Wells Cathedral Music Office

Chain Gate, Cathedral Green

Wells BA5 2UE

United Kingdom

Telephone: 01749 832204

Email: musicoffice@wellscathedral.uk.net

The Composers

2006 - Tarik O’Regan: new work, to be given its first performance during a BBC broadcast of Choral Evensong on the Eve of St Andrew

Tarik O’Regan was born in 1978 and educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Now living in Manhattan, he is cited as one of the most exciting composers to emerge in recent years, writing music of ‘explosive energy’ (The Times). Together with performances and commissions by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, BCMG and BBC Singers as well as by many of the UK’s leading vocal ensembles (such as the choirs of Winchester and St Mary’s Edinburgh Cathedrals; also those of New College, Oxford and Clare College, Cambridge), he has rapidly developed an international profile. He serves on the Visiting Faculty of Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music and has been the recipient of numerous academic and creative arts fellowships, most notably the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship in Music Composition at Columbia University in New York City and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University. Described as ‘skilful and elegant’ (Sunday Times) and ‘beautifully-imagined’ (Financial Times) , O’Regan’s compositions have won many international awards and are consistently selected for broadcast on television and radio.

Tarik O’Regan’s earliest works were published by Oxford University Press and Sulasol; from 2004 his music has been exclusively published by Novello & Co.

2007 – Richard Allain: new work

Richard Allain is one of the most creative musical voices of his generation. His works encompass a wide range of styles including music theatre, sacred choral music and works for children. Richard has worked with many of the country’s leading choirs and musicians; his music is regularly performed within the UK, and in countries throughout the world.

Salve Regina was broadcast by the BBC Symphony Chorus in 2000 and later made its Proms debut with the National Youth Choir, to whom he was appointed composer in association in 2003. This alliance brought about a new work, Improperia for double choir, which was written for the NYC’s world tour that year. Richard has also worked extensively with the awardwinning chamber choir Laudibus, The Exon Singers and the Choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh in 2002, who recorded the The Exon Service for Delphian Records.

Richard has written many works for children. A Christmas Carol, a setting of Dickens’ classic tale, was written for Richard Stilgoe (narrator) and the Bingham String Quartet; a CD recording followed in 1999. Together with his brother Thomas, Richard has written several cantatas for young voices. Jake and the Right Genie was commissioned by the Surrey Millennium Youth Festival, and it has since been performed by over 3,000 school children.

Recent commissions have afforded the opportunity to work with Sir Willard White, The Bach Choir and the Voices Foundation Children’s Choir. In addition to this, Richard is also in demand as an arranger. When I’m Gone, a CD of choral and instrumental works, was released in 2004 to critical acclaim, on the Delphian label. He is published by Novello & Co.

2007 – Gabriel Jackson: new work

Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral he studied composition at the Royal College of Music with John Lambert, gaining his B.Mus in 1983. While at the College he was awarded the R.O. Morris Prize for Composition in 1981 and 1983 and won the Theodore Holland Award in 1981. His music has been performed and broadcast throughout Europe and the USA and as far afield as Kuwait and Ho Chi Minh City. His works have been presented at many festivals including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Glasgow Mayfest, Huddersfield, Oxford Contemporary Music, Spitalfields, Festival ProBaltica, ppIANISSIMO (in Sofia), ThreeTwo (in New York), Orfeo (in Graz), Lek Art 2000, Regensburg Tage Alter und Neuer Musik, Sydney Spring, Heidelberg Gegenwelten, and Festival Vancouver. He has been commissioned and performed by, among others, the BBC, New Macnaghten Concerts, the Tate Gallery, the National Centre for Early Music and ensembles Tapestry, I Fagiolini, the Brindisi String Quartet, the Delta Saxophone Quartet, the Orlando Consort, the BBC Singers, Lontano, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Chapelle du Roi, the Riga Saxophone Quartet, Sings Harry, the Lyric Quartet, Cappella Nova, CHROMA, The Clerks’ Group and the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus.

A strong involvement with the visual arts has resulted in major pieces based on the work of artists Richard Long, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Robert Mapplethorpe, and more

Tarik O’Regan. Photo: Suzanne Jansen

recently, concerts curated at Tate Britain and Tate St. Ives. His music is being recorded with increasing frequency, with works available on NMC, Delphian, Metier, Usk, Lammas, Priory, Telarc, York Ambisonic and the British Music Label. Current projects include Kenidjack, for alto saxophone, strings and percussion, and ensemble pieces for CHROMA and Okeanos. [Read David Flood’s interview with Gabriel on page 36]

2008 – Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis

‘The Wells Service’

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time. He lives in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland where he writes most of his music. He has written across the widest gamut of musical genre, and in many styles. The power to communicate forcefully and directly with his audiences manifests itself whether it be in his profoundly argued symphonic works, whether it be in the delightful musictheatre works written to be performed by non-specialist children or whether it be in his sometimes outrageous witty light orchestral works.

As the critic in the Wiener Zeitung wrote following a concert of all Maxwell Davies works at the Musikverein in Vienna “A great and significant occasion on the Vienna concert scene and the public took full advantage of it: the Musikverein was almost fully booked and scarcely anyone left in the interval. I know of no other living composer who could bring that off with a programme consisting entirely of his own works”.

His major theatrical works include the operas Taverner, Resurrection, The Lighthouse and The Doctor of Myddfai; the fulllength ballets Salome and Caroline Mathilde, and the musictheatre works Eight Songs for a Mad King and Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot. His huge output of orchestral works include fourteen concertos, several light orchestral works, including An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise and Mavis in Las Vegas five large-scale works for chorus, including the oratorio Job and eight symphonies, hailed by The Times as being ‘the most important symphonic cycle since Shostakovich’.

Maxwell Davies is also active as a conductor and has recently finished ten years as Conductor/Composer of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, and is the Composer Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He guest-conducts orchestras both in Europe and in the United States including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Russian National Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Philharmonia.

Maxwell Davies is now concentrating his compositional efforts on chamber music, and future commissions include the cycle of ten string quartets which have been commissioned by the CD company Naxos (and called the Naxos Quartets), which will be launched and performed in entirety at the Wigmore Hall in London by the Maggini Quartet over a period of five years.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in March 2004.

His first set of Evening Canticles, written for the Choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, in 2004, have been recorded for Delphian Records www.delphianrecords.co.uk and will be released at the end of 2005.

TAKING STOCK: THE FIRST SIXTY YEARS

by Humphrey Clucas

192 pp ISBN 0-9550470-0-5

The author describes his years as a lay vicar of Westminster Abbey, with an insider's account of the dismissal of Martin Neary, Organist and Master of the Choristers, in 1998. He writes about singing at King's College, Cambridge, and at Guildford and Winchester Cathedrals; about composing; about his other life as poet and translator; about his family, his teaching career and (briefly) about cricket.

To order a copy send a cheque for £9.99, made out to Humphrey Clucas, to The Lewin Press, 19 Norman Road, Sutton, Surrey SM1 2TB

‘There is a considerable amount of excitement and eager anticipation at Wells about this project and I am confident that Cathedral Commissions will greatly enhance the repertoire of our celebrated choral tradition.’

Edington Music Festival

th Anniversary

Julian Thomas Director of the Edington Festival and Assistant Director of Music at Norwich Cathedral continues his look at Edington Music Festival

All Edington photographs: Nick Flower

This August, some seventy musicians and clergy gathered once again in Edington in Wiltshire to celebrate a week of Music within the Liturgy – the 50th Edington Music Festival.

It is wonderfully heartening to be able to report that the festival has perhaps never been in better shape: the singing was uplifting, congregations were larger than ever throughout the whole week, and worshippers showed great generosity in the collections (our biggest single source of income). If ever one needed affirmation that what we were doing was worthwhile, those three things together seem to be it.

The 26 services during the course of the festival week saw congregations of up to 500 people. Even the simple plainsong Offices of Matins and Compline have become ever more popular; to have more than 200 people at a candlelit Compline creates a unique atmosphere.

The festival this year took as its theme, ‘Discipleship and the Kingdom of God’ with the daily services reflecting different aspects of our lives as Christians, such as ‘The Call to Discipleship,’ ‘Belief’ and ‘Preaching the faith.’ Within this framework, the three choirs – the Nave Choir (of cathedral boys and men), the plainsong Schola Cantorum, and the mixed-voice Consort – sang a wide range of music reflecting those themes, and covering the whole gamut of repertoire. The three choir directors, Robert Quinney, Andrew Carwood and Jeremy Summerly (celebrating his 25th festival this year), coaxed some magical performances in many different styles from Renaissance polyphony to works from the present day.

It is hard to pick out particular pieces and occasions, but some of the highlights for me included Michael Tippett’s Five Spirituals from A Child of our Time, the monumental Credo by Nicolas Gombert, Rheinberger’s beautifully-crafted Mass in Eb for double choir, and of course, the Ave Maria by Robert Parsons which is always the last piece sung by all festival participants at the end of the final Eucharist. Hearing this sung in the warm acoustic of the Chancel – and indeed conducting the combined forces of the three choirs – is always a spine-tingling moment. This year it was even more special as it followed on immediately from the dedication of a Consecration Cross on the chancel wall commemorating the 50th festival.

To mark our special year, we had commissioned Judith Bingham to write a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for the occasion, and we were delighted that she was able to come to the festival to hear both the first performance and the first broadcast of her Edington Service on consecutive days. The festival has always sought to encourage new music, and Judith’s setting (in Latin) is a refreshing take on this familiar text; the harmonic language is certainly familiar but the style is perhaps more restrained than some of her previous compositions, which adds a special quality to the music.

As this year was an opportunity to look back on the past 50 years, the Saturday saw something of a festival reunion, with many former participants – singers, directors and clergy –coming back to take part in the Sequence of Music and Readings. The Nave Choir and Consort together performed Bach’s motet Jesu, meine Freude, contrasting the different movements between the two choirs. Undoubtedly, though, the most magical moment of the whole festival was a performance of Tallis’s Spem in alium sung one to a part with the eight choirs placed strategically around the nave, enveloping the congregation – truly unforgettable!

In this, his 500th anniversary year, it was particularly good to be able to feature a number of the works of Thomas Tallis, including his Missa Salveintemerata, and several of the motets and anthems. These were placed in the context of a selection of other Renaissance pieces and composers, including Victoria, Palestrina and William Byrd (such as the morning canticles from his Great Service), which helped to highlight the similarities and differences between the composers and their works.

The clergy team are always a central part of the festival and many of the hundreds of people who come to services during the week do so as much for the spoken word as for the music. Undoubtedly the firm rooting of the music within the context of the liturgy is one of the festival’s greatest strengths – it is all too easy to put on a CD and hear music just as a performance rather than as part of an act of worship. It was a great delight to have Canon Bruce Ruddock, Precentor of Peterborough Cathedral, with us on the Tuesday as our guest preacher this year, preaching on the theme of ‘Belief’. We were also joined during the week by the three living former Vicars of Edington: David Belcher, Neil Heavisides and Maurice Bird, and their great affinity with the festival is a mark of the impact that it has on the life of the whole village and the surrounding community.

During much of the festival this year, we were joined by a camera crew from the BBC, filming for the documentary series A Passion for Churches due to be broadcast this year on BBC2. It is very much our hope that the programme featuring Cathedral Music 25 ➤

Edington will have given us the opportunity to share the wonderful atmosphere of the festival with a wider audience, and to demonstrate the strong links between festival participants and the villagers. With luck it may even draw new people into an appreciation of church music, which can only be a good thing for the future.

This year was inevitably something of an opportunity to relish 50 glorious years, but the festival now looks forward to the decades to come. Through the generosity of the Edington Music Festival Association (registered charity 1099266) we continue to encourage contemporary composers to write for the choirs – as well as Judith Bingham’s piece this year, two other recent compositions by festival participants were also featured: Matthew Martin’s Vidi aquam and David Buckley’s Preces and Responses, and John Barnard and Paul Wigmore wrote a special hymn to mark our anniversary “No words, O Lord can tell the wonder of your love.” As we go through the process of recataloguing the festival library, we are taking the opportunity to revisit some of the many commissions from previous years, and we hope to include some of these in future festivals.

One of the things which keeps the festival fresh each year is the introduction of new singers to each of the choirs. As we move into the next 50 years, this will be something we continue to do, seeking to inspire and encourage young singers through the invigorating social and musical week that is the festival. For example, boys whose voices have broken often maintain their links with the festival by coming back as servers while their voices are settling down, before moving on to the other choirs.

The theme of next year’s festival will be based around the Gospel of St John, and in particular Jesus’ great “I am…” teachings: “I am the bread of life”, “I am the true vine” etc. These messages which are so central to our understanding of our faith will be explored through music and the spoken word, and in particular, we look forward to welcoming the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, as our guest preacher next year on Monday 21st August.

It is a huge privilege to have been able to celebrate the 50th Edington festival in such style, and we are all indebted to the wonderful tradition which has been established. In the years to come we will continue to cherish the past but also seek to challenge, stimulate and encourage church musicians and congregations. That was, after all, one of the main objectives of the festival’s founders and we continually strive to build on their foundations.

Anyone wishing to have their name and address added to the Edington Music Festival mailing list should write to the Information Secretary: John d’Arcy, The Old Vicarage, Edington, Westbury, Wilts. BA13 4QF.

Julian Thomas has been Director of the Edington Music Festival since 2004, having previously sung as a treble and in the plainsong Schola, as well as assisting with playing the organ. He is currently Assistant Organist & Director of the Girls’ Choir at Norwich Cathedral, where he combines a busy career with teaching, recital work and various choral conducting commitments including the Norwich Cathedral Consort and the University of East Anglia Choir. He is also FCM Diocesan Representative for Norwich.

The Revd Canon Bruce Ruddock preached the following sermon at Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy on Tuesday 23rd August 2005

BELIEF

John 20.19-end

I always find it quite difficult to write a sermon during a Test Match; and so I am deeply grateful to the organisers of the Edington Festival for inviting me here between two Ashes games, when there is time to sit down and think without the enormous excitement of this series to tempt me away from my desk.

However, watching great batsmen on the television in recent weeks has left me in awe of the way that (despite obvious nervousness) they seem so totally under control and so quietly confident, whilst at the same time being under such enormous pressure. Of course there are many reasons for this, but one, which relates to our theme today – belief - is just that!... their belief… in themselves, and in their own ability.

In our discipleship we sometimes forget that part of the ‘equation’ of Christian belief, is the need to believe in ourselves. Some people find this very difficult, especially - for example – those who carry painful memories of their selfconfidence being brutalised in childhood. But we do need to believe in ourselves because God most certainly does! So as we reflect on belief today, this is very much my starting point.

But belief in ourselves doesn’t mean that we should become full of ourselves. That is something quite different and indeed unattractive. However, we should recognise that, despite our vulnerability we feel, God does believe in each and every one of us and this means that he sees enormous potential in each and every one of us. As someone once said: “God doesn’t keep his eyes on you because he wants to judge you or condemn you, but because he loves you so much he can’t take his eyes off you”.

And so, our belief in God is therefore not an intellectual exercise, but a response to that love he has for us. We encounter this reality in our Gospel reading this morning: our Lord’s appearance to the disciples after the Resurrection and the well known story about “Doubting Thomas” as he is often known.

Here we are at the end of St John’s Gospel. Jesus’ earthly ministry has ended. The meaning of the Resurrection has already been explained in the preceding chapters and indeed in the very substance of the Gospel itself. All that remains to be done is to explain more clearly the nature of the act of faith by which, not only belief in Christ, but also life in Christ can be experienced. In order to do this John uses particular people: very human, very vulnerable and ordinary people.

First of all there is Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, who then meets Jesus, thinks he is the gardener but eventually recognises him and announces to the disciples “I have seen the Lord”: not much doubt about her strong belief from that moment onwards!

Then there is Peter and someone called “the other disciple” whom we are told ran on ahead, arrived at the tomb “and saw and believed”. And then in this morning’s passage we have Jesus’ appearance to the disciples behind locked doors, and Thomas’s scepticism which, a week later turns into solid belief with the words “My Lord and my God”

But John intends Thomas’ experience to help people like you and me – those who have not seen the risen Christ – into similar commitment and belief: a fact driven home in that final verse: “this is written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah”. John is telling us that all those Christians who have believed without seeing, can have a faith that is no less profound and no less demanding than that of those first ordinary, vulnerable people who actually met the risen Christ.

‘I also believe that music and liturgy are gifts through which God can begin to heal the wounds within ourselves.’

Bruce Ruddock

But that must also include a response to the God who can’t take his eyes of us, and there are an infinite number of ways in which we can make that response. There are also an infinite number of ways in which our belief is nurtured and strengthened which, hopefully includes, as I said at the outset, belief in ourselves.

And it seems to me that a Festival of Music in the Liturgy offers an important opportunity to hold up the fact that both of these partners in worship (music and liturgy) are not only themselves part of our response to what God has done for us, but also a way of saying to the Church and the world: “Look …don’t underestimate the ways in which music and liturgy are part of our response to God, and also vital tools of mission and the process of attracting others into belief!.”

As well as being Canon Precentor at Peterborough, I am also the Diocesan Liturgical Officer and in that role I have been horrified to discover that all over the country there are places where what passes as worship is – at its best – glorified school assembly and - at its worst – a kind of vacuous triviality that is unworthy of Anglicanism. I wouldn’t mind if it was a case of slender resources or a shortage of gifts. It is not because of that. It is because there is a dangerously antiintellectual, anti-Eucharistic and anti artistic tendency within our Church, that tilts towards fundamentalism and is trying to redefine the way we do our theology and seemingly dispense with ecclesiology completely.

This is why I thank God for the work that is being done at a festival such as this, because liturgy and music are not simply rarified activities that make us feel good. If they were to become so, they would be little more than ingredients in a kind of ecclesiastical herbal bath. “Laura Ashley religion” or a “religious National Trust” are not what the world needs any more than

fundamentalism. Our liturgy and music are given to us to share with God in his work of reconciliation. In liturgy and music we reach out to touch the divine and share in his work.

As you will know, J.S. Bach believed music to be inseparable from theology and in our own time Olivier Messiaen described his own music as a “theological rainbow” - the aural equivalent of sunlight streaming through a stained glass window. Another 20th Century composer, John Cage once said that the goal of his music was to “sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.” It seems to me that whatever actual religious beliefs composers may have, many of them have been and many still are aware that they are co-operating in some divine rhythm and energy through which the world can be a better place.

Finally, I also believe that music and liturgy are gifts through which God can begin to heal the wounds within ourselves. We speak of being “taken out of ourselves” through listening to great music and whatever our taste, there are usually a number of works through which, when we listen to them, we feel we are touching something beyond the ordinary and the mundane. And yet, in those moments, we are not so much being “taken out” of ourselves as being “taken into” ourselves : we are getting in touch with our real selves. And when we are being truly our real selves, we find God.

Music we love lowers the screens that so often hide our pain, and the blockages which prevent us loving. And whether the music leads us to exuberant joy and the desire to dance, or brings a lump to our throat during a hymn tune, or just has us crying our eyes out in an arm chair: at that moment we are being our true selves and are therefore open to God. And, to return to where I started, at that moment we begin to believe in ourselves, which our ever-loving God longs for us to do.

Edington Priory. Photos Nick Flower

FIREWORKS

Liverpool is now well-known internationally as a very ecumenical city, but that was not always the case and there was the inherent danger that the troubles in Northern Ireland could spread to the mainland. A huge amount of work was done by Bishop David

News from Choirs and Places where they sing

Archbishop Derek Worlock to build good relationships between all the religious groups on Merseyside and these two men were always at the forefront when conflict seemed likely. A covenant was signed by all the church leaders in a service at the Metropolitan Cathedral in 1990 and since then on the feast of Pentecost, a service has been held which begins in one cathedral, from where a procession sets forth along the famous Hope Street to the sister cathedral where the service concludes. This service is now held every second year and the procession makes for an impressive sight. As well as the work of the two bishops, the two cathedrals have very close working relationships, the two deans being very good friends. The musicians of the cathedrals became good friends in the earliest days of the Metropolitan Cathedral, a situation which continues to this day.

Sheppard and

The choirs of the two cathedrals sang a joint concert at the opening of the Catholic cathedral, and last year they sang together with the choirs of Manchester, Chester and Blackburn to mark the centenary of the Anglican cathedral. Normally the two choirs sing a joint service on the Sunday during unity week and again on mid-Lent Sunday. 2004 was designated the Year of Faith in Liverpool which began with a spectacular firework display at Liverpool Cathedral and ended with another at the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Image courtesy of; Paul McMullin@liverpoolimages.co.uk

& The Psalms Anglican chant

Choirs can indeed do marvellous things but I fear that most choirs don’t where psalm singing is concerned. To my mind, the. standards of psalm singing in the Anglican church need a serious injection of passion because it seems that there is not much dedication to psalmody these days but then, apart from a few foundations, was there ever? I have heard an unauthenticated story that there was a time when a very well known cathedral choir sang the whole of Psalm 78 to one and the same chant – what a yawn that must have been! It stands to reason that a sure foundation is to have a really good selection of chants because the Psalms contain such a vast diversity of expression and sentiment, and they are a seriously important part of the Anglican liturgy, but when were you last uplifted by exhilarating psalm singing?

You’re struggling already aren’t you! In the Psalms we have some of the finest prose known to mankind (latest translations excepted) just begging for exciting musical rendition. Choral Mattins is now seemingly quite a rare event so half the Psalms are seldom sung at all which is very sad.

When you listen to psalm singing, do you notice if the organ accompaniment is continuous (favourite with me) or not? Are there men only or treble only verses? Are there unaccompanied verses? A fauxbourdon perhaps in four parts or ATB? Loud and quiet contrasts?

A descant? A quartet? Solo verses? Unison verses? Do the chants have musical empathy with the words? And how is the pace?

The impression only too often is that psalm singing is rather a drudge and I think I hear the comment, “Well you’d find it a drudge if you had to sing the psalms of the day at each and every Evensong!” But hang on: we so often hear the same old chants churned out over and over and it needn’t be so and even without

resorting to new material, the most ‘uninteresting’ chants can be given new life with inspired organ accompaniment but that is sadly rather a rarity with such golden opportunities for the organist to ‘tickle the keyboard fantastic.’

My passion is in new Anglican chant material which can provide so much more variety, but there are obstacles in the way of accessing the wealth of it and that wealth hides some wonderful musical cameo treasures. The world of the Psalms and Anglican chants began for me in 1952 aged 8 when I joined St Luke’s Church Choir, Maidstone, eventually achieving the dizzy heights of Head Chorister and subsequently singing alto in various choirs in London and the south east. My Choirmaster and Organist at St Luke’s was the very talented late George Jessup and the fact that he worked in a brewery made him highly revered of course! His skills as a choirmaster were excellent and he was blessed with the musical integrity to know our weaknesses and strengths. His enthusiasm for the Psalms was infectiously boundless and even though our psalm singing could hardly have competed with the best, I have to say we were quite good at it – speech rhythm and all that. Our amateur status inevitably meant repetition of chants, but imagine the excitement when it came to singing Psalm 2 to the wonderful Charles Hylton Stewart triple chant in D major (Examples 1 & 2) or Psalm 65 to Percy Whitlock in B flat (Example 3). Then there was Psalm 22 on Good Friday for which we used the

Hylton Stewart pairing of E minor and A major, (Examples 4 & 5) the former with its daring open and very naughty parallel fifths, the latter starting on a chord of D major. George knew Percy Whitlock as well as other notables and their chants were a real breath of fresh air, compared with the usual foot-trodden fayre and had George not known those eminent church musicians I doubt I would have enjoyed the privilege of singing such wonderful chants which made such an impression on me. Then I was introduced to P. J. Taylor in D flat (Example 6) a fanfare of riotous joyfulness which I believe was written for Psalm 65, as was the Whitlock chant already mentioned, although I think Taylor is even better for Psalm 47 – discuss!

All these discoveries having stirred my interest in Anglican chant, I borrowed chant books from the library, only to find plenty of repetition and little new material. So, ‘deflated of Maidstone’ turned to his Choirmaster who said, “Well why not create your own chant book with different chants for every Psalm and music to actually suit the words as well”. I was now on a mission and as it has turned out, little did George (Mr. Jessup to me in those days) know what he had started, but at the tender age of just 13 where did I begin in earnest? Luck came my way from friend John Etherton, a lay clerk at Rochester Cathedral who shared my passion for the Psalms. Our searches were tedious and quite unrewarding, so we decided to write our own chants for

‘O sing unto the Lord a new song - for choirs can do marvellous things.’

Geoff White

‘...the odd mistake doesn’t really matter as long as the spirit of the chant is not spoiled...’

specific Psalms, an activity which fired my interest further. I learned about the dreaded parallel octaves, so much hated by many musicians and occasional gatecrashers into Anglican chant, and I persuaded friends to write chants, so the collection exploded with new material almost overnight. Not only did we write chants for specific Psalms, we wrote them for specific verses too, John’s musical empathy with the words being quite an inspiration as well as an education for me.

An apathetic lapse followed which lasted many years with little new material to add and being an ardent listener to Choral Evensong on Radio 3 I heard very litlle in the way of dynamic performances to inspire me further, but the exceptions kept the embers glowing. Then my friend Tim Ling, a deputy lay clerk at Ely Cathedral, fired me up again whilst we talked in front of his roaring inglenook, single malt whiskies in hand, and his enthusiasm supported my claim to what I believed to be a very good collection. I still didn’t know what to do with it. Next came Tim’s discovery of Peter Kirk’s article in CATHEDRAL MUSIC (Issue 2/04) which was just the shot in the arm I needed to give my interest momentum again. My only criticism of Peter’s article is that it was too short and contacting him was a ‘must’. Meeting with him was exceedingly hospitable and we were each amazed by the material in

our possession, even though his collection far outweighed mine. We had embarked upon a roller-coaster of yet more discoveries, not least in the number of variations (mistakes?) which exist in both published and performed material, but short of finding the composer’s original how would we know what was correct? My view is that the odd mistake doesn’t really matter as long as the spirit of the chant is not spoiled but at least try and get the tune correct - I’ve heard some howlers! Dare I suggest that there is a certain amount of musical artistic licence going on in some of our choral foundations because I’ve heard some very interesting harmonies on Choral Evensong – or are they mistakes from transcriptions like many of mine?

Then there is the thorny and most mighty problem of copyright: the reasons for copyright are obvious enough, but why would any musician bother to copyright an Anglican chant as a ‘preventative measure’ we asked ourselves. By that I mean that between us we have chants which are regarded by their copyright owners as what might be described as being in the ‘Top Secret’ classification as if to say, ‘Well I’ve written this chant but I don’t want anybody to hear it!’ Why all this fuss?

Peter now has nearly 6000 chants by 1400 composers (and counting) in his collection of which I have contributed about 250, and I suppose we could claim

to be serious players in the world of Anglican chant although he is more equal than me, and he is computerised (heaven save him!) and I write by hand. We are armed with some stunning material but surely we are not alone are we? If you’re one of us, please let us know and help us open up the world of the Anglican chant to brighten up our psalm singing and set a few congregations alight. Copyright owners – throw in the towel and let us loose on our finest choirs! Let us tell the world there are some absolutely wonderful chants just waiting to be used but trapped by the stranglehold of copyright, and yet umpteen more no doubt collecting dust on shelves somewhere. Psalm singing needs a serious boost and Peter and I are nothing more than enthusiasts, with so many musical gems all safely hidden away from prying eyes. We have the power but we’re constrained from unleashing it and we’re itching to go. The chants by Peter and myself are free for any of you to use if you wish - no copyright - just to recognize us as the composers is all we ask . The idea has been mooted for a website to be set up to contain ‘copyrightless’ chants for all to use and that could be just what is needed.

Geoff White can be contacted on 01622 759205:

Peter Kirk on 01252 314740 or: tpkirk@halcyon29l.fsnet.co.uk

Choral challenges Downunder

Rupert Jeffcoat was a cathedral chorister under Dr Dennis Townhillin his native Edinburgh. After a music scholarship to Glenalmond College, he worked freelance, before going to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he studied with Alexander Goehr, Robin Holloway, Peter le Huray and Peter Hurford.

In 1997 he moved to Coventry as Director of Music and in eight years took the choirs on 11 foreign tours, including South Africa, Japan and Russia. Under his direction, Coventry Cathedral experiences a unique range of church music, with the choirs performing in 20 languages.

As an FRCO prize winner, Rupert has given over 500 recitals across Britain and Europe; his 200 compositions are broadcast and recorded regularly; as a versatile conductor he has been involved with many memorable events, including musically directing a Songs of Praise broadcast that won a Royal Television Society Award for best entertainment. His recent Coventry CD (for Regent Records) was praised by The Organ magazine as ‘really top-notch’, and the Church Times called it a ‘humdinger’ and the best of the English Cathedral Series. The Gramophone described him as ‘truly virtuosic’ and his playing was ‘always utterly compelling’.

CATHEDRAL MUSIC caught up with Rupert as he prepared to become an ordainedAnglican priest, and the first Director of Music in the Church of England to enter holy orders in at least a couple of centuries. Later this year he moves to Australia to be Director of Music at St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane, so before he left we asked him for his views on a number of issues.

Rupert, the first question must be why are you leaving these shores for St John’s Cathe dral, Brisbane, Australia?

Are you sad to be leaving Coventry?

I think that I’m keen on challenges! I have never felt at home in England (as a Scot, I am very conscious of being an outsider), and when the job came up in Brisbane I leapt at it.

They seem hungry for change and challenge, and I still have tons of energy. They want to increase the role of music in the life of the Cathedral (and Brisbane more generally), so this matches what I am able to do with a place to do it in.

When do you take up the post? What will be the biggest challenge?

As soon as possible – they have been waiting some time, and it will be fun bringing the best out in folk. The previous organist had been there for 45 years – in fact longer than the new Coventry Cathedral! Matching a community’s vision with its potential is critical: merely saying you have a vision isn’t enough – you have to be able enact it! It will be great to go to a cathedral where everyone points in the same direction and people go the extra mile to make things more worthwhile.

I understand that St John’s has its own cathedral affiliated chamber orchestra, The Camerata of St John, how will this help you and how will you use it?

The Camerata is a good instance of this matching of vision and potential. The plan is to utilise the talents of some marvellous orchestral musicians for special occasions, to make the Cathedral a real powerhouse of musical encounter. Perhaps not that amazing to some, but Brisbane really wants to have quality music, and presenting classical masses more authentically will be great. (Really authentically would mean that we don’t hear the Eucharistic prayer!) There are other ideas too like setting up a youth choir, making recordings, choir trips and more regular concerts in the life of the Cathedral.

Will you be the first organist to be ordained – what took you down this route?

Not per se; but certainly the first British cathedral organist to take holy orders in a long time. At the beginning of the 1900’s the Precentor at Durham took over the music for 30 years (his

The Choir of Brisbane Cathedral

name was Colley, I think) but I would not recommend it for the faint-hearted, countless hours away from family – and perhaps surprisingly, not a single hour off work. I sense very much that the Australian Church is open to letting me get on with the job of priest/musician.

Can you see yourself moving from the organ stool to the pulpit?

Hard to say – no one has yet died from one of my sermons, even though I am extremely liberal (if that’s not an oxymoron) in my theological perspectives. I think I am being ordained as Robert (my baptismal name) – so if I get into trouble I can always say that I am being mistaken for my more talented twin brother!

You have been at Coventry for eight years – in that time you have been producing regular cathedral music with an allvolunteer choir how have you kept it going?

It has been mighty difficult for a variety of reasons. Firstly, we have had huge absences of staff (a year without an assistant, nearly two years without a precentor, and all this can make it extremely fraught.) In this time I have also been training for ordination and had two children, and surprisingly no heart attack! Daniel Moult was my assistant for several years – he is a terrific player and musician, and the standard of music would not have improved dramatically without his imagination and consistency. Also, thinking of the tireless commitment that parents and children put in, helps one do one’s best, which makes it all the more curious that Coventry Cathedral knew in January

viscount’s

unique

PORTABLE KEYBOARDS

(with PIPE ORGAN sounds)

that I was going, but hasn’t done anything about finding a replacement for me yet.

We also have adult choirs and a youth choir, and it’s impossible to nurture everyone equally all the time. We took the boy choristers to Germany recently, and so we want to find opportunities for the girls too, as well as the men. An important part of the ‘education’ of being a chorister is taking part in important events (eg trips, broadcasts) but we mustn’t also forget the more individual side of things. In the last four years I have had over 10 choristers gain Grade 8 singing, and I have taught many of them Japanese, Russian, German and Czech for the trips we have done. We also sing a vast range of music (from over 10 centuries, and in 20 languages)- which I wish I had done as a chorister!

Is liturgy being dumbed down and music Popped up?

I try not to see the two as separate: good liturgy involves one such that you don’t notice it’s liturgy. Some so-called liturgical experts draw attention to themselves through the liturgy (I am thinking particularly of the rather more ‘arch’ services that Coventry used to do). Yes, fewer folk know about liturgy, and that’s because they’re not well-trained in music, poetry or any art form. That’s why the chief musician of a cathedral should run the worship, as he (she?) understands about balance, pace, text – as well as its deliverability. Of course a high view of art and humanity doesn’t necessarily mean I can’t enjoy other music – I am one of the few cathedral musicians to have American Gospel stuff, music by Evie Tornquist, Ellington and others as part of our standard liturgies.

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What would you say are the demands of Coventry Cathedral as a place to worship in, I am thinking of acoustics, choice of repertoire etc?

Part of the answer lies in the ‘current’ theological trends. I put current in inverted commas, because the ideas underpinning the clergy’s views (which affect how we run our liturgies and therefore the formats we have to fill with music) are about 30 years old! In fact, the building is remarkably resilient for liturgical change – some things simply have to work a certain way, and when they don’t they fail. For example, with the organ being very far east (it’s actually north, because the building’s axis is out by 90 degrees!) to get a climax you need to have everyone on ‘stage’ – yet we still troop out during the last hymn to the west end thereby minimising any impact.

Standard polyphony doesn’t work too well in our building, but Tavener, chant, or dramatic stuff usually works without any effort. There are some tricks for singing in the building, and it’s surprising how many musicians don’t know about projection.I was told when I came that you needed40 boys to fill the building, but you can do it with 10 or even fewer. The Organ can be on the heavy side, but after seven years of pushing, the congregation now worship at Evensong in the chancel. Not only is that theologically appropriate (we are worshipping together, not performing a concert at them) but issues of balance float away (as much of the excess organ sound goes over our heads into the nave). Another example where getting purpose and theology right makes things fall into place.

Will you miss the Coventry organ?

Very much so: it is a terrific beast. I have just recorded Messiaen’s La Nativite (and Christmas music by Leighton, Krzanowski and Harvey) and that was thrilling. My latest CD on the organ (on Regent) featured Malcolm Williamson’s terrific and terrifying Vision of Christ Phoenix – but the organ honestly did most of the work! I play about 10 recitals a year on it, and it is a great spur to learning new repertoire. Most British organists play far too restricted a repertoire, and I think we should be a little more ‘French’ in allowing our cathedral musicians leeway to be imaginative and extrovert. The Brisbane organ is not at all bad, though with a good acoustic and rich romantic sound!

What are the good and bad things about cathedral music in the UK?

The old tension between ‘regular’ delivery and ‘quality’ delivery; The saddest thing is that many badly-educated folk (not just clergy) collude with a decline in standards. For

instance if the music at an establishment is ‘doing OK’ but not settingpeople alight that should be marked as a problem –but so few places will tackle this. I also notice a ‘matrix’ tendency – more and more cathedral organists are appointed because they look the same and who will not challenge the intellectual laziness of church leaders. It may seem overobvious but the main job of a priest is to lead public worship, and some (particularly precentors) simply do not accord worship the priority it needs. Curiously few folk get hot under the collar if there is a poorly delivered 15 minute sermon: but if there was a 15 minute piece of music badly played people would suddenly get very cross. Even if it has brilliantly performed, a long piece seems rarely to be valued. The most pernicious argument is that words trump music; but can we honestly say that a sermon is more spiritually searching than, say, Brahms Second Symphony which has no words in it?

As for good things, there are some remarkable people who want to be involved with church music - and we can only pray that they are given the freedom to be prophetic, which is what our jobs are actually about. If you read Chronicles and you will notice that there are no priests in heaven, but there are musicians!.

You are a prolific composer – what is your latest project? Where do you get your inspiration from, choice of words etc? The latest project – and it’s been going a few years - is composing settings for the entire Psalter (to be used liturgically on Sunday mornings) with the new Common Worship translation in mind. This can range from plainchantsounding (often with mystical organ accompaniment), to responsorial stuff, choir mini-cantatas or anthems. The styles range widely (eg. quasi-Vaughan Williams, Messiaen, Monteverdi etc) and it is quite a challenge getting a new piece up and running most weeks. I also ensure there is a hint at the Hebrew in each (eg. aspects of numerology or wordplay as found in the original – so come on all you budding PhD students!). Almost every piece is eminently doable on little practice (though my organists tell me the organ parts are fiendish!).

I remember you working with Pete Waterman on Songs of Praise, can you tell us a little more about this and what did you learn from the project?

This was a fascinating time – choosing 100 local kids with a huge range of ability, and crafting a pleasing sound is immensely rewarding: we used carols as the vehicle because we thought this would carry enough appeal.

The Choir of Brisbane Cathedral with Rupert Jeffcoat to the right of the choir

As you land in Australia what will you miss about the UK? You have to remember that I am originally a Scot, and I find ‘Englishness’ quite difficult (eg. established church, formal meetings, shades of empire): so I will value being amongst folk who find the English a bit odd! I will certainly miss the cathedral community, and more widely all the musicians who I have worked with.

In the UK, folk tend to patronise Australians for being uncultured; but the UK should glance to Europe: Britain has five full-time opera companies – compared to Germany’s 90! Even Radio 3 struggles – I remember doing a Choral Evensong broadcast where they assumed we were singing Brahms’s Wie lieblich in English!

In that sense the work of Friends of Cathedral Music is needed here in England, but I will also be taking the full range of ideas I have developed in Coventry to Australia. I suspect that not having layers of tradition is a benefit, as it means that we can develop more interesting ways of worship.

Rupert Jeffcoat up close

Favourite anthem: Geistliches Lied by Mendelssohn (in German, natürlich): it’s not often done as it requires an alto solo - we have been fortunate to have some very dependable boys who can manage this!

Organ piece: Bachs Sei gegrüsset (BWV 768): like all great art it never seems to be wrung out - and I am constantly finding fresh ideas in it. Also, the piece needs a different scheme for every organ I play it on.

Canticles: Leighton 2nd by about a million miles. I actually find most canticles very tedious, as very few capture something of their magic and mystery. I think it’s a musician’s challenge to still perform ‘sub-standard’ music well, and in such a way that can inspire people.

Psalm and chant: After 30 years I still find it hard to beat Stanford’s setting for 148. Many folk still seem to think that chants should be interesting in their own right - but we have to remember that the same music has to carry a whole range of words, moods and emotions.

Composer: Stravinsky is the most satisfying - but in terms of performance opportunities, I can always have Bach.

Organ to play: St John’s Cathedral in Warsaw – it’s an Eule, and has the most miraculous blend of acoustics and flute stops. Many years ago I had to play Stanford in G on it, and it sounded simply terrific. (I also got to play real music on it too!) If you want a UK one – Trinity College, Cambridge; a magnificent Metzler.

Building: Hard not to ‘hear’ a building – so while Salisbury is great for the eye, I don’t particularly care for the acoustics: overall, I think the Lambertikirche in Munster Germany (they still have the cages on the spire where they hanged Anabaptists!). Then there’s always Truro Cathedral, which has a phenomenal blend of architecture, acoustic, organ.

What is the music list for your very last service?

He that shall endure to the end! Mendelssohn, Leighton responses, Collegium Regale Howells, and Rejoice in the Lamb Britten.

Hobbies: Literature, languages and travel.

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‘As for good things, there are some remarkable people who want to be involved with church music - and we can only pray that they are given the freedom to be prophetic, which is what our jobs are actually about.’

Ascending Scales Scales

David Flood talks to Gabriel Jackson

DF You have written a lot of Church music already. Do you write for other media as well?

GJ Yes, although not quite as much as I would like to. I do write a lot of choral music (not just church music, but pieces for concert choirs as well) but I’ve also written a lot of chamber and instrumental music (and one orchestral piece which hasn’t yet been done). I’d like the balance between choral and purely instrumental music to be about 50:50, but it’s not quite that.

DF What has inspired you to write so much music for the Church?

GJ I think it’s a combination of three things: firstly, I get asked a lot, which is great; secondly, my favourite sound is unaccompanied voices in a resonant acoustic. Finally, my background: a childhood spent as a chorister singing fantastic music in an extraordinary building like Canterbury Cathedral, stays with you for ever. It is nice to be able to continue to play a part in that musical tradition and as I can’t sing (anymore..!) I have to do it as a composer. The other thing I like about writing

liturgical pieces is that there is none of the concert paraphernalia. You haven’t got to get up and take a bow, you haven’t got to talk to the audience afterwards. It is anonymous, and just the fact that the piece is taking its place in the liturgical scheme of things is quite attractive.

DF Do you find, having written a piece for a particular venue, that it does spread quite readily to other venues?

GJ I try to be not too venue-specific so that nothing is dependant on the spatial layout of the venue or anything like that. But I certainly think about the character of the choir, the style of worship, and the atmosphere and acoustic of the building when I’m planning a piece and those considerations do affect the nature of the finished product. But pieces do seem to travel quite well, which is great. I use a lot of divisi though, and that isn’t terribly practical for cathedrals with only six men.

DF You tend to respond to commissions rather than writing ‘off your own back’?

GJ I do really as I can’t afford not to! I did write a Mass for Truro Cathedral earlier this year without commission, but that was partly as it was my father’s 75th Birthday. My parents are retired now and live down there, and the music in Truro is an important part of my father’s life. I thought it would be a nice thing to do for him, and I’m a big fan of the excellent work Robert Sharpe’s doing at the cathedral so it was like killing two birds with one stone. Robert was very pleased at the suggestion and my father was thrilled. But I can’t afford to do that very often.

DF It seems to be that your family has brought out some fine pieces from you – O Sacrum Convivium for your father… GJ That was a co-incidence actually as it was first performed on his 60th birthday in Guildford Cathedral and he was a clergyman in the Guildford diocese at the time.. I also wrote a Salve Regina for my mother’s 70th birthday, also for Truro Cathedral. It would be lovely to be able to write pieces whenever you like for whoever you felt like it but sadly it’s not practical.

DF When you write a piece which is not a canticle or a mass, who chooses the text, or how do you find the text?

GJ It is usually by discussion, or it is something very specific that the director of music or the precentor particularly wants. I am doing a little piece for Lichfield Cathedral at the moment which has been commissioned by an elderly couple who married late in life. It is their 25th wedding anniversary this year and they are big supporters of the music there. Their anniversary falls during Advent so we wanted to do something that tied together an Advent text with some kind of reference to marriage. In that instance, the Precentor came up with something which he thought would fit, but it was only one verse from Revelation which I didn’t think was enough; I needed more words for the five-minute piece they wanted and between us all we found a couple more verses which were perfect.

And last year I wrote quite a big piece for St Paul’s, for the Conversion of St Paul; I had a lot of discussions with Lucy Winkett, the Precentor, and with Malcolm Archer and between us we came up with an interesting three-part structure, starting with two lines by Henry Vaughan, followed by an amazing poem by Geoffrey Hill which abstracts Paul’s moment of revelation in an extraordinarily poetic and nonnaturalistic way, and finishing with some lines from Romans 8. That was a very interesting process, because at the cathedral they had strong ideas about what they wanted, and I had strong ideas about what would work for me and the end result was very exciting, I think.

DF If you have a text that you don’t feel inspired by, do you go back and say let’s try again?

GJ That’s never really happened but yes, I suppose I would say I don’t really fancy that. I’ve never been in that situation, fortunately. Some organists are more liturgically minded than others and have more ideas about things than others, but I don’t know anything about anything!

DF You must have discovered wonderful things in texts that you have been presented with?

GJ There’s wonderful stuff out there. A couple of years ago David Woodcock commissioned a piece for his school choir at Oakham. It was for Advent and

he wanted something that was going to be about light and very optimistic, so I got in touch with Perran Gay, the Precentor at Truro Cathedral who suggested a fantastic text - Salus aeterna, which was completely new to me, I’d never come across it. It’s full of light and I like things that have got light and brightness in.

DF Is there any difference writing in Latin or English?

GJ I prefer Latin texts, I must admit. They’re more poetic somehow. And you don’t need to worry about the stress and natural rhythm of the language like you do with English. I think it is much better.

DF Do you think you’ve developed a finger-print style which is unmistakably Gabriel Jackson?

GJ Probably. Ascending scales seem to be quite a feature! Matthew Owens pointed out when we were recording at St. Mary’s, Edinburgh, last year that three of the pieces on the disc started with ascending scales! The kind of rich chords you find in O Sacrum Convivium, those dense diatonic chords, are quite a fingerprint too.

DF You’ve also got the more filigree material haven’t you, with the fast triplets?

GJ Yes. I see the essence of what I do as a combination of ornate, melismatic lines (often with a drone), and then having these rich chords in close voicing. Particularly if they’re high, it sounds fantastic.

DF Do you think that singers, as opposed to instrumentalists, have had to extend their technique to do what you’re asking? Have you made them do unusual things?

GJ I tend not to do anything like shouting, or whispering, or speaking, or any of those kind of non-singing things. I suppose rhythmically some of what I’ve written can be quite tricky - you certainly have to count! But the pitches tend not be particularly hard so that kind of compensates. I’ve toned down some of the rhythmic things I used to do a few years ago.

DF They have been quite tricky!

GJ Singers can’t always count!

DF Well sometimes they are quite young aren’t they?

GJ That’s true. It’s also much easier for instrumentalists to do reasonably

complex rhythms as they are doing it on their own. If you’ve got eighteen choristers doing it you need to be a bit more careful. I hope I’m a bit more careful than I was. I have seen people struggle terribly with things and I’ve thought “I really shouldn’t have written that, it was a bit cruel.” On the other hand, I think sometimes we underestimate what even the youngest singers are capable of, even with the limited rehearsal time that is the bane of everyone’s life. The secret is not to tell them it’s hard….!

DF Some people think 21st century music is very, very difficult to sing. But yours is much more practical isn’t it?

GJ I hope so. I always say that contemporary music doesn’t have to be hard. If the composer has any idea of what he is doing, he can write a piece that isn’t too hard. The Maxwell Davies Mass is a good example. That’s obviously a lot less difficult than his instrumental music. You try to judge these things according to the level of what you can reasonably expect from the people you’re working with. Of course if you’ve had experience of singing that helps enormously with understanding the practical realities. The first thing I say to younger composers is “don’t write for voices as if they were instruments”. That’s so important - difficult intervals like minor 9ths and big awkward leaps present no problems for instrumentalists but can be very hard to sing.

DF Do you ever have an audience perspective of what you are writing? Do you think what the audience’s reaction will be?

GJ I don’t really. The only time I’ve thought about that recently was when I did a forty-part piece for the Lichfield festival to go with Spem in Alium, which was fun but really hard work (much harder than I thought it was going to be). That was the first time I thought about the audience quite a lot. I decided that if you are going to write a forty-part piece it has got to be a tour de force otherwise it’s pointless. There is no point in writing a forty-part piece that’s quite good, or alright. It’s got to be spectacular. So, I was thinking that it has got to really wow the audience. What can I do here that is going to excite them?

DF What have you based it on?

GJ The text is the original Latin of ➤

Holy is the True Light. When we originally talked about the Sanctum est verum lumen, it was going to be in the Lady Chapel at Lichfield where there is the fanous Herkenrode glass. (In the end we did it in the Nave.) I was thinking about light - again! - and, although that is a funeral text, it is all about light. My piece is exactly the same length as Spem in Alium (138 bars of 4 beats). A coincidence that I was quite excited about! I thought that was a sign that something was right about it. But that was the first time that I’d thought about the audience at all, and thought that they had got to be excited by it, otherwise it will be a waste of time.

DF I look forward to hearing that, or doing it! Have you published it yet?

GJ The first performance was two weeks ago and there are quite a few other people interested. I would hope that there could me some mileage in it. I know there are other forty-part pieces - Giles Swayne has written one - and I’d hope that, having assembled the forces for Spem, conductors might think it worthwhile programming something

else that takes advantage of that. My piece is for eight five part choirs just like the Tallis. I thought I would try and be clever and have the ranges such that you could transpose it up a tone and it would work for SSATB (rather than SATBB) for people like Harry Christophers who like to do Spem up a tone, but that went a bit by the wayside as there was too much else to worry about! As for publication, I’ve just signed a contract with Oxford University Press so it will be available from them in due course.

DF Which composers do you think have had an influence on you?

GJ The Tudor composers. Not necessarily directly but that is my favourite period, certainly in English music, particularly the early 16th century: Eton Choir Book, early Tallis and Taverner. I do use some techniques from the Mediaeval period, like a version of isorhythm. It is the ecstatic kind of sound you get from 16th century music that I’m trying to recreate somehow. I don’t think my pieces necessarily sound like Stravinsky but I

think there is a Stravinsky influence in the way that they are structured and the direct way that it is all very sectional and you just go from one thing to the other without having any transitions. In O Sacrum Convivium there is a lurching key change which is a thrill. It’s harder to come out of in some ways, than to go into. The idea of: “we want to have a section in this very different key, so we are not going to faff around but get straight into it”, is quite Stravinsky.

DF Do you find anything frustrating about writing Church music?

GJ Not really. When I have been doing a lot of choral pieces, like four or five one after the other (not that they are all for cathedrals, although concert choirs almost always want sacred texts, I suppose because so much of the repertoire is already sacred it fits better), I have sometimes felt that I really don’t want to do another five minute piece that isn’t too hard. Occasionally, I think what I’d really like to do is a half hour piece that is really difficult! I have to say though, that I have been very fortunate with the

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institutions that I have worked with, I have never come across any difficulties.

I have close connections with St Mary’s, Edinburgh, working so much with Matthew Owens during his time there, and it has been great. Although I know that things are not always sweetness and light in some cathedral closes!

DF I’m very pleased that it is being made easy for you to write these pieces and it is very gratifying to me that people are welcoming your pieces.

GJ I think it’s great. My relationship with Matthew at St. Mary’s started off with one little piece for Advent and then Graham Forbes the Provost was very nice and immediately asked if I would write a Mass, which was fantastic. I ended up writing four pieces for the choir and they also took a lot of other things into their repertoire, recording the whole lot for Delphian Records. Working regularly with the choir over a four-year period was a brilliant experience - I was able to really get to know them and what they are capable of. I was a kind of unofficial composerin-residence which was brilliant. In fact, having composers-in-residence in a more formal way is something I’ve always thought our bigger cathedrals should do - orchestras have them so why not cathedrals?

DF One of the things that we find is that the commissions’ budget is often trimmed. It is always the first thing to go. Do you see our 21st century liturgical music going in a particular direction, or not?

GJ I know the direction in which I would like it to go, which is just more people from outside the cathedral organ loft tradition actually being asked to write pieces. Howells was complaining about this fifty years ago. Not enough people who just have careers as composers are being asked. Part of the reason it doesn’t happen is that unless they have a particular reason for wanting to do it, like they are very religious like John Tavener or Jonathan Harvey, it possibly never ocurs to them. Also a lot of composers have no idea how good cathedral choirs can be, and are. They also don’t know about the liturgical background and how services work, which can be a bit off putting. Often people don’t think to ask composers to write for the church: a) they don’t know who might be a suitable person and b) they think we can’t ask them as they will write an

impossibly hard piece. But that is not true. Even Birtwistle, who one would think of as writing very hard stuff, wrote a piece for King’s College, Cambridge, that wasn’t hideously difficult. If you give people a brief they can be persuaded to write something a little more do-able.

DF Is there a colleague composer you particularly admire?

GJ Amongst my contemporaries, I would say Graham Fitkin, a Cornish composer. I think ought he to be writing more choral music. Also, another very good friend, Laurence Crane who writes very, very simple pieces. Devastatingly simple so they are actually very hard to pull off. Howard Skempton who is sixty next year is a fantastic composer, as is Judith Weir and a very good Australian composer called Ross Edwards who is in his sixties.

DF Are we likely to hear of him?

GJ Australian composers never get to this country really which is a shame.

DF I think we miss out on a lot. We don’t see many American ones either GJ You go to America quite a lot, but I have no idea what is going on at the moment apart from the obvious, like Morten Lauridsen.

DF The main problem is that there is too much in such a big place. I have to rely on choirs to come over here and bring me things to show me. I’ve found some real treasures that way.

DF What new works are underway at the moment?

GJ Apart from this little piece for Lichfield, which is the only choral piece coming up, I’m doing an organ piece for Michael Bonaventure later this year. He is a fantastic player and does a lot of contemporary music. He commissioned those Judith Weir organ pieces twenty years ago, for example. And he is quite

modest and not terribly self-promoting, which means he possibly doesn’t do as many things as he ought to be doing. I’m also doing a piece for guitar at the moment which is a bit scary.

DF Do you understand how to play the guitar?

GJ No! I’m having to read an article that Julian Bream wrote on how to write for the guitar. I’ve been making notes on the train. I’m also doing a saxophone quartet for a Welsh group next year.

DF So it is purely in composition that you keep yourself musically alive. You are not performing at all?

GJ Not at all, no. It means I have to write loads and loads of pieces. I write about twelve pieces a year. Some of them are two or three minutes, some are twelve and fifteen minutes long. Basically, a piece a month, which is a lot. On the other hand, if you’re not doing anything else and you don’t have any other major distractions you can get a lot of work done. I think people who have teaching positions are financially much more secure and better off, but it must be much harder to switch from one thing to another. If you are composing full time, I think you can proportionally get through a lot more work. It’s not just a question of having more hours. It is just being able to constantly focusing on what you’re doing.

DF I think it is fantastic that what seems to be currently much of the English Church repertoire is giving you enough support.

GJ It would always be nicer to be earning more money but you have got to be realistic. It seems to work.

DF We look forward to the next piece!

GJ Thank you

Read the review of St Mary’s Cathedral Choir Edinburgh singing Gabriel Jackson’s works on page 59.

‘I always say that contemporary music doesn’t have to be hard. If the composer has any idea of what he is doing, he can write a piece that isn’t too hard.

25years of

Simon Perry, son of the founder of Hyperion Records

Ted Perry, went to Magdalen Choir School, Oxford. Here he talks to Andrew Palmer about the company and cathedral music.

Hyperion was started by your father 25 years ago but sadly he died in 2003. What do you think his legacy is? His legacy is undoubtedly a vast catalogue of recorded music that perhaps would otherwise have gone unnoticed and unrecorded.

The catalogue has been credited as one of the most interesting catalogues of recorded music with over 1600 records having been issued in the last 25 years all of which have enriched the cultural landscape.

You went to Magdalen College School, Oxford . What were the highlights of being a chorister at Oxford singing for Bernard Rose?

I have many fond memories of Magdalen and it would be difficult to single out any one. The May Day celebrations were certainly very special with Madrigals sung at sunrise from the top of Magdalen tower to thousands of people in the streets below. Then the choir would off for a sumptuous breakfast with the college president.

Christmas was also special. We would sing Messiah each Christmas to the college president and dons. I remember singing around a piano in a stately room lit only by a huge open fire finishing at midnight! Staying up late was a real treat for a boarder.

The ultimate highlight for me though was the tour of the eastern United States in the Spring of 1973. The choir travelled to Connecticut, Long Island and New York City giving concerts to very enthusiastic audiences. The tour ended in the newly built but incomplete cathedral in Washington DC. We sang amongst huge piles of masonry: inside yet in the open air.

What are your memories of the great Dr Rose? Was he as great as legend has it?

Dr Rose was an awesome figure and a huge influence on me. I was a very high-spirited child and constantly in trouble at Magdalen and was on report almost every term which Dr Rose dealt with speedily and uncompromisingly. I am sure that I infuriated Dr Rose most of the time, but what else are little boys for? His rehearsals were intense to say the least. He smoked incessantly during rehearsals with sometimes two cigarettes burning in the ashtray at the same time.

Did you make any recordings while at Magdalen?

I did. One or two for the Argo. Stainer Mag and Nuncin b flat if my memory serves me. I may still have the LPs. I seem to remember my dad was involved in these recordings although in what capacity I cannot remember. He may have produced it. I do remember being given 25 complementary copies of the LP by Ted, to distribute to members of the choir. I was a bit cheeky and in fact sold them at 50p each.

What did you enjoy about singing? What is there not to enjoy?

You talk about having gaps in your standard education does that mean you will not consider sending your son, Miles, to a choir school?

Miles is musical child but he did not have the voice for a choral education. If I had the choice to send him on a choral scholarship now I would find it very hard to decide either way.

You didn’t take up the organ but instead concentrated on violin and piano, is there a reason for this?

No particular reason. To audition for a choral scholarship requires at least two instruments. We had a piano at home and the violin was suggested so I took it up. I hated playing the violin.

Do you do the sound balancing for any Hyperion recordings?

I have produced two or three of the earlier Hyperion recordings but not balanced them. I leave that to the experts although I feel I have a highly trained ear for sound in general and am confident enough to offer my opinion in sessions if asked.

The collaboration between Hyperion and Westminster Cathedral to produce the Frank Martin Mass for Double Choir received many accolades and bouquets; why do you think it was such a big hit?

James O’Donnell and the Choir of Westminster Cathedral gave outstanding performances of two rarely heard 20thcentury masterpieces and the critics went mad for it. ➤

Stephen Layton conducting Polyphony

The company has recordedmany cathedral choirs such as Ely,Westminster Cathedral, Wells, Winchester, Worcester and St Paul’s – anything else on the horizon?

We have recently started a recording relationship with the Choir of Westminster Abbey under James O’Donnell, the first two recordings of Byrd’s Great Service and Trinity Sunday at Westminster Abbey are to be issued in November. We have also recorded a disc of Mendelssohn with St Johns, Cambridge under David Hill to be released in May 2006.

Alot of duplication exists between certain pieces, for example McKie’s We wait for thy loving kindness and Bruckner’s Locus Iste.How do you decide on repertoire?

In general it is collaboration between the music director or artists and Hyperion, with a lot of negotiation in between. I look for recordings of music by one composer if possible and hopefully repertoire that will receive a first recording.

Cathedral choirs need to make recordingsand some of the music has to be popular but will there come a time when everyone gets fed up withbuying yet another CD of canticles etc? Does it worry you that there are so many recordings of the same works?

The tastes of the record buyers is, as you can imagine, very varied but I am sure that many people do get fed up with seeing new recordings of the same repertoire. All recordings come with an element of risk and one has to judge what is likely to generate interest but what also will sell.

I would like to explore some of the lesser known composers but again the risks are huge because it is difficult to get people to buy composers they are not familiar with.

Theset of recordings of anthems from St Paul’s was a mixture of well-known and not so familiar, represe nting different styles and it worked well;are you thinking of releasing those as a boxed set?

The anthems series is not complete and we will therefore not be issuing it as a boxed set. Some believed that John Scott’s move to St Thomas’ in New York would see an end to the series but I am hoping to schedule another volume at St Paul’s under Malcolm Archer in the near future. Malcolm has made some very fine recordings of hymns for Hyperion over the last few years and his recent disc of Howells is top rate. I am confident that Malcolm will pick up where John Scott left off but I have to bear in mind that these anthems recordings are not inexpensive to make and Hyperion’s current financial crisis requires caution in all our large scale projects.

How difficult was it getting the sound balance right and how didyou approach this most difficult of buildings?A colleague of mine went to the Verdi Requiem and couldn’t hear a word?

St Paul’s is so vast it almost has its own weather system! It is a very difficult acoustic to bring under control. Hyperion has made many recordings over the years and we are lucky to have the expertise of Julian Millard whose experience and understanding of the building is second to none.

I waxed lyrical about the superb Epiphany Music CD from St Paul’s, I think this idea of producing CDs of music for a season in the Church’s calendar is a good idea but limited. What is the next step in presenting the cathedral music repertoire?

I still believe in one-composer records but there are a number

‘I still believe in one-composer records but there are a number of different programming ideas we have for the future.’

Cardinall’s Musick recording for Hyperion in Arundel

of different programming ideas we have for the future. I am not going to say what they are though. The competition could be watching!

Likewise for organ, Christopher Herrick’s two series Organ Fireworks and Organ Dreams were winners– what else have you in mind to keep the organ recordings fresh and popular bearing in mind you have Keith John, David Hill and Thomas Trotter on your books?W ould you have liked to have signed someone like Carlo Curley?

The fallout from Hyperion’s recent legal case has put tremendous pressure on all our recording budgets and many of our organ series will go into hiatus because of it. Christopher Herrick and I are in discussion about Organ Fireworks XI in 2006 but other than that we have no organ related projects in the pipeline.

I recollect that Carlo and Hyperion were in discussion some while ago but nothing came of it, unfortunately.

Robert King and his consort have producedfabulous CDs are there any big projects left for him?

Robert is, as ever, full of brilliant ideas and Hyperion is interested in almost all of them. Some I have to admit are beyond our financial reach at the moment. Hyperion will be recording the Monteverdi Vespers with Robert in February as part of our ongoing Monteverdi series, which we have remained committed to but our fiscal situation is not healthy at the moment and the series may lose momentum for a time.

There were two recordings scheduled this autumn which I was obliged to cancel for financial reasons but which are now

back on the table thanks to Robert and TKC who have shown incredible support to Hyperion by offering to fully fund Mozart in Salzburg – Sacred arias with Carolyn Sampson, and Rossini’s La petite messe solennelle to be issued in 2006.

I often find I enjoy professional choirs such as the Corydon Singers under Matthew Best, and Polyphony under Stephen Layton, these are not traditional cathedral choirs of the kind for which the repertoire was written.How do you feel the two compare? Is there any justification?

As long as the repertoire gets a good recording, that is all that matters.

Do you think these professional choirs will replace cathedral choirs in the record cataloguesor is the market big enough tohave both?

The market is big enough to accommodate both and Hyperion will continue to record both, but if the British choral tradition is to continue in the record catalogues the choral groups must understand the financial constraints of the record business and be prepared to record more efficiently and less expensively or to generate funding for the large scale projects.

The Hyperion catalogue does not include many of the great choral works sung by choral societies Elijah, Creation, Dream of Gerontius etc. Why is this?

Hyperion tries to steer clear of the very mainstream repertoire that has already umpteen recordings. Occasionally we will risk competing with the great recordings of the standard ➤

repertoire but generally we try to record new and different repertoire.

What’s still left to record?

There are scores of works as yet unrecorded but more importantly there are dozens of new British composers busily composing all of whom deserve their music to be heard. Composers such as Antony Pitts, Tariq O’Regan and Ruth Byrchmore to name just a few that I am interested in.

The recent court case over the copyright dispute caused you anguish but you have no regrets?

I have no regrets at all about fighting the copyright case per se, although I wish I had known who Dr Sawkins was before he was commissioned by the group to create the editions. I also wish I had had some experience of the British legal system and the kind of costs one can run up. I took the decision to fight the case after very careful consideration but the costs as they were suggested to me at the outset have grown out of all proportion. It has cost Hyperion almost five times what was suggested as the worst case scenario and we are going to need all the financial support we can muster. Many members of the public have sent us donations towards our legal costs and to help us with recording costs but Hyperion is going to need a lot more if we are to survive. I still find it astonishing that the courts found that an edition of an existing piece of music is ‘A New Musical work’, which it patently isn’t and I intend to steer well clear of any editions that even remotely suggest a copyright liability.

New technology has led to SACDs; what are your plans about recording in this format?

I love SACDs. The sound is sparkling and brilliant and I would issue every recording in the format if I could, but they are expensive to press and expensive to record and the public does

not seem to want them in enough quantities to make them viable for Hyperion. A pity, because the format is spectacular.

How do you think we will be listening to music in 25 years time?

I would hope that people will still be buying a physical format of some sort. CD seems to me to be pretty near a perfect medium but technology is a fast moving and unstoppable force and I would expect that my children will be listening to music that has been remotely beamed from a central location through the atmosphere straight on to an iPod type gismo the size of a small flea at a fraction of the cost one pays today.

Adifficult question but if you could choose just five favourite recordings that Hyperion has produced over its 25 history what would they be?

This is a difficult question but here goes. The Hyperion discs that I listen to most are Bella Donna performed by Sinfonye and Mara Kiek about to be reissued on Helios CDH55207

The Gramophone Record of the Year winner in 1998 which is the fabulous Frank Martin Mass for double choir and Pizzetti‘s Messa di Requiem with Westminster Cathedral ChoirCDA67017 Rachmaninov Vespers by the Corydons CDA66460 and finally Corydon’s Vaughan Williams CD with the Serenade to Music andparticularly the Five Mystical Songs on CDA66420. But the one that I have played more than 100 times in the last six months is a disc by the American composer Eric Whitacre entitled Cloudburst’ to be issued in February 06 CDA67543. I doubt Hyperion could better the choral sound and performance on this disc. It is, quite simply, awesome!

And what of the next 25 years?

I am tempted to say another 1,600 recordings but I try not to look further than six months ahead. One never knows what is just around the corner.

Stephen Layton conducting Polyphony

Bat & Trap?

Adrian Stones checks out the local hostelries in Canterbury

Being gentlemen of diverse and eclectic taste, the quest for the perfect post Even-song beverage takes the lay clerks of Canterbury Cathedral to several local hostelries. The benefits of this are twofold: firstly, everybody visits their particular favourite on a regular cyclical basis, and secondly, we don’t get a reputation for alcoholism at any one pub.

The White Hart, a short walk from the Cathedral, is a traditional Kentish pub, selling real ales in a quaint, friendly atmosphere. The beers are a wonderful selection from the local brewery, Shepherd Neame, which is, I believe, the oldest brewery in England. It also boasts a very secluded beer garden where one can play the game of Bat and Trap - a traditional Kentish game involving hand/eye co-ordination – tricky, especially after a couple of pints of Spitfire or Master Brew.

The Seven Stars, a centrally located bar very close to Christ Church Gate, the main entrance to the Cathedral, is quiet during the week but can be quite lively at weekends. Its beauty lies in its proximity to the Cathedral, after all, singing Evensong can be very thirsty work! You won’t find any real ales here, but the drinks are reasonably priced and the availability

LAYCLERKS’ TALE

of Sky Sports is an added incentive to part with our hardearned lay clerks salary at this particular establishment.

A typical chain pub, the Thomas Ingoldsby, is also very central and conveniently positioned for the thirsty lay clerk. Complete with sticky carpet, many a pint has been downed here both before and after a service. It is renowned amongst the Canterbury lay clerks as the preliminary location for Friday night adventures, usually as a prelude to visiting one of Canterbury’s excellent curry houses.

Finally we come to The Miller’s Arms. In a picturesque location in a quiet corner of Canterbury, this pub is built next to the River Stour, and its name and location give away this building’s former identity and purpose. Arguably the most salubrious of the establishments mentioned here, excellent quality food is on offer as well as a wide selection of ales, wines and lagers. There is a very small courtyard at the rear of the pub, which becomes a suntrap during the summer. The staff are friendly and helpful, prices quite reasonable, and once a year the master of the music graces us with his presence and even buys a round, so this has to be one for special occasions only; it’s far too pleasant for the likes of us to use every day!

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.

inQuire Richard

Pride of place, this time, to the news that our former Chairman, Alan Thurlow of Chichester Cathedral has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in recognition, no doubt, of his outstanding services to cathedral music, and of his 25 years at Chichester Cathedral. At the time of writing FCM’s Hugh Curtis celebrated his 90th birthday in time for yet another of his well-planned gatherings at Chichester (8th October).

A week earlier, Friends at Winchester celebrated their grant from FCM (£25,000) towards the maintenance of the FCM Chorister, with some welcome local publicity. The presentation ceremony coincided with the eve of the Dean’s retirement, so there was a full Cathedral. News of the FCM grant has already led to the recruitment of some new members. Earlier in the year Winchester also hosted ‘The Mystery of Faith’, a whole evening of music by Sir John Tavener, who conducted one of the works. The concert included the first performance of Marienhymne , commissioned by the University of Winchester; and was followed by an interview with Sir John, in which he spoke of music as a ‘sacrament’, and the act of composition as ‘worship’. Sir John described music as the ‘tension between tradition and the creativity of the composer’, with an interesting reference in this context to ‘transubstantiation’.

The summer also saw the 25th anniversary of tenor William Kendall as a lay clerk at Winchester. The Cathedral broadcast the Duruflé Requiem in the usual Choral Evensong slot on All Souls’ Day and will be making a new CD early next term.

Osmond rounds up the news from DRs

News has come from Northern Ireland of the appointment of Ian Mills as Organist and Choirmaster of St. Columb’s Cathedral in Londonderry. Mr Mills is a native of Londonderry and at the time of his appointment was 22, making him one of the youngest cathedral organists in the UK.

This summer saw the death of Vincent Waterhouse, sometime Secretary of the FCM. An appreciation of his life and work appears on page 53. I shall remember Vincent for his quiet sense of humour, his keen eye for detail and his skill at doing good when no one was looking. Apart from knowing him as a long time Secretary of the FCM, I had the privilege of working with him at the George Thalben-Ball Trust which supports young organists, chiefly at St. Michael’s, Cornhill, under Jonathan Rennert. St Michael’s has a marvellous tradition of choral music to enhance the 1662 Liturgy, and is increasingly giving further valuable experience to young choral scholars. A former Assistant Organist of St. Michael’s has been appointed assistant organist at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh: Duncan Ferguson is in addition Organist at Fettes College.

Go West Young Man!

If you do so before Christmas you will be able to look in at Exeter where the Early English Organ Project is enjoying a three-month residency. Two reconstructed early Tudor organs will be in situ in the Cathedral, one in the Quire and the other in the Lady Chapel. Both will feature in choral services and other events.

Exeter choir visited Westminster Abbey on 9th October to take part in a special service of commemoration of Edward the Confessor. Exeter was founded by Edward even before he founded Westminster Abbey. All Souls Day this year was being marked by a performance of the Howells Requiem, while a number of visits to Devon churches are being planned for the coming months. An extensive tour of the USA is planned for July 2006.

Portsmouth report an extremely busy and exciting year. The Choir has been singing for a number of Trafalgar 2000 events including Choral Evensong at St Paul’s (with hopes that this might become an annual event) and the International Drumhead Service on Southsea Common. They also sang at the Portsmouth Festivities and alongside musicians from the Royal Marines for the naming ceremony of the P&O ship, Artemis, held in the Solent, so that altogether there has been rather more going down to the sea in ships than usual. In October the Choir visited Cadiz for more Trafalgar celebrations, and there are several BBC broadcasts from Portsmouth during the autumn.

Rosemary Field, who has been Cathedral Sub-Organist for five and a half years, and Diocesan Music Adviser for over 10, is leaving Portsmouth to embark on a freelance career as well as leading an ecumenical Anglican/Roman Catholic revival in liturgy and music.

Southwark has been celebrating its Centenary this year and the

Great Choir (including girls and boys) broadcast Evensong on 5th October. The canticles were to the new ‘bluesy’ setting by Stephen Tanner. He is Director of the Girls’ Choir at Exeter and was the winner of Southwark’s Composition Competition for a work which reflected cultural diversity, as befits a diocese such as Southwark. Earlier in the summer, Peter Wright was joined by two of his predecessors, Dr. Harry Bramma and E. H. (John) Warrell at a centenary Evensong in June. John Warrell has just celebrated his 90th birthday and still plays regularly at a church in Deptford.

In the October half-term, Choir boys undertook a tour to Graz in Austria, performing in services and concerts in Graz Cathedral as well as in other local towns.

The Graz organist is a regular visitor to Southwark and has become a good friend of the choir. In April 2006 the girls of the Choir will visit Rouen, with which Southwark is twinned, for their third visit. Other ‘special’ commitments have been the

participation of some of the boys in the Edington Festival and a visit (girls) to Guildford Cathedral in October. On 12th December the Choir will give a carol concert in aid of the Marie Curie Foundation, while the Choir’s own carol concert is on 16th December. Carols are also featured on the Choir’s latest CD (on the Herald label).

Tomorrow’s Three Tenors?

‘The Choirboys’ is a CD compilation due for release in November. It features three choristers selected by talent scouts who visited choral establishments across the UK. The chosen three (Ben Inman from Southwell Minster, C. J. Porter-Thaw and Patrick Aspbury, both from Ely (Patrick, also being Ely’s newly appointed Deputy Head Chorister) spent the last weeks of the summer holidays making what is hoped will be their first disc. It will include familiar choral music like Ave Maria, as well as interpretations of rock tunes such as Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton (which

Lammas RECORDS

CHORALAND

SIGFRID KARG-ELERT

Symphonic Canzonas

Gough Duo:violin and organ

Natalie Clifton-Griffith:soprano

Ach bleib mit deiner Gnade op. 87, no. 1

Völlige Hingabe, op.66, no.1

Sphärenmusik, op. 66, no. 2

Ich steh an deiner Krippe hier op. 66, no. 3

Sanctus, op. 48B, no. 1

Pastorale, op. 48B, no. 2

Abendstern, op. 98, no. 1

Nun danket alle Gott, op. 65, no. 59

Vom Himmel hoch, op. 65, no. 10

Vom Himmel hoch, op. 78, no. 20

Nun ruhen alle Wälder, op. 87, no. 3

I n H i s T e m p l e the music of Sir Edward Elgar St Paul’s,Rock Creek Parish, Washington DC USA

Director:Graham Elliott

Great is the Lord Ave verum corpus Sonata in G (1st movement) Organ

O salutaris hostia Ave Maria

Give unto the Lord

O salutaris hostia

Doubt not thy Father’s care TeDeum,Benedictus

CDs price £13.99 each including p & p

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for years I thought was the formal name of a suffragan bishop!) The Ely Choir has also just released on Priory a compilation of selected tracks from their previous discs, together with some new ones, including Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer, featuring the new Head Chorister, Charlie Sheen. The Music of Ely Cathedral (Priory CD 5017) and is sold in aid of the Cathedral Music Appeal. The appeal seeks to put the existing music programme on a sustainable long-term basis while enabling further development and innovation as part of the Cathedral’s plans and vision for mission and outreach.

By now the Cambridge Choirs have resumed their various weekly service patterns and will be looking forward to the special events of Advent and Christmas. In addition to these, King’s and St. John’s both recently returned from highly successful European tours, have busy concert programmes.

This term King’s College Choir will give concerts in St. John’s Smith Square, London, with Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra. All Saints’ Church, Hertford, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and then with the Britten Sinfonia in the King’s College Chapel Foundation Concert on 12th December. This will include Christmas music by Britten, Saint-Saëns and Vaughan Williams. The run-up to Christmas continues with a short visit to Europe during which the Choir will sing Handel’s Messiah in Lucerne and repeat their programme with the Britten Sinfonia in Antwerp. For their final concert of the year on 22nd December they are in the Royal Albert Hall together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Chorus for a mainly Christmas programme. Then comes the traditional King’s Christmas which will receive its customary BBC coverage.

During early January there will be a short visit to Italy. The Choir will perform 16th and 17th century music from Italy

and 20th century English music in Perugia, Florence and Genoa. After the end of the Lent term, the Choir will return to St. John’s Smith Square with a programme of Purcell and Britten. A further visit to Italy is also planned.

During the Michaelmas term at St John’s the Choir will sing a special Evensong with their Director’s ‘other’ choir, the Bach Choir. Then on 8th November, also in the College Chapel, they will join the Britten Sinfonia whose current concert series is celebrating the music of Sir Michael Tippett. Music by Tallis and Purcell will also be included.

The Advent Carol Services will take place on 26th and 27th November, with the BBC Radio 3 broadcast going out on the Sunday.

With the University term over, the Choir will again link up with the Britten Sinfonia to perform two of Haydn’s masses, the Little Organ and the Nelson, first in Norwich Cathedral and then the

following day in Cambridge’s West Road Concert Hall. This marks the start of a three-year partnership between the two organisations. Finally before Christmas there will be a five-day tour of Estonia, concerts being given in Tallinn (Johvi and Parnu).

The Lent term will include an Epiphany Carol Service and the traditional meditative Service for Lent, and the Choir will record their first CD for Hyperion, a programme of Christmas music. Then, after a concert in St. Mary’s Parish Church, Ashwell, they will tour the eastern states of the USA. It is planned to give eight concerts and a choral Evensong and venues will include St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo NY, and St Thomas, Fifth Avenue, New York.

At Jesus College Simon Lole (until recently Director of Music Salisbury Cathedral) will be Acting Director of Music for the Michaelmas term in the absence of Daniel Hyde. In

Edward Farms receives his FCM chorister medallion from the Dean of Winchester watched by the Precentor and Richard Osmond. Photo: Simon Barwood

addition to their normal service commitments, the Chapel Choir will give a recital at Grantchester Church on 3rd December.

A busy spring and summer at Leeds Parish Church included many fulfilling highlights within the contexts of both regular and special liturgies and musical events. The service for the induction of the Reverend Tony Bundock as third Rector of Leeds in May was notable for the involvement of the full Choral Foundation – boy choristers, girl choristers, choral scholars and lay clerks – as well as a contingent of St. Peter’s Singers. The brilliant playing of the magnificent ‘Fine Arts Brass’ was a special feature as it had been a month or two earlier to the televised Easter Morning Eucharist. The boys and men joined with the Choir of our Diocesan Cathedral in June for the new Rector’s collation as Canon of Ripon.

A number of other ‘specials’ and trips during the course of the summer included the Parish’s Youth Residential Week in Wales in August and the Requiem for the late Angela Widdows at York Minster in June at which an LPC contingent joined the Chorus of Opera North and Minister Songmen. Philip Moore conducted and LPC’s Simon Lindley accompanied Fauré’s Requiem, sharing the console with York’s Lee Dunleavy and Dr. Francis Jackson. The service of a great benefactor to and worker for the Parish Church and its music, as well as one of the most indefatigable supporters of the Minster’s manifold activities.

Leeds PC bade a reluctant farewell to Decani Tenor Choral Scholar Peter Condry, now lay clerk at Ripon along with his regular deputy, Justin Martindale. Peter’s Decani colleague Stephen Harrison is now at Manchester Cathedral. Leeds continues to enjoy the invaluable regular support of musical polymath Christopher Rathbone in the tenor ranks as well the commitment and skill of Donald Bunce who is regularly an invaluable bass deputy at both Leeds and York Minster.

A grant from the Friends of

Cathedral Music endowing an FCM Chorister has taken the Appeal total to £230,000 towards its half-million pound target. Musical events in support of the Appeal included a hugely enjoyable and highly productive ‘Battle of the Organs’, masterminded by David Holder with a cast headed by Liverpool Cathedral’s Professor Ian Tracey. Over £1,000 was raised. A truly memorable Saturday afternoon concert in May by Ilkley-based international tenor, James Griffett and ex-chorister Daniel Wellings (now a choral scholar at Clare College Cambridge) including Britten’s Abraham and Isaac likewise raised a four figure sum for the Appeal.

Meanwhile, Leeds RC Cathedral Director of Music, Ben Saunders recently directed a highly successful live broadcast and the choir has been invited to broadcast Choral Evensong (or vespers presumably). Also from the RC world comes news that Terry Duffy is now Director of Music at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Blackburn’s newsletter is as informative as ever and amongst other news is the appointment of Jonathan Turner as the new Organ Scholar.

We don’t often hear from Holland , but FCM’s representative there, and a regular visitor to the Southern Cathedrals’ Festival and member of a visiting choir to a number of UK Cathedrals (Norwich this summer) sends news, in impeccable English, of a Choral Festival at Haarlem in June, with singers from Anglican choirs in Belgium and the Netherlands (comprising the Archdeaconry of NW Europe no less!). The conductor was Andrew Carter, whom the choirs found both inspiring and possessed of an infectious sense of humour. After a recital, Choral Evensong was sung in the RC Cathedral of St. Bavo where the days events took place. In addition to an anthem by Andrew Carter, the choirs sang Kelly in C. Elgar’s The Spirit of the Lord and An Evening Hymn by Simon Lole. The Archdeacon, the Ven Dirk van Leeuwen preached what is described as

a ‘splendid sermon on music in worship’. Thanks to FCM representative Rob Uittenbosch, who has become a good friend to many of us over the years, not just for this news report, but for his work in keeping the FCM flag flying in Holland.

Fifty Years Ago

I am indebted to David Lowton (an enthusiastic member of the French Cathedral Singers) for further insights into the 1953 Coronation at Westminster Abbey. The RSCM selected 20 boy choristers to sing alongside the Westminster Choir after detailed searches relying initially on Commissioners’ visits over the previous few years and nominations on a regional basis. The fortunate choristers had to be resident at Addington Palace for nearly four weeks, so as to be close at hand for the 12 rehearsals at the Abbey. Treasurers amongst our readership may reflect that the costs for train fares and residence at Addington amounted to as much as £16 (in the case of a fortunate chorister from Eastleigh, Hampshire –where David Lowton’s father, the late J. R. A. Lowton, was Organist and Choirmaster).

Stop Press

News comes as this article goes to print of the death at the age of 93, of Noel Mander, who built or rebuilt many fine organs, notably in London. According to The Times, his ‘crowning achievement (was) the reconstruction between 1972 and 1977 of the Organ at St. Paul’s Cathedral’. He was also responsible for the organs at St. Vedast, Foster Lane (1962), Merchant Taylors’ Hall (1966) and St. Giles Cripplegate (1970) as well as work in cathedrals and college chapels. He retired in 1983.

Copy for the next issue should be sent to Richard Osmond, 10 Hazel Grove, Badger Farm, WINCHESTER, Hants SO22 4PQ.

Tel/Fax: 01962 850818 by 15 March 2006

Francis Jackson recalls his friend and colleague

OBITUARY

Marshall 1921-2005 Philip

Doctor Philip Marshall, retired organist of Lincoln Cathedral, died on 16 July in Lincoln County Hospital after a long and debilitating illness, aged 84. Since leaving the Cathedral in 1986 he and his wife lived quietly in a cottage at Potterhanworth, some six miles away where he received his friends (who were taken to the nearby hostelrynow closed – for the obligatory libation) and struggled to write his compositions with an increasingly unsteady hand, even transferring to his left until that also proved impossible. It is ironic that this fate should have overtaken a calligraphist of the highest order, most of whose works were published in his own hand, including the four-movement Centenary Cantata, his tribute to Lincoln Choral Society in 1996, its hundredth anniversary, a performance of which next year is hoped for by the Windsor and Eton Choral Society.

Philip Marshall was born at Brighouse, West Yorkshire, on 24 June 1921 and moved to Alford, Lincolnshire, early in life. During the war he served in the RASC and upon demobilisation became music master at Keighley Grammar School. He served as sub-organist to Dr Melville Cook at Leeds Parish Church and was organist of All Souls, Halifax. In 1951 he was appointed to St Botolph’s, Boston (Stump) in succession to Dr Bernard Jackson, where he stayed until his move to Ripon Cathedral, vacant because the appointment of Lionel Dakers to Exeter Cathedral. On the retirement of Dr Gordon Slater in 1966. Dr Marshall became Organist of Lincoln Cathedral which post he held for twenty years. During his tenure the music reached a steady and worthy standard. His benign influence and his kindness brought him the affection and total loyalty of his choristers and his lay clerks, who responded to his dedicated approach to the choral service and so furnished a subtlety and perception to the singing, discernible whether or not he was accompanying. His psalm playing was said to cast a kind of spell and mystery over the scene. His whole character, in fact, induced the same effect. Conversation with him was a pleasure such as one rarely experienced, laced as it was with anecdotes of riveting quality and often of a side-splitting nature, as well as impersonations which popped up unexpectedly - of anyone who might be referred to. Of these one recalls especially Charles Moody and Herbert Howells. Of the former - his predecessor but one at Ripon he declared that he felt he must be extremely careful to keep on the right side of him, having in mind the uneasy situation which was always likely to arise with a somewhat

‘Conversation with him was a pleasure such as one rarely experienced, laced as it was with anecdotes of riveting quality and often of a side-splitting nature, as well as impersonations which popped up unexpectedly - of anyone who might be referred to.’

necessary to pay regular pipe-smoking visits for talks, which to a fly on the wall would have been of more than absorbing interest, to be sure.

Howells was a subject of great admiration to Philip, producing a composition for the Lincoln choir at his request. His imitation of his speaking was uncannily realistic, as indeed was the one he did of Moody, as well as many of others.

Compositions came from him in a steady stream; among them one from his Ripon days: When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion was for the annual meeting with the Durham and York choirs on 15 July 1961: for the Old Choristers, Firmly I believe and truly: and his last big work, the Centenary Cantata This contains a touching amalgam of psalm extracts and poems by Matthew Arnold, Shelley, Shakespeare and Strode which are faithfully portrayed in the music. All the performing materials, including the orchestra parts were written out by him as were the organ pieces, Heralds, Pavane and Carillon, still in manuscript; two Ashdown publications, Fantasy and Fugue on the initials of Bairstow’s name (ECB) in his centenary year; and Three Short Improvisations 1972, Processional, Morning Canticle (on When morning gilds the skies) and a remarkable quodlibet

treating three well known tunes simultaneously, including Amazing Grace. This is a key to his approach, handling the academic with almost Bach-like facility and ending up with music. His invertible Christmas cards year after year can be read upside down with the same effect as in the right position.

The Church Music Society published an attractive setting of the Litany to the new words which received much favourable commendation, and there are several carol settings, hymns with brass, and a number of beautiful chants. His Piano Concerto, with strings, is a work firmly in the English tradition and full of charm. It has a very fine and deeply felt slow movement.

Contact with Philip Marshall was ever fascinating, partly because it was never certain that he was really meaning what he said! It was never clear whether his denigrations of the Lincoln Father Willis were what he believed (‘an overgrown harmonium’) or if it was to provoke an argument or for some other purpose.

His devotion to the two cats he and his wife Margaret kept at Ripon (Thomas Tallis and Nimrod) looked like preventing his acceptance of the Lincoln post, according to a somewhat pained telephone call to me on the day he was offered it, and again over lunch.

Much persuasion, even coertion, was brought to bear: but was it necessary? Perhaps it was the prospect of the great upheaval to come that had already begun to trouble him.

In addition to all his other attributes he was also a craftsman of no mean order, rebuilding at least three organs, and making another, every bit of it from scratch, a miniature of exquisite aspect, proportion and workmanship which would not have disgraced the finest professional builder.

His travails in pursuit of his Durham doctorate stay vividly in mind. During his Boston days he would take an evening train to Grantham and travel to York for a consultation, ending what was left of the night in the station waiting room until the time for his appointment, arriving with no trace of fatigue, though exhibiting his feelings of doubt about the exercise, the symphony he proposed submitting for the degree. There it was, in full score as well as laid out in a four-hand arrangement in his lovely script, which he seemed almost unwilling to join in playing and to regard it all as a lost cause. Strong plaudits, however, were applied and he did not consign it to oblivion, but of course obtained the result he had worked so hard for and so richly deserved.

Ripon Cathedral. Drawing: Paul Godden

Lincoln Cathedral.

ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER BECOMES FCM’S

JOINT PATRON

Bishop of Brentwood

now a Vice-President

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy

O’Connor, has become an FCM Joint Patron alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who became Patron in July 2003.

The announcement was made at our AGM in June. Cardinal Cormac Murphy

O’Connor said: “I am glad to hear that the Friends of Cathedral Music have always been careful to include Roman Catholic as well as Anglican cathedrals and I would like to support your work in any way that is open to me”.

At the same time FCM Chairman Peter Toyne announced that the Bishop of Brentwood, the Rt. Revd. Thomas McMahon, had agreed to become a Vice-President.

Peter said, “This is a double-first for FCM and underlines the ecumenical nature of our commitment in encouraging high standards of choral worship in both these sectors of the Christian Church. We are honoured and excited at having the two Archbishops as joint patrons and a Roman Catholic Bishop as a Vice-President and it marks a high point in FCM’s history and reflects its growing status and accomplishments.”

DANIEL COOK APPOINTED TO SALISBURY

After a rigorous selection process, Salisbury Cathedral announce that 25-year old Daniel Cook has been appointed as the new Assistant Director of Music from September 2005. Daniel grew up in Hartlepool and studied with Keith Wright at Durham Cathedral, where he was also a member of the chamber choir. In 1998 , aged 19 years, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Worcester Cathedral where he gained valuable experience before continuing his professional training at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in 1999. In 2002 he moved to Westminster Abbey as Organ Scholar and was then appointed to the post of Assistant Organist at the Abbey in the summer of 2003. Speaking after the announcement Daniel said “I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral. I accepted at once and am really looking forward to starting there. The job is perfect, all the duties are exactly what I want, there is a lovely atmosphere in the place and everyone is so friendly.”

DAVID BEDNALL HAS BEEN APPOINTED ASSISTANT ORGANIST AT WELLS CATHEDRAL.

David is a student of Dr. Naji Hakim and David Briggs. He was born in 1979 and studied in Sherborne and then at The Queen’s College, Oxford where he was Organ Scholar. In 2000 he was appointed Organ Scholar at Gloucester Cathedral under David Briggs and Ian Ball. While there he spent periods as Acting Director of Music and Acting Assistant Organist. He was a prizewinner in Improvisation and Performance at the examination for Fellow of The Royal College of Organists in 2002

GRIMSBY PARISH CHURCH HAS APPOINTED

STEPHEN POWER AS ASSISTANT ORGANIST.

Stephen won a Choral Scholarship to Gloucester Cathedral, where he was a chorister from 1989 - 1993. He was appointed organist of Standish Church, Gloucestershire, and then left this district and won a Choral Scholarship at Leeds Parish Church was Organ Scholar at Wakefield Cathedral and was soon promoted to Assistant Organist. He was sub-organist at Ripon Cathedral.

JACK VERNON

Jack Vernon, a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, received the FCM Endowment Awardat Evensong on Saturday 10th September. Gloucester Cathedral Choir arrived in the US on 15th October to begin a two week tour taking in Georgia, South Carolina, Colorado, Florida and New York. The tour coincides with the release of the Choir’s latest CD, In the Beginning (Avie 2072) which features Aaron Copland’s choral masterpiece, as well as works by renowned English composers Benjamin Britten (who spent several years in America and knew Copland) and Gerald Finzi. See reviews

News from Choirs and Places where they sing

Archbishop of Westminster

Bishop of Brentwood

Photo: Roger Tucker

Daniel Cook. Photo: Andrew Dunsmore © Picture Partnership

Gloucester Cathedral Choir

Vincent Edward Waterhouse OBITUARY

Vincent, who died in July at the age of 77, had been so very much at the heart of church and organ music for over forty years that it is hard to think of life without his urbane demeanour, re-assuring professionalism and wholehearted commitment to much of our musical infrastructure.

Among manifold activities, his service to the Royal School of Church Music, the Royal College of Organists, the Friends of Cathedral Music and the Church Music Society stands out.

On retirement from the demanding work of RSCM Secretary and CEO, he embraced the challenge of the RCO clerkship in the College’s then new HQ at St Andrew’s Holborn. He never lost his flair as a practical musician, fostered early in Cottingham and served faithfully as organist at churches throughout his life, notably in Surrey and Sussex. His move to Ditchling found him completely involved in the life of church and town – treasurer of this, secretary of that. Embroidery was a great interest.

I first met Vincent as a young housemaster on RSCM Courses directed in his unique way by John Bertalot, then at Blackburn Cathedral and our friendship flourished at Addington in the mid 70s during weekly tutorial work undertaken from St Albans at the College of St Nicolas and on the famous International Summer Schools. His partnership with Lionel and Elisabeth Dakers was enormously fruitful.

By nature shy and reserved, he nonetheless sustained a rare capacity for friendship. Hospitality was lavishly given and very gratefully received by many.

Many will miss his wonderful, and often pithy, telephone conversations. He answered his Addington Palace phone with immense style – with a Noel Coward-ish rendition of the hugely understated description: Se—-cretary with a long, languid linger on the first syllable. Perhaps his East Riding upbringing in the tough post-war years informed his definite views – one only took up a cause against him with any confidence if you had done your homework, that much was for certain! His was a consuming love of opera and fine art.

The Church of England and British musical life benefited profoundly from his wise counsel and unerring judgement and we give thanks for his life and devotion both to his duties and his many friends.

Simon Lindley writes about FCM former Secretary

‘...his service to the Royal School of Church Music, the Royal College of Organists, the Friends of Cathedral Music and the Church Music Society stands out.’

Sir: I hope that it will not have escaped the notice of the great and the good amongst our church musicians that 2006 sees the centenary of a book that has lasted a good deal longer than perhaps it was expected to. The English Hymnal of 1906 was a monumental effort by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and for some it may be conceivably his crowning church music achievement. I strongly suspect, without doing any research, that it may still be in regular use in some churches, and it is certainly an important resource in many.

So the point of this letter is to ask if anyone has any plans to celebrate this important anniversary. It would certainly be good if the BBC could produce some sort of radio documentary which could point out the enormous range of this book, from the elaborate plainsong of the sequences to the mission hymns and of course the full range in between.

It would, on a frivolous level, also be interesting to see how many church musician colleagues have been caught out by the differences between the versions of For All the Saints between appearances in the original edition, in the revised version of 1933 and the present New English Hymnal. On the anniversary of VJ Day 1995 the writer was in a choir in front of Her Majesty, using the last named. The splendid military band behind us was using the version from 1933, but we seemed to get away (just) with two versions of the walking bass at once. It would be nice to

know which version RVW himself preferred.

The whole episode shows in microcosm the difficulties faced by many of us now, with the plethora of hymn books of all kinds, and of constant new editions. The continuity which books such as the EH or AMR used to provide is something that I suspect many of us hanker after.

(An article has been commissioned for next year celebrating the EH centenary [Ed[)

Giles Brightwell, Ipswich.

Formerly University Organist and Director of the Chapel Choir, University of Glasgow.

If the readers of CATHEDRAL MUSIC had hoped for a serious, reasoned perspective from Michael Higgins, the former Dean of Ely, in his article ‘Whither Cathedral Music’ CATHEDRAL MUSIC (May 2005), pp. 5-9, I imagine they must have been sorely disappointed. Far from presenting constructive and informed criticism on how clergy and musicians alike might better collaborate to improve cathedral and collegiate worship, his indiscriminate diatribe against provincial cathedral musicians, some of whom succeed against enormous odds, was at best unhelpful and in any event lacked compassion and humility. The suggestion that the majority of provincial cathedral musicians routinely rest on their laurels, where mediocrity and self-satisfaction hold sway, is frankly absurd given the wealth of recordings, live broadcasts and personal acquaintances that attest to the contrary.

In a forlorn attempt to validate his own contribution to the debate, Higgins claims that ‘no particular musical expertise or technical skill is [sic] necessary to recognise when music is being sung or played simply as notes on a page’ yet it is impossible to reconcile this view with his criticism later on in the article that ‘only something like 5% of any cathedral congregation is musically discerning’,

which he cites as one of the causes of the current state of ‘mediocrity’. These two statements would seem to be mutually exclusive. His article does focus attention on an acute problem facing professional church musicians nowadays. Highly trained organists and church musicians continue to graduate from university and music college alike only to be supervised or employed by clergy who, if not completely antipathetic to excellence in church music, are often comparatively less qualified, less informed and less experienced than in former times. A relic from the pre-Reformation monastic tradition, the late nineteenth century concept of cathedrals as microuniversities or havens for the cultured scholar-priest, has all but vanished. While some chapters may include those who are published theologians and church historians, others are liberally peppered with clergy whose chief qualification may well be no more than a pass degree from a third-division university and university chaplaincies are certainly not immune from these problems. If that were not sufficient justification for a reassessment of the criteria set down for the appointment of cathedral and university clergy in certain institutions, the want of rigorous musical training at theological college represents a genuine impediment to cathedral and collegiate liturgy and warrants a place in an ordinand’s training long before dreary, politically correct sermon topics and sclerotic, improvised ceremonial are even broached. If precentors, deans, and clergy in general, are to be effective managers of their musicians, they must be better informed about the concerns and demands of an organist’s lot and this can only be remedied by rigorous training and a good dose of common sense.

Given Michael Higgins’s perspective, it is any wonder that church musicians consider leaving the profession? Does he really expect us to believe he does not know why brilliant organ scholars from Cambridge are going into the city instead of applying for a cathedral post or why a steady stream of organists seeking work in the U.S.A. has turned into a torrent in recent years? Surely the answer is simple: money. Cathedral directors of music are remunerated at

The English Hymnal

Peter Lutton. Organist and Choirmaster, St Nicolas, Great Bookham, Surrey.

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the same paltry level as residentiary canons, yet unlike the clergy, they are eligible neither for a Church Commissioners’ mortgage upon retirement nor for private medical cover; consequently, they are forced to make sacrifices for their vocation above and beyond those required of the chapter. Such a parlous state of affairs should have caused considerable embarrassment to a church that has been wedded for far too long to the romantic notion that aesthetically conducive surroundings are adequate recompense for a meagre stipend. No attempt is made by Michael Higgins to offer a constructive solution to these pressing problems in his article. If cathedrals and collegiate foundations are to continue to attract excellent musicians and to maintain their unique tradition for future generations, it is time for change.

Peter Gould, Master of Music, Derby Cathedral.

I found the first article in the current edition by Michael Higgins rather harsh. Here in Derby Cathedral we do not have professional singers. We could not afford them and they just do not exist locally. We have no university music department on hand and most of my men are ex-trebles. Without them we could not perform the music that we do. In fact, I find that Derby Cathedral Choir is an excellent training ground for ‘higher’ positions as many of my singers and organists have gone on and achieved distinction in the music profession. I would have hoped that a less scathing and more encouraging comment from Mr Higgins would have been more positive. As it is, I don’t think that the singing of the choir in Derby has ever been of a higher standard than it currently and consistently is.

A Double from Devon Lilian Broughton, Whimple, Devon.

Upon reading Michael Higgins article, one is immediately struck by a sense of both arrogance and ignorance in the author’s opinions. A dean who believes he is qualified to criticise the quality of music in a cathedral is immediately discredited by this reader for holding up King’s College Choir, Cambridge, as an example of the best quality there is today. Indeed, the wellendowed set-up at King’s is envied by directors of music, many of whom struggle with inadequate resources and often hostile clergy and cathedral staff. Many directors of music (DoM) are not paid enough to live on without having another paid pursuit such as giving recitals or teaching, leaving less time for achieving the perfection for which they strive. Indeed, those cathedrals which, unlike King’s, do not have choir schools or accommodation for their lay clerks, cope with singers who have to travel through thick traffic at the end of a busy day to get to choir practices. Yet, despite this, good choir directors can produce music which can uplift spirits and awaken emotions. Even some choir schools have difficulty in recruiting enough really able choristers who can sing anything other than the simplest repertoire well. This means that the DoM must carefully schedule new and varied styles of music which will not allow the adult professionals to be bored whilst not swamping the choristers. To name but two cathedrals recently visited by me (and I visit many throughout the country each year): the full choir at Exeter Cathedral under Andrew Millington can, when the words are appropriate, sing so softly in what is not the best acoustic that the

congregation is almost transported to heaven itself; I also can’t help being moved by all psalms sung and attention to detail given in anthems under Judy Martin’s direction at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin. Cathedral music does not merely require a piece of music, a podium and a bit of arm-waving. It requires planning months in advance, organising up to 30 individuals, training the voices, teaching the music, then striving for perfection in interpretation. Often the DoM who teaches and conducts the choir also has to plan the liturgy and the choreography for a big service with choir, clergy, acolytes, readers and complicated lighting sequences involved. Even though Evensong is a choir office, music is not the only part of it which is expected to always inspire and uplift. Often the magic spell the music casts is cruelly broken by a bored-sounding canon, an out-oftune precentor, a badly prepared sermon or an inconsiderate clergy announcement made immediately after a spellbinding anthem has sounded its last chord. I quote from Michael Higgins’ article, “When a choir opens up at Evensong with ‘0 Lord open thou our lips’ it can sound as if they have just woken up...”. In my experience it is mostly the clergy who sing this, - often half asleep and out of tune! There are so many obstacles which directors of music have to overcome that I am sure most must be really dedicated otherwise they would be in better-paid and less demanding employment. In fact, at a time when a worrying number of cathedral directors of music and organists are forced into making the heartbreaking decision to move to America or leave the profession altogether, clergy should be looking to put their own house in order as regards the treatment of music departments within cathedrals, rather than blaming said departments for their own inadequacies.

All readers whose letters are published will receive a copy of FCM CD O How Glorious a compilation of cathedral music from the Priory Records catalogue. Letters may be shortened for publication.

All general points and comments welcomed. Please send letters by March 15th 2006 to:

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

Fax: 0871 224 7189 ajpalmer@lineone.net

Lilian Broughton, Whimple, Devon.

Further to the letter from David Martin in Issue 1/05 of CATHEDRAL MUSIC, I can quite understand how anyone would have missed out on who is the first and only female director of music in a major Anglican cathedral with a professional choir in the British Isles although she is listed on Page 7 of the yellow leaflet enclosed with CATHEDRAL MUSIC under ‘Dublin’. I saw a brief notice of her appointment in the Church Times in 2003, but there has been hardly a mention in any of the music or cathedral magazines. I have been to

Dublin and heard Christ Church Cathedral Choir and the Cathedral Girls’ Choir. They are quite stunning, and sing equally well music from the 16th Century to composers such as Francis Pott, Judith Bingham and Francis Grier from the 21st Century. Well done Judy! We hope to see a profile on you some day.

Mrs Pam Adair, Newton Abbot, Devon.

Sir: May I, through your letters page, thank FCM members for their kind thoughts and words after the death of

SALISBURYCATHEDRAL

Be a Choristerfora Day

Saturday 12 November2005

An Open Day for prospective choristers in Years 2, 3 & 4 and their parents

Voice Trials

Forchildren currently in Year3 or4

Boys - Saturday 21 January 2006

Girls - Saturday 4 February 2006

Organ Scholarship

Foracademic year2006-07

An ideal opportunity for a student to experience all aspects of cathedral music in a unique setting

Closing date: Monday 7 November2005

Auditions: Monday 5 December2005

For an informal discussion with the Director of Music and/or further details of the Open Day and Voice Trials please contact:

The Director of Music

Department of Liturgy and Music at Ladywell

33 The Close Salisbury SP1 2EJ

Tel: 01722 555148

my brother and your Vice-President, Tony Harvey.

It was also good to read in both obituaries published in the last edition of CATHEDRAL MUSIC how well-loved and respected Tony was within the Society. I thank Alan Thurlow, Michael Rhodes and the Editor, Andrew Palmer, for their thoughtful contributions.

Both Tony’s funeral and memorial services were well-attended and I was touched by the trouble taken by members to travel to Lincoln to attend.

All general points and comments welcomed. Please send letters by March 15th 2006 to:

The Editor, 21 Belle Vue Terrace, RIPON, North Yorkshire HG4 2QS Fax: 0871 224 7189 ajpalmer@lineone.net

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Book & Music Reviews

A BASIC COUNTERTENOR METHOD for teacher & student.

Peter GiIes. ISBN 1-871082-82-X Kahn & Averill, London. £14.

and Elizabeth Harwood. This approach attempted to put, as it were, flesh on the bones of her discourse, and I wish Giles could have done something similar with his book. Having said that, I remember falling about in laughter at some of the exercises that Manen had devised, and it was sometimes extremely difficult, even with the benefit of recorded sound, to grasp the import of the author’s intentions. However, it would have provided Giles with a challenge to produce a relevant accompanying disc to his work.

In summary, the work that Giles has produced should certainly be read by countertenors, indeed all singers, as there is too much of interest in the book for it to be ignored. However, I cannot stress too greatly the difficulties that would have to be overcome in pursuing a written course; I would go further, I believe it to be impossible to learn to sing solely through the printed word, and that only painstaking work with a competent teacher, not necessarily a fellow countertenor, backed up by tuition in disciplines such as deportment and stagecraft, languages and specialist song classes, can set a prospective countertenor on his way. So read this book but don’t expect to become a James Bowman overnight.

Richard Hill

CHORAL MASTERWORKS:

A listener’s guide.

Michael Steinberg OUP ISBN 0-19-512644-0 £19.99

This is an eminently readable if at times puzzling book, that first saw the light of day in 1988, and now Giles has revisited it to bring it up to date with some emendations. It is, first and foremost, a short treatise on the art of countertenor singing, but it also comes with an historical perspective, which, if not vital for an executant performer, provides nevertheless a helpful chronology. This is a welcome feature of the book, and helps the aspiring countertenor singer to find a place for himself in the great scheme of things. There are useful areas given over to physiognomy, with diagrams and charts of the vocal mechanism, and these fill possible gaps in what can be a neglected part of vocal training today. A recent advance in the driving test is a simple questionnaire on how a car actually works. Giles provides us with the equivalent questions and answers in singing terms. However, his delving into the minutiae of sinus, or White’s, tone left me rather mystified and I suspect that finding a teacher offering such a method of tuition might be rather hard to come by outside London. I would also suggest that unless a teacher really understands the finer points of sinus tone production, a pupil could suffer in consequence. There is, after all, as much quackery in singing teaching as in other professions, where the search for swift panaceas can often take precedence over more tried and tested methods. And this, in a sense, is a danger of pursuing a written course, for the execution of vocal exercises requires an extremely critical teacher to fine tune those exercises. Margins of error, especially in advanced students, can often be infinitesimally small. Some of the matters discussed in the book appear irrelevant. For example, it is surely unnecessary in these enlightened times to have to discuss tremolo/vibrato in the countertenor voice, for never has so much baroque opera been performed all over the world, with the extensive employment of countertenors. It is axiomatic that a wide palate of colour is going to be demanded of countertenors by producers and music directors alike, not to mention the myriad roles for the voice in 20th century opera and song. It is also worth mentioning the burgeoning talent of foreign singers, who come without the preciousness redolent of the cathedral choir stalls. This newer generation of artists generally perform with impressive virility, and in fairness, our own indigenous talent has responded positively to recent foreign vocal influences. Furthermore, many of our newer generation of choral directors prefer to hear altos offering a wide range of colours in their voices. In any case, there is a world of difference between ’wobble’, which is the result of a forced, uncontrolled delivery, and free ringing ‘vibrato‘. Perhaps the word ‘ring’ is preferable to that of ‘vibrato’ and describes more accurately the high quality tone that our finest countertenors produce. One of the ways round the problem of illustrating the abstract ideas contained in a treatise is by way of recorded demonstrations. Lucie Manen, who taught Peter Pears in his later years, produced a fine book on singing entitled The Art of Singing, in which her vocal exercises were illustrated on a record sung by Pears, Thomas Hemsley

Michael Steinberg’s book began as a series of notes for concerts and the book is a good source of material for those of us who write concert programmes. The staple diet of large choral works are all included, from Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Bach’s Passions, Mass in B minor to Tippett’s A Child of our time. Steinberg’s essay on ‘Sacred Texts in a Secular World’ with the subheading ‘A word to non-believers and believers’ makes for an interesting read. This is a trip of discovery where one learns something new about any of 50 choral works. Each piece includes a fascinating biographical account of the work’s genesis and an astute musical analysis that can be appreciated by both the casual music lover and serious music fans. A great resource and well worth having on the shelf.

Ian Morgan.

Peter Aston PETIT HOMMAGE À GABRIEL FAURÉ.

14046 £2.25 BANKS MUSIC PUBLICATIONS

Francis Jackson FESTIVAL TOCCATA

£3.95 14045 BANKS MUSIC PUBLICATIONS

Both these titles will make useful contributions to Sunday music. Peter Aston’s piece is charming and easy to play. A fine, lilting accompaniment with a solo tune over the top will delight any congregation waiting for a service to begin.

Jackson’s Toccata written in memory of Brian Runnett, former organist of Norwich Cathedral, is slightly more difficult and challenging but nevertheless will make an excellent postlude for a two manual organ.

Andrew Palmer

ESSENTIAL LEFÉBURE-WÉLY

Kevin Mayhew 1400374

SERVICE MUSIC FROM FRANCE

50 PIECES FOR ORGAN.

Kevin Mayhew

I have used the Service Music from France regularly as it contains many gems that any organist can use to fill before a service, during the communion or after. They are all easy to play, some for manuals only. It is excellently compiled by Colin Mawby who has picked good repertoire from the likes of Franck, Charpentier, Guilmant, Dubois etc. This is a good buy. The Essential Lefébure-Wély contains the two famous Sorties (E and B flat) along with some fine music such as a Chœur de Voix Humaines. The pieces are moderate to difficult in a range of styles but worth a buy if you are looking for something different. The B flat Sortie is also published separately.

Andrew Palmer

‘This newer generation of artists generally perform with impressive virility. ’

CD Reviews CHORAL

EDITOR’S CHOICE

GABRIEL JACKSON: SACRED CHORAL WORKS

Edinburgh Mass; O Sacrum Convivium; Creator of the Stars of Night; Ane Sang of the Birth of Christ; A Prayer of King Henry VI; Preces & Responses & Dismissal; Truro Service; Salve Regina; Organ: St Asaph Toccata*.

Choir of ST Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. Director: Matthew Owens. Organ: Simon Nieminski. * Michael Bonaventure.

DELPHIAN DCD34027 TT 70:22

This disc will knock you out. I have not come across Jackson before but the compositions on the disc bowled me over, The recording is the culmination of a four-year association with Matthew Owens and the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh. Jackson’s musical techniques are arresting, especially in the Gloria of the Mass with its peal of voices bringing the words to an exciting climax and the simple use of the Amen creates a superb effect. Most of the music on this disc would appeal to lovers of cathedral music and would sit well in any festival of church music. Most of it is a cappella. The singing is first-rate and Matthew Owen’s choir delivers superlative performances and finely-tuned singing from all voices. This CD is quite simply tremendous as it marries unknown repertoire with some of the finest singing I have heard for a long time.

Ian Morgan.

(Read David Flood’s interview with Gabriel Jackson on page 36 [Ed])

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS & JUDITH BINGHAM

RVW Mass in G minor; Te Deum in G; O vos omnes; Valiant-for-Truth; A vision of aeroplanes.

Bingham Mass

The Choir of Westminster Cathedral, Director: Martin Baker. Organ: Robert Quinney. HYPERION CDA67503. TT 79:45

Recordings from the choir of Westminster Cathedral are always eagerly awaited. When the repertoire is as good as the RVW Mass in G minor coupled with Judith Bingham’s Mass it is a CD not to be missed. This recording does not disappoint, the singing is first-rate and has a richness that enhances the Mass in G minor. The blend of boys and men is excellent as are the boys on their own. It is a very atmospheric disc transporting the listener into the Cathedral. Judith Bingham’s Mass, which won last year’s liturgical category in the British Composer Awards, replaces the Credo with a central Offertory The Mass was written to mark Ascension Day, and organ solos provide a narrative frame to an engrossing work.

Patrick Mayhew

MEDITATION

Allegri Miserere Mei; Byrd Ne irascaris; Casals O vos omnes; Pärt The Beatitudes; Harvey The royal banners forward go; Lotti Crucifixus; Tallis O salutaris hostia; Holst Nunc dimittis; Rossini O salutaris hostia; Moore

Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. King John IV of Portugal Crux fidelis.

The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Director: David Hill. SJCR 103-2 TT 71:20

Rival centres of attention I suppose. The Allegri to attract those who might otherwise not buy a choral anthology; Casals and Harvey for the adventurous; Philip Moore for the cognoscenti. Even if you already have several versions of Allegri’s Miserere (or like me, are occasionally inclined to hope that someone will suggest ‘omitting the starred verses’) read on, and having read, go out and buy. This is David Hill’s first recital at John’s and is on their own label. It is a heady mix of mature interpretation and consummate performance. Casals is scarcely known as a composer, but O Vos

omnes is a real treasure, deserving of being much more widely known. The Philip Moore triptych is arresting and moving and, for my money, is worth the price of this CD alone. To be fair, no one who buys this for the wellknown pieces will be disappointed, but if they are thereby introduced to some new pieces the work of the programmer, which at first I was inclined to wonder at, will have been wholly justified. A further own-label record is planned, also a Hyperion CD of Mendelssohn. On the evidence of this stunning recital, David Hill has hit the ground running.

Richard Osmond.

BRITISH CHURCH COMPOSER SERIES 1

John Sanders Festival Te Deum; A Prayer of Cardinal Newman; The Firmament; Soliloquy for Organ; The Gloucester Service; Dedication; My beloved spake; Requiem; I will lift up mine eyes; Toccata for Organ; A Prayer.

The Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Director: Geoffrey Webber. Organists: Francesca Massey. Thomas Hewitt Jones. PRIORY PRCDA 831 TT 72:34

There are many things to salute Priory for but from an FCM standpoint this new series could be the best yet. Even better that it kicks off with a composer who was so much at the heart of cathedral music, mainly at Gloucester Cathedral, where this CD was recorded by the Choir of Gonville and Caius College. (John Sanders was a former organ scholar at Caius) They were able to spend longer preparing for the lengthy sessions needed to record the twelve demanding works than the Cathedral Choir, so I am told. Uncaged from their tiny chapel into Gloucester’s vast acoustic, with its eight seconds reverberation time, they achieve a very high standard and give some notably inspired renderings, starting with the Festival Te Deum of 1960. This was written for the Cheltenham Bach Choir and demonstrates how well the eight Caius sopranos cope with the consistently high-compass writing in this and other pieces in the programme. The alto line matches this very ‘white tone’, devoid of vibrato, brilliantly, using five contraltos and one countertenor. There are only four tenors and five basses, yet their tonal weight is always adequate. The director, Geoffrey Webber, should take much credit for the quality of these performances. There are two solo organ works from the 1970s, given very polished performances on the magnificent Gloucester instrument by the College’s organ scholars, Francesca Massey and Thomas Hewitt Jones. The programme ends with Sanders’s final work, A Prayer, completed shortly before his unexpected death in 2003. It is a setting for choir with organ accompaniment, the text of which provides a final note of resigned valediction for this immensely talented and creative musician. For those who are dubious about contemporary cathedral music, John Sanders provides an ideal way in to it.

Roger Tucker

BRITISH CHURCH COMPOSER SERIES 2

Philip Stopford. Hosanna to the Son of David; Te Deum; King of Glory; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day; God be in my head; God so loved the world; Pater Noster; Spirit of the living world; A child is born; If ye love me; Ave Maria; Hymn to the Creator; The King of love; Missa Brevis; Sussex Carol; Jesus Christ the Apple Tree; Keeble Canticle; For the beauty of the earth; Come down O love divine. The Ecclesium Choir. Director: Philip Stopford. Organ: Tim Noon. PRIORY PRCD 832 TT 74:44

This is a welcome project which deserves to succeed, and these first recordings have set a high standard, with performances of first-rate quality. It will be interesting to see which other composers are included; I would make a plea for Ernest Bullock, Alan Gray, Henry Ley and Thomas Attwood Walmisley, any of whom would provide material for an interesting

programme. We shall see! Philip Stopford is Organist of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, having been Organ Scholar of Keble College, Oxford and Assistant Organist of Chester Cathedral, and much of the music on this recording was composed for one or other of these institutions. The liner-notes invite a comparison with John Rutter, and Stopford’s music is similarly skilful and attractive, but without the great man’s genius: I preferred the fast and cheerful items with organ, the slow unaccompanied anthems suffering from a certain monotony of rhythm. He seems fond, perhaps excessively so, of a high tessitura for his sopranos. There are good settings of the Te Deum and the Communion Service, and some virtuoso interpretations of Christmas carols are highly entertaining and brilliantly sung. Worth buying if you like the ‘easy listening’ style of contemporary cathedral music.

Timothy Storey

BRITISH CHURCH COMPOSER SERIES 3

John Stainer. Magnificat in B flat; Love divine; Lead kindly light; The Antiphons; I am Alpha and Omega; Miserere mei; I saw the Lord; God so loved the world; Lord, thou art God

The Choir of The Abbey School, Tewkesbury.

Director: Benjamin Nicholas. Organ: Carleton Etherington. PRIORY PRCD 833 TT 74:14

The Choir of the Abbey School at Tewkesbury is a well-drilled body, with some good soloists among the boys, though there are some odd vowelsounds – ‘My soll doth m-ah-gnify the Lord… he hath sc-ah-ttered the proud’ etc. This is a well-chosen programme with music from every stage of the composer’s working life, and your reviewer must declare an interest here, for he wrote the liner-notes which of course are scholarly and informative! Some of the anthems included are quite well-known, and frankly we could have done without God so loved the world, but there is plenty to attract the discerning collector. A quite glorious novelty is Lord, thou art God, fully fifteen minutes long, which Stainer wrote for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and there is also a substantial excerpt from his cantata The Daughter of Jairus. I can see this recording being popular, and deservedly so.

Timothy Storey

BRITISH CHURCH COMPOSER SERIES 4

Percy C Buck. Let the peace of God; O God, whose nature and property; Brethren, whatsoever things are true; The Lord is gracious; They that sow in tears Mercy and truth; O Lord God; God be merciful unto us; the Lord is king; beloved now we are the Sons of God; There came wise men from the East; Christ died for us; Jesus said; Christmas Dawn; Songs of the Holy Child. Organ: Chorale Prelude: In Dulci Jubilo.

The Sheldon Consort. Director: Rupert Gough. Organ: David Bednall. PRIORY PRCD 835 TT 78:38

As the liner-notes freely admit, Percy Buck is hardly known apart from the hymn-tune Gonfalon Royal and some rather good chants. He studied at the Royal College of Music and Oxford University, was organist of Wells Cathedral (1896-9) before a sideways move to Bristol (1899-1901), and spent the rest of his working life in various academic posts, being knighted in 1937 on his retirement from the King Edward Professorship in the University of London. Appropriately it is a Wells-based choir directed by the cathedral’s Sub-Organist which has made this very accomplished recording, marred only by some ill-focussed baritone solos; there are the six short anthems he wrote for Wells, four substantial anthems for men’s voices, two anthems for boys’ voices written for St Paul’s during a dearth of men in the Great War, the Songs of the Holy Child for Christmas, and a substantial setting of The Lord is King, perhaps the best thing in the programme. The music is warm, expressive and at times highly chromatic, as if Buck had absorbed the idiom of his teacher Parry and then moved on somewhat; I found this disc an unexpectedly enjoyable voyage into the unknown, and I hope readers will feel moved to buy a copy and follow me there.

Timothy Storey

IN THE BEGINNING

Choral Masterpieces of the 1940s

Britten Rejoice in the Lamb; Pizzetti Tre composizioni corale; Finzi Lo the Full, Final Sacrifice; Copland In the Beginning

Gloucester Cathedral Choir. Director: Andrew Nethsingha. Organ: Robert Houssart. AVIE AV2072 TT 70:39

All the works on this disc are substantial, the shortest lasting just over 15 minutes, the longest nearly 19 minutes. All the compositions are meaty and offer different perspectives on listening to the choir. The first thing to say is that the recording quality is excellent, especially capturing all the nuances. I was impressed by the standard of singing and the character of the music which Andrew Nethsingha’s magnificent choir sing so skillfully. The Copland lasts about 5 minutes longer than the composers timing but this is perhaps to take account of the acoustic in the cathedral. Frances Bourne, is the mezzo-soprano, whose diction is very good and there is a luminous quality to her voice. The Finzi sees James Gilchrist as tenor pairing with bass James Birchall for the ‘O soft self-wounding Pelican’ duet and the quality is as one would expect excellent. Both Robert Houssart and the choir make this one of the best recordings I have heard for a long time. The organist is clearly at ease accompanying the choir sensitively. Unreservedly recommended.

Sarah Samuelson

MAURICE DURUFLÉ

Complete sacred choral works. Messe de Requiem; Quatre Motets; Messe cum Jubilo; Nôtre Père.

Truro Cathedral Choir. Director: Robert Sharpe.

Organ: Christopher Gray. Baritone: David Kimberg. LAMMAS LAMM 174D TT 63:30

The Truro choir’s strengths are well displayed in this latest recording. Its strong but sweet-toned treble line and an impressively well-blended group of lay-clerks and choral scholars plus the excellent Dawid Kimberg (baritone) give an assured performance of Duruflé’s Requiem together with the Mass Cum jubilo for unison men’s voices, the four motets founded on plainsong themes and the Lord’s Prayer. Robert Sharpe’s speeds are brisk, but not unacceptably so, and Christopher Gray find all the right sounds on the cathedral’s wonderful Father Willis organ. Recommended.

Timothy Storey

1605: TREASON & DISCHORD (sic).

William Byrd and the Gunpowder Plot.

Dowland George Whitehead’s Almand; Sir Henry Umpton’s Funeral; M Bucton Galliard; Byrd Mass for 4 Voices; Civitas sancti tui; Dering Ardens est cor meum; Philips Ave Maria; Weelkes O Lord how joyful is the King; Pott Master Tresham: His Ducke. The King’s Singers. Concordia. Organ: Sarah Baldock.

SIGNUM RECORDS SIGCD061 TT 69:21

It would be too easy, and a serious mistake, for the purchaser to pass this by as just another old-style mixed ‘Tudor Church Music’ programme of Byrd, Dowland, Philips and Weelkes for voices, viols and lute, though in any case it is quite a relief from the current fashion for single-composer discs, where you may feel like taking the contents by instalments. This one is not to be missed, quite special and rather haunting, and you have to listen to it complete AND read the liner notes as you go – if your eyes are up to the task, for the print is tiny, barely legible. In a script by Deborah Mackay one is invited to imagine and share William Byrd’s musings on the increased danger to Catholics under the new monarch James the First, amid the atmosphere of gloom and terror caused by the Gunpowder Plot; there are amusing touches also, with a distinctly waspish comment on his erstwhile pupil Peter Philips. Elsewhere in the notes comparisons are drawn with the events of 9/11, to which you may now add 7/7 if you are so minded. The music itself is a kind of

commentary on what Byrd has to say, his Mass for Four Voices being interspersed with consort music, ‘Catholic’ motets and a ‘Protestant’ anthem; and the twenty-first century’s Francis Pott contributes a most extraordinary whimsy entitled Mr Tresham: His Ducke, which sounds like Byrd under the influence of illicit substances. This is performed with quite incredible panache, a fitting conclusion to an outstanding disc; the current version of the King’s singers may not be as silky-smooth as the originals, but the singing is totally satisfying and convincing. Get this disc, without fail.

Timothy Storey

ANTHEMS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Dove Bless the Lord, O my soul; Rathbone Absolon, my son; Todd Angel Song II; Filsell Mysterium Christi; Clucas Hear my crying; Barlow When I see on Rood; G Jackson Now I have known, O Lord; MacMillan

Chosen; Moore I saw him standing; Blackford On

Another’s Sorrow; Bignold Peace; Swingle Give us this day. All tracks are world premiere recordings. Vasari Singers. Director: Jeremy Backhouse. Organ: Jeremy Filsell.

SIGNUM SIGCD059 TT 69:55

Everything in this programme is either specially commissioned or recorded here for the first time, and the stated aim was to provide new works of a style and scope suited to performance in Divine Service. The performances are absolutely first-rate, though one hopes other organists besides Jeremy Filsell will be able meet the demands of the accompaniment to his own Mysterium Christi, a most exciting and compelling work. Among other names which may be less familiar to most of us, Jonathan Dove, Gabriel Jackson and James Macmillan contribute typical examples of their current style, and it is good to have the work of a senior cathedral organist included; Philip Moore’s I saw him standing is a work of real quality which for once does not lapse into plainsong, a device perhaps too frequently employed by York Minster’s distinguished organist. An oddity is Give us this day by Ward Swingle, which introduces the homely accents of Parry, Stanford & Co. to what is otherwise a pretty good compendium of current trends in composition. Strongly recommended.

Timothy Storey

PEERSON LATIN MOTETS

Deus omnipotens; Redemptor mundi; Pater fili paraclete; Levavi oculos meos; Ecce non dormitabit; Mulieres sedentes; Christus factus est; Hora nona; Latus eius; O rex gloriae; Quid vobis videtur; O domine Jesu Christe; Laboravi in gemitu meo; Nolite fierei; Multa flagella peccatoris. Ex Cathedra Consort. Director: Jeffrey Skidmore. Hyperion CDA67490TT 65:33

This is a great discovery, for I suspect that the only works of Martin Peerson (c1572-1651) known to readers will be the handful of English anthems published in the 1950s. These Latin motets are something of a puzzle, for in his later years at least the composer showed no overt Catholic sympathies, holding posts at court under James the First and (apparently in plurality) at Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral; it may be, as the music’s editor Richard Rastall suggests, that they were for use in Westminster Abbey, Latin being permitted in Royal Peculiars and College Chapels. Your reviewer’s own view, for what it is worth, is that they were for private devotion, for not all the texts have any obvious liturgical use and the style is madrigalian, with daring chromatics, vigorous rhythms and dramatic word-painting. Might there be some link with Peter Philips? There seems more than a hint of his style, and they follow his favourite SSATB scoring. Rastall argues persuasively that the music should be performed and heard in its printed order, for it falls into three sections dealing with Sin, Christ’s Passion and Christ as Redeemer, and this is how it is presented in this highly accomplished recording by the excellent Ex Cathedra Consort, a select group drawn from the main choir. A ‘must’ for lovers of the ‘Golden Age’ of English music.

Timothy Storey.

STAINER: THE CRUCIFIXION

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge. Director: Timothy Brown. Organ: Stephen Farr. Tenor: James Gilchrist. Bass: Simon Bailey. NAXOS 8.557624 TT 66:47

This recording from Clare was made in June 2004 and issued as part of the celebration of Naxos’s 18th birthday. It was in fact recorded in Guildford Cathedral, hence Stephen Farr as accompanist. This CD is well-recorded and the soloists are both excellent, especially tenor James Gilchrist. The bass, Simon Bailey, offers a full tone although his singing is slightly marred for me by his vibrato. Stephen Farr gives an assured and fine performance and Timothy Brown’s singers are also excellent. There is a bonus in that there is a second CD containing tracks from Naxos’s English Choral Classics series. Recommended.

Ian Morgan

IMMORTAL FIRE Music for Female Saints

Howells A Hymn for St Cecilia; Salve Regina; Bingham

MargaretFosaken; Peeters Toccata, Fugue & Hymn on Ave maris stella; Hildegard of Bingen Five Mattins Antiphons for St Ursula; Duruflé Tota pulchra es

Maria; Britten A Hymn to the Virgin; Hymn to St Cecilia; Dupré Magnificat; Holst Ave Maria; Elgar Ave Maria; Grieg Ave maris stella.

Winchester Cathedral Girl Choristers & Lay Clerks. Director: Sarah Baldock. Organ: Andrew Lumsden. GRIFFIN GCCD 4049 TT 74:27

Programme planning is becoming ever more ingenious, and this one was a good idea, though perhaps the net could have been cast somewhat more widely, as Cecilia and the Blessed Virgin Mary take the lion’s share, an Ave Maris Stella by Flor Peeters being a welcome discovery and some dreary Magnificat versets for organ by Marcel Dupré an unwelcome one. With characteristic imagination and generosity the Dean and Chapter commissioned Margaret Forsaken from Judith Bingham specially for this recording; the text by A. Martin Shaw tells the story of Queen Margaret of Scotland’s struggle to fulfill her call to the religious life, and the music is vivid and effective, though listening without the text I could make out very few of the words. Britten’s Hymn to Saint Cecilia is perhaps the best performance on the disc, with the ‘I cannot err’ section delivered at breakneck speed with great panache and complete security, but I looked in vain for the touch of menace which should lurk in other places. This rather disengaged quality pervades much of the disc; the girls’ singing is mature, well-drilled and excellently blended, and the Winchester men are as usual highly capable, but this listener at any rate was left somewhat unmoved.

Timothy Storey

MUSIC FOR CHARLES V, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR

Des Pres Ave Maria; Gombert Qui colis Ausoniam; Morales Jubilate Deo ; Missa L’homme armé ; Crecquillon Andreas Christi famulus; Di Lassus

Heroum soboles; Don Fernando de las Infantas Parce

mihi Domine

Chapelle du Roi. Director: Alistair Dixon.

SIGNUM SIGCD019 TT 75:49

If this CD is anything to go by Charles V had a good musical knowledge and knew what he liked. He filled his court and chapel with some fine and inspiring music from this era. The performance of the Morales’s Mass is sung stylishly and elegantly by Chapelle du Roi, who also delight with other musical examples from the 15th century. Signum is getting an excellent reputation for high quality recordings of repertoire that needs exploring. I shall be watching their catalogue so I can pick out other gems.

Patrick Mayhew.

HEAR MY PRAYER

Mendelssohn Hear my prayer; Hear ye , Israel; Handel

I know that my redeemer; Du Mont O nomen Jesu; Walker I will lift my mine eye; Finzi God is gone up; Vaughan Williams The Woodcutter’s Song; Lallouette

O mysterium ineffable; Fauré Pie Jesu; Pergolesi 5 movements from Stabat mater; Britten Te Deum in C; Jubilate in E flat

Winchester College Chapel Choir. Director: Christopher Tolley.

Organ: James Davy. HERALD HAVPCD 303 TT 64:53

As the disc’s title suggests, Mendelssohn’s familiar war-horse takes pride of place, and is given an assured performance by Harry Sever with impressive breath control. His singing is bright, clear and attractive, while his slightly junior colleague Thomas Jesty has a warmer, almost mezzo quality; they were in successive years not only Head Quirister of the college choir but also BBC Choirboy of the Year, an enviable achievement almost without parallel. They sing in duet in Du Mont’s O nomen dolce, a welcome novelty, and in movements from Pergolesi’s Stabat mater; these are perhaps the best performances, and more of the same or similar might have been preferable to Harry Sever’s valiant efforts in the familiar I know that my Redeemer liveth, which is a stern test for even the most experienced adult soloist. The full choir contributes strong and satisfying performances of anthems by Finzi and Ernest Walker, and rounds off the disc in fine style with Britten’s Te Deum in C and Jubilate in E flat.

Timothy Storey

THOMAS TALLIS Latin & English motets & anthems.

Sancte Deus; Suscipe quaeso Domine; Salvator mundi; Miserere nostril; In ieunio et fletu; If ye love me; Loquebantur variis linguis; Candidi facti sunt; O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit; o Nata lux; Videte miraculum; Verily, verily; O salutaris hostia; O sacrum convivium; Thou wast, O God; Jesu. Salvator saeculi; Magnificat & Nunc dimittis (Dorian) Te lucis ante terminum.

The Rodolfus Choir. Director: Ralph Allwood.

HERALD HAVPCD 305 TT 70:34

(Texts and translations are not included in the CD booklet but are available to download free from the Herald website.)

It is heartening to hear young singers clearly relishing the opportunity to perform this repertoire, and they convey the music with real enthusiasm. The programme is well thought through and shows the many different styles of Tallis’s output to good effect, for example the contrapuntally dense Miserere nostri and the beautifully simple Verily, verily . The performances are stylish throughout and the warm acoustic adds nicely to the choral textures without obscuring detail. A worthy addition to this fine choir’s discography.

Julian Thomas

THOMAS TALLIS

Jesu salvator; Gaude gloriosa; Sermone blando angelus; Magnificat & Nunc dimittis á 5; Mihi autem nimis; Absterge Domine; Derelinquat impius; Loquebantur variis linguis; Suscipe quaeso Domine; O nata lux.

The Cardinall’s Musick. Director: Andrew Carwood. HYPERION CDA67548 TT 69:15

This disc takes its title from the monumental votive anthem Gaude gloriosa: 17 magnificent minutes of through-composed, rich textures and true contrasts, sung with vitality and subtlety. The 16 voices of the Cardinall’s Musick are allowed to blossom and blend – there is never a feeling of that over-purified sound which seemed so prevalent in the early 1990s. Smallerscale works such as O Nata lux and Loquebantuur variis linguis are equally effective, and it is nice to have the Magnificat & Nunc dimittis à 5 included to contrast with the other repertoire. Andrew Carwood’s essay too is a fascinating historical and musicological backdrop to the featured music. If you buy only one Tallis disc to celebrate his 500th birthday: make it this one!

Julian Thomas

THE COMPLETE MORNING & EVENING CANTICLES OF HERBERT HOWELLS VOL 5

Collegium Regale Te Deum & Jubilate; Jubilate Deo for The Chapel Royal; Te Deum Laudamus for Searle Wright; Te Deum; Benedictus & Jubilate (date unknown); The Coventry Mass; The Office of the Holy Communion Collegium Regale.

The Collegiate Singers. Director: Andrew Millinger. Organ: Richard Moorhouse. PRIORY PRCD 784 CD1 TT 41:46 CD2 TT 44:50

Not only does this boast two world première recordings, it also completes Priory’s project to record all Howells’ canticle settings. The Collegiate Singers are a fitting choice given their association with the composer: apart from specialising in the performance of his music, they were invited to perform at a 90th birthday concert for him, gave the world première of Blessed are the dead, and their director has been Secretary of the Herbert Howells Society since its creation in 1987. An exceptional choir with a solid command of frequently complex music.

Martin Wolf

MICHAEL HAYDN

Requiem Pro Defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismundo; Missa in Honorem Sanctae Ursulae. Choir of the King’s Consort. The King’s Consort. Director: Robert King.

HYPERION CDA67510 2 CDs. TT 83:50

Michael Haydn was destined, like several other fine musicians (Blow, Buxtehude, Salieri come to mind), to live in the shadow of more famous contemporaries - in his case his own brother Josef and the young Mozart. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the respect and admiration of them both (in spite of some rather po-faced remarks in Mozart’s correspondence with his father about Michael’s drinking habits.) Michael’s Requiem was sung at Josef’s funeral, and his pupil Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert both spoke of him with reverence. Haydn’s Requiem was written in his capacity as court composer at Salzburg for the Archbishop’s memorial service in 1771. The depth of feeling in his setting with its sumptuous orchestration (including four trumpets) reflects the composer’s regard for his late patron, the kindly Archbishop Schrattenbach, and may also have been influenced by the loss of Haydn’s infant daughter in the same year. There are many pre-echoes of Mozart’s Requiem of twenty years later, too many to be coincidental, showing how familiar Mozart must have been with Haydn’s work. He is known to have copied out several of Michael’s pieces in his youth for study purposes and he and his father were almost certainly present at the memorial service for the Archbishop who had also treated them with kindness. The St Ursula Mass (1793) is a much sunnier work, again composed for a specific occasion, this time with a more standard Viennese mass orchestra including strings (but without violas), two trumpets, timpani and three trombones. The performances are well up to the standards habitually set by the King’s Consort. The soloists are excellent, either singly or in ensemble, an outstanding contribution being made by the soprano Carolyn Sampson. This is the second Michael Haydn CD to come my way recently. On the strength of these excellent performances, interest in his music deserves to grow. There are about three dozen masses by Michael Haydn and literally hundreds of other choral pieces, in addition to symphonies and much other instrumental music, still to be explored.

Alan Spedding

A SCOTTISH LADY MASS

Sacred Music from Medieval St Andrews. Music from the eleventh fascicle of W1. Red Byrd. John Potter. Richard Wistreich. Yorvox. HYPERION CDA67299 TT 66:05

The early ecclesiastical inhabitants of St Andrews were loosely affiliated to Rome and there were strong links with the Continental mainland, with the bishops almost exclusively coming from Norman families. It should therefore come as no

surprise to find that St Andrews is the original home of a manuscript of polyphonic music whose contents originated in Paris. But what is surprising is the very nature of the music to be found in the pages of this manuscript. Liturgical idiosyncrasies abound, as local musicians infuse the standard ‘Parisian’ repertory with references to their own Saint Andrew. The musical idiom finds itself stripped of many of the obfuscating intricacies beloved of Continental contemporaries, leaving a style which is more direct and – it could be argued – more accessible to the modern ear. Although not a liturgical reconstruction of a Lady Mass in St Andrews around 1230 or so, the repertory on this disc well reflects the liturgical inclusiveness of the musical culture that the cathedral engendered. This is a marvellous CD which takes the listener back to a time past and paints a choral picture of fine harmonies and textures. The effects from the two voices of John Potter and Richard Wistreich, the duo that makes up Red Byrd is utterly wonderful. Yorvox, a vocal ensemble from York University add to the performances with accomplished choral participation. Highly recommended.

Patrick Mayhew

HOWELLS CHORAL MUSIC

A Sequence for St Michael; A Hymn for St Cecilia; O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; Te Deum & Benedictus (St George’s Chapel, Windsor); I love all beauteous things; Salve Regina; Magnificat & Nunc dimittis (New College, Oxford). Three Carol Anthems; Magnificat & Nunc dimittis (Collegium Regale).

The Choir of Wells Cathedral. Director: Malcolm Archer. Organ: Rupert Gough. HYPERION CDA67494 TT 79:34

There is some glorious singing on this disc, by seven boy and nine girl choristers plus the cathedral’s exceptionally fine set of men. Performances are well paced and expressive, and the varied moods of a wide-ranging programme are caught to perfection, from the simplicity of the early Salve Regina and Three Carols (how good to have these together on one disc) to the composer’s complicated and taxing latter-day style, here represented by I love all beauteous things. The rarely heard Te Deum and Benedictus for St George’s Chapel, Windsor are a welcome inclusion, while a highlight is Archer’s interpretation of the familiar O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, slow, restrained and terribly sad, as though Howells snowed-up in the Cotswolds in 1941 saw that (or any other) peace as a somewhat faint hope. Plus ça change! There is an amusing misprint in the liner-notes, where cathedral organists are described as ‘cueing up’ to commission canticle settings, as though the lucky establishments would be selected by the outcome of a game of billiards. New College was one of the winners, its Evening Service being included here together with the familiar Collegium Regale setting which is well enough sung but lacks the peculiar luminosity imparted by the King’s acoustic; I wish we had been given something else. That’s only my opinion, and don’t let it put you off buying this recording, for you will have to go far to hear any finer singing.

Timothy Storey

DUFAY & BINCHOIS

Dufay (attr.) Mass for St Anthony Abbot; Binchois

Domitor Hectoris; Kyrie; Sanctus; Agnus Dei; Nove

Cantum melodie

The Binchois Consort. Director: Andrew Kirkman.

HYPERION CDA67474 TT 70:54

Guillaume Dufay (c.1400 – 1474), the leading composer of his day, and the most prolific, spent half of his career in the service of Cambrai Cathedral, where he became a canon. Cambrai was famous throughout Europe for the excellence of its choir and the Pope’s musicians recruited many singers from Cambrai for the Papal Choir. Dufay himself sang in the Papal Choir from 1428 to 1437 and also worked in a number of important musical centres. He was in contact with many influential friends and patrons including the Medici family, the Este court. King Charles VII of France, the Malatestas and the courts of Savoy and Burgundy. In his church music he paved the way for many of the polyphonic innovations of the Renaissance. His contemporary Gilles Binchois (c. 1400 - 1460) wrote a good deal of straightforward church music in a style influenced by English composers, in addition to the two ceremonial motets written for the Burgundian court featured on this CD. He also set fashions in secular music and his style was much copied. The

Binchois Consort bring this sophisticated music to life (in spite of some rather weary-sounding intonation at times), thanks to the scholarly performing editions of Alejandro Enrique Planchart and Philip Weller and the latter’s informative sleeve note sets the music in historical context.

Alan Spedding

SO RICH A CROWN

Thomas St Edmund’s Prayer; Mendelssohn Say where is he born; Byrd Prevent us O Lord; Sing joyfully; Bairstow Blessed city; Stanford Justorum animae; CoelosAscendit Hodie; Tallis O sacrum convivium; If ye love me; Verily verily; Naylor Vox dicentes; Greene Lord let me know mine end; Wood Hailgladdening light; Oculi omnium; Parry My soul; Never weather beaten sail; I know my soul hath power

The Choir of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Director: James Thomas. Organ: Michael Bawtree. LAMMAS LAMM 172D TT 73:12

This is quite a punishing programme for a cathedral choir, and a few of the Anglican tradition’s tougher monsters (Blessed City, Vox dicentes...) slacken the grip on intonation and stretch the singers to their very limits. And occasionally beyond. That said, the Byrd and Stanford items, If ye love me and even My soul, there is a country are successful. But anyone expecting finelyhoned performances à la Winchester or Westminster may not appreciate the more rough-and-ready qualities of the singing here. And the organ, wheezing noisily towards its imminent overhaul, doesn’t help matters. Consequently, the disc is likely to be of greater interest to those connected with St Edmundsbury Cathedral than the general public.

Martin Wolf

I HEARD AN ANGEL SING.

The Girl Choristers of Wells Cathedral. Director: Rupert Gough. Organ & Piano: David Bednall. Herald HAVPCS 307 TT 62:47

24 refreshingly varied tracks of Christmas music: each piece averages just over two minutes, many split into harmony and the accompaniment switches between piano, organ and a cappella. Nor is the programme your standard Yuletide line-up, instead favouring contemporary offerings by the likes of Barry Ferguson, Patrick Hadley and Louis Halsey, as well as some Britten, Ireland, Warlock, Quilter et al. This is a must-have for choral directors seeking what is on the whole reasonably simple but effective music for trebles only. It’s a shame the fine singing is marred slightly by an irksome habit of exaggerating final consonants of words (“Bethlehem-a down”, “and-a Lord of all”, “when-a he is king”, etc.), which sounds very affected. Nonetheless an attractive disc.

Martin Wolf

MORTEN LAURIDSEN

Lux Aeterna

Lux Aeterna; Madrigali; Ave Maria; Ubi caritas et amor; O magnum mysterium. Polphony. Britten Sinfonia. Director: Stephen Layton. HYPERION CDA67449 TT 66:45

The American composer Morten Lauridsen uses the techniques, idioms and expression of other ages, especially those of the Renaissance, to create choral music of great beauty. One is conscious of influences from plainchant to Poulenc as one listens to his settings of a number of Latin texts which must be familiar to any church musician. He bases his secular style on the great Italian madrigalists, Marenzio, Monteverdi and Gesualdo. His music is not mere pastiche, however, but rather a distillation of absorbed influences into a timeless style which is uniquely his own. Stephen Layton has established himself as one of our most significant choral conductors and his performances here with his excellent choir. Polyphony, ably accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia, will further enhance his reputation. The choral sound is beautifully varied and blended with utterly reliable intonation. This is a fine CD which will give great pleasure, and even consolation, to the listener.

Alan Spedding

MIXING THEIR MUSIC

Finzi God is gone up; Howells A Sequence for St Michael; Victoria Alma redemptoris mater; Reginacoeli; J L Bach Unsere Trübsal; JS Bach Der Geist hilft unserer Schwachheit auf; Mendelssohn Richte mich, Gott; Schütz Tröstet, tröstet mein Volk; Leighton Te Deum; Britten Antiphon; Singer Jubilate St Albans Chamber Choir. Director: David Hansell.

Organ: Roger Judd. LAMMAS LAMM 173D TT 68:00

This amateur adult choir generally puts on a convincing show with well controlled and balanced singing, though in their upper register the sopranos can lack warmth, producing a forced sound. Plainsong sung by 40 or so mixed voices might not be to everyone’s taste, ditto the choice of contrapuntal works for such large resources, but the choir keeps its hands on the reins here with only the slightest loss of clarity. That said, the twentieth-century works are the most successful. Finzi’s opener, like Britten’s Antiphon and the disc’s two world première recordings (Leighton’s Te Deum and Malcolm Singer’s Jubilate) and Howells’ obscure but mindblowing A Sequence for St Michael, are all given commendable performances. Martin Wolf.

THE TALLIS SCHOLARS SING PALESTRINA

Assumpta est Maria in caelum; Missa Assumpta est Maria in coelum; Sicut lilium inter spinas I; Missa Sicut lilium inter spinas; Lamentations for Holy Saturday; Missa Brevis; Missa Papae Marcelli.

The Tallis Scholars. Director: Peter Phillips.

GIMELL CDGIM 204 2 CDs TT 139:00

Here we have a selection of the Tallis Scholars’ best recordings of Palestrina ranging from their first back in 1980 to one of the most recent in 1998. You will be hard pushed to find any recordings which better these ethereal interpretations, and indeed having so many rich pickings on one double disc is an opportunity to be seized.

Martin Wolf.

SEA CHANGE

The choral music of Richard Rodney Bennett. Sea Change; A Farewell to Arms; A Good-Night; Verses; Missa Brevis; Five Carols; Lullay Mine Liking; What sweeter music; Puer Nobis

The Cambridge Singers. Director: John Rutter COLLEGIUM CSACD 901 TT 74:28

In this highly-acclaimed release, the Cambridge Singers – who are absolutely on the ball under John Rutter’s direction – treat us to a large helping of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s not-insignificant choral output. Not all the music is liturgical – the challenging Sea Change comprises texts by Shakespeare and Marvell, and includes a fine setting of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (track 3), where the work’s fantastical character is conveyed by extremely imaginative writing which fully exploits the singers’ capabilities. Another – A Farewell to Arms – has a haunting ’cello solo. Other works are more religiously oriented, the poignant A GoodNight having been commissioned in memory of Linda McCartney. The arresting Missa Brevis and charming Five Carols are further evidence of a truly original musical mind and natural gift for enhancing words through music. Martin Wolf.

HANDEL

An ode for St Cecilia’s Day.

Choir of the King’s Consort. The King’s Consort.

Director: Robert King. Soprano: Carolyn Sampson.

Tenor: James Gilchrist.

HYPERION CDA67463 TT 77:53

The whole Cecilia industry might be thought a prime example of making bricks without straw, but those bricks have made some splendid buildings, and none more so than Handel’s Ode. Dryden’s Song for St Cecilia’s Day, dating from 1687, was taken up by Handel half a century later; as so often (Israel in Egypt being a prime example) he used the work of a lesser composer to ignite the vital spark, the victim here being one Gottlieb Muffat. That’s quite enough metaphors! The

text overflows with musical allusions, Handel taking every chance he is offered, and Robert King’s excellent musicians treat it as a supremely entertaining romp, ‘authentic performance’ and period instruments at their best. There is Handel’s recycling of his own earlier Italian cantata as a delightful makeweight, beautifully sung by the two soloists. However, there seemed to be something lacking in the Ode. The allegro movements were surely faster than Handel could have imagined, and I found the choral singing curiously matter-of–fact; and what about Dryden’s rather serious finale about the end of the world? I felt impelled to play the 1967 King’s College/Willcocks recording as a comparison, and I found the choral singing far fresher, with the boys on particularly good form, though Robert King’s players and soloists have the advantage, especially his soprano. So, buy this new recording, but certainly don’t throw the old one out.

Timothy Storey

BEHOLD HOW JOYFUL

Clemens Non Papa Ecce Quam Bonum;Missa Ecce quam bonum; Asscesserunt ad Jesum; Job tonso capite; Veni electa mea; Pascha nostrum; Carole, magnus eras. The Brabant ensemble. Director: Stephen Rice. SIGNUM SIGCD045 TT 70:54

A Franco-Flemish contemporary of Tallis and highly-regarded musician of his day, Clemens non Papa was extremely prolific given his short life, leaving behind 15 masses, well over 200 motets and a number of other works (drinking songs included) and is one of the most widely-published composers of his century. The Missa Ecce quam bonum and other works on this disc, sandwiched to good effect between various parts of it, show a mastery of counterpoint and the singing is certainly tight and well focused, but overall I have to say I found the disc a little dry and academic.

Martin Wolf.

TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA

Second Vespers of the Feast of Annunciation

The Exon Singers. Director: Matthew Owens DELPHIAN DCD 34025 TT69:46

There is some wonderfully rich and satisfying singing here, well suited to Victoria’s strong and passionate settings. Even if all this music was never intended to be sung at one sitting (was Monteverdi’s music for Vespers, come to that?), it was an interesting and successful piece of programme-planning to make up a complete liturgical set of Psalms, Antiphons and Magnificat with the Litany of Loreto as a sort of bonus, and one can enjoy the contrast between plainsong (some with sub-octave doubling by the basses, a tremendously grand and sonorous effect) and Victoria’s polyphony, for anything from four to twelve voices. Perhaps one could have asked for a greater variety of tone and pace, for things are generally fast and furious; but that is only a minor quibble, and I warmly recommend this disc

Timothy Storey

KENNETH LEIGHTON

Te Deum; Missa Brevis; Lully, lulla; Crucifixus pro nobis; The Second Service; An Evening Hymn; Let all the world.

The Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral. Director: John Scott. Organ: Andrew Lucas.

HELIOS (HYPERION)CDH55195 TT 73:50

This is a budget-price re-issue of a recording made in 1991, and if you missed it then, get it now! It is compelling if not particularly comfortable listening, for the music largely reflects the grimmer side of the composer’s output and the boys’ tone a decade (and more) ago was somewhat more acerbic than in John Scott’s latter years at the Cathedral. The most substantial work is Crucifixus pro nobis, a Passiontide cantata dating from 1961, whose last section Drop, drop, slow tears is frequently sung on its own and may well be known to readers. The St Cecilia Te Deum, the Missa Brevis and An Evening Hymn are well worth discovering, with the Coventry Carol, Second Evening Service and Let all the world providing more familiar fare. As I said earlier, go out and get this, be moved by the music and singing as surely you will be, and reflect on what a loss the world of cathedral music sustained by Leighton’s untimely death in 1988 before he had even reached his sixtieth birthday.

Timothy Storey

EN PRIÈRE

Fauré Ave Maria; En Prière; Langlais Missa in simplicitate; Melody; Duruflé In Paradisum; Pie Jesu; Fugue sur le theme du Carillon des heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons; Alain O quam suvais; Ave Maria; Caplet Sanctus; Benedictus; The Girl Choristers of All Saints’ Church, Northampton. Director: Edward Whiting.

Organ: Richard Pinel. LAMMAS LAMM 170D TT 54:06

The singing on this disc is absolutely stunning – hardly a note less than perfectly tuned, blend and balance well-nigh perfect, words clear, speeds nicely judged. As the title would suggest, this is an anthology of French music for upper voices; did the composers write for convents, or were there choirs of boy choristers without men in pre-Vatican II France? Either way, there is some highly attractive music to be explored here, with the Missa in simplicitate of Jean Langlais surrounded by five of his motets and others by Alain and Fauré (two settings of Ave Maria and En prière, a meditation on Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, from which the disc takes its title). There are also movements from an unfinished Mass by André Caplet and an organ piece by Duruflé plus Pie Jesu and In paradisum from his Requiem; a very accomplished rent-a-choir supplies the lower parts in the latter, and might with advantage have been given more to do. This is not a long programme (54 minutes), but surely I am not alone in finding the almost obligatory hour-and-a-quarter of most CDs a somewhat mixed blessing: this one feels just the right length, and I recommend it unconditionally.

Timothy Storey

ESSENTIAL HANDEL

The King’s Consort and Choir.

Director: Robert King. HYPERION KING6 TT 77:22

A compilation of music taken from Robert King’s vast output on the Hyperion label including favourites like Overture to the Occasional Oratorio, Zadok, Let the Bright Seraphim, The trumpet’s loud Clanger, In Jehovah’s awful sight and much more of the usual high quality that one has come to expect from this fabulous band.

Ian Morgan

CD Reviews CHRISTMAS

ANGELS REJOICE!

Warlock Adam lay ybounden; Parry Never weatherbeaten sail; Stanford Out of the deep; Chilcott Nova! Nova!; Brahms Es ist ein’ Ros entsprungen; Parsons Ave Maria; Tavener Magnificat; Hadley I sing of a maiden; Halley Verbum caro; Gibbons See, see, the word is incarnate ; Edwards No small wonder ; Lauridsen O magnum mysterium; Vann Eastern Monarchs; Head The Little Road to Bethlehem; Lassus Angelus ad pastores; Cochereau Sortie sur Adeste Fideles

Lichfield Cathedral Choir. Director: Philip Scriven, Organ: Alexander Mason. REGENT REGCD 212 TT 77:45

An interesting CD with some treasures, especially O come all ye faithful which uses Willcocks’s descant to the verse beginning ‘Sing choirs of angels’ and Christopher Robinson’s for the last verse. This works well and is quite refreshing. The organ solos, especially Cochereau’s Sortie are enjoyable. Of particular note is the fine singing of Lauridsen’s lovely O magnum mysterium Lauridsen has been Chair of the Composition Department at the University of Southern California School of Music since 1967. A thoughtful compilation of music both familiar and unknown to set the scene for the Advent/ Christmas period.

Patrick Mayhew.

JESUS DIVINE: MUSIC FOR CHRISTMAS

Brentwood Cathedral Choir.

The Brentwood Singers. Director: Andrew Wright.

Organ: Stephen King. James Devor.

HERALD HAVPCD 299 TT 74:02

THE CAROL COLLECTION

Southwark Cathedral Choir

Directed by Peter Wright and Stephen Disley.

HERALD HAVPCD 313 TT 75:49

LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS

Carols form St Paul’s Cathedral Choir.

Director: Malcolm Archer. Organ: Huw Williams. GRIFFIN GCCD 4051 TT 67:06

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

The Neil Jenkins Chorale. Director Neil Jenkins. KEVIN MAYHEW 1490183 TT 69:13

There is such a large number of CDs of Christmas music on the market that individuals will choose the programme that presents the best repertoire for them. So from a critic’s point of view the singing is excellent on these discs especially the a cappella from St Paul’s - although I think the congregational carols could have been given some extra weight from the organ and perhaps some fanfares to introduce the items on both the London discs. After all, as the market flooded with Christmas music there should something to set each CD aside from its competitors. The Southwark disc contains a number of short, modern carols, interspersed with the war-horses. Stephen Disley’s girls are on top form. However, the Neil Jenkins Chorale is a refreshing change, with some wonderful singing and a good choice of music. I would personally choose this one over the other two because it is different. The Brentwood disc opens with a 50 second Bach Chorale Prelude Vom Himmel hoch then straight into the first carol Hark the herald which is quite effective. The use of instruments other than the organ (trumpet and flutes) is very effective. Intermingled are chorale preludes composed by Bach, Buxtehude and finally a spirited performance of Garth Edmundson’s Toccata-Prelude on Von Himmel hoch . An enjoyable release which contains compositions and arrangements by Andrew Wright and Stephen King, Wright’s Holly and Ivy is an attractive piece as is King’s arrangement of The Seven Joys of Mary . All in all a nice package of Christmas music. Each of the four CDS here deserves to be bought so go along to your nearest dealer and look at the programmes and see which takes your fancy.

Patrick Mayhew

O MAGNUM MISTERIUM

A Sequence of 20th century carols and Sarum Chant. Polyphony. Director: Stephen Layton

HELIOS CDH55216 TT 77:47

This welcome re-release is as excellent as when it was first issued in 1996. The singing is everything we have come to except from Stephen Layton’s group crisp, accurate and magnificently sung. The music ranges from Warlock’s alluring carols to Howells and Walton. When it was first released the Independent on Sunday said it was the most completely recommendable new issue for Christmas that the reviewer had found so far. Hear! Hear! You will not be disappointed.

Patrick Mayhew.

THIS CHRISTMAS NIGHT

Music for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.

The Schola Cantorum of the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Director: John Rene TT 57:26 www.swineshead.com

SONGS OF THE SEASON AT GRACE CATHEDRAL with the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys

A DVD Video release. TT 56:00

Director Boyd JarrellOrgan: Susan Matthews

From San Francisco, seasonal music comes in not one but two outstanding recent offerings. ‘This Christmas Night: Music for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany’ is performed by The Schola Cantorum of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, led by Director John Renke. This 12-voice mixed choir has gained international renown for both its repertoire and performance, since its founding just seven years ago. The superb performances present both traditional and newer works, in a pure, sectionally balanced, and pitch-perfect manner, recorded in a dry, perfect setting for this ensemble. The Schola’s sound is equal to the best of mixed voice choirs in Britain. Shepherds and Angels: Christmas at Grace Cathedral (audio CD) complements Songs of the Season at Grace Cathedral (a superb DVD video release), originally prepared for local television broadcast. It features the Cathedral’s Choir of Men and Boys, one of America’s premiere choirs in our musical tradition, conducted by then Interim Music Director Boyd Jarrell. Recorded in various locations within the Cathedral, it captures the essence of the Choir’s annual, traditional Christmas concerts. The quality of the audio/visual capture is topped by the Choir’s excellent performances, and it pays due tribute to Mr. Jarrell’s almost 30-year contribution as the principal treble voice trainer. The audio CD is outstanding, but unfortunately, the DVD video version is available only in Region 1 format, but for those who have this technology, it should be a ‘must have’ in their collection. More information on these can be obtained at www.ShrineSF.org and www.GraceCathedral.org or by contacting the reviewer at jdensem@calcas.com.

John A.W. Densem

CD Reviews ORGAN

PADRE SOLER: SIX ORGAN QUINTETS

The Rasumovsky String Quartet. Organ: Paul Parsons. GUILD GMCD 7280/1TT2:38:38

Antonio Soler – Spanish monk, priest and prolific composer – is perhaps best known to organists as the composer of six concertos for the somewhat unusual instrumentation of two organs. The music on this recording, however, is something else: here we have six suites for string quartet plus organ. Bearing the designation ‘quintets’, these are extended works (ranging from 23 to 33 minutes each), with several movements (five to eight), in which the five instruments share more or less equal importance. That the members of the Rasumovsky Quartet and organist Paul Parsons have given us these 158 minutes of music is a testament to not only their artistry but also their dedication, for this is not great music. Although occasionally imaginative in tonal language, the music too often relies upon basic harmonic formulas repeated within textures of embellishing sixfour chords and other time-filling devices. Of much more musical interest are Mozart’s Epistle Sonatas, written at about the same time, though it is true that in the Mozart the organ has more of a continuo role, while Soler here provides the instrument with much more independent passages. The rather pedantic writing notwithstanding, there is some pleasant listening here. The strings play very well indeed and with musical nuance, ranging from the tender to the dramatic. The organ playing is likewise fine, though it occasionally sounds under-articulated; whether this is a result of touch, the instrument’s voicing or microphone placement is difficult to discern. In any case, the music is well

recorded, and the organ’s temperament combined with the period stringed instruments (described in the effective program notes) make an appropriate and agreeable sound. Good playing? Yes. Great music of significant interest? No. However, your reviewer listened to every track of both disks, and therein lies the difficulty. This is not a desert-island recording; use it for selected listening, and for the useful reference work that it comprises.

David Herman

EDITOR’S ORGAN CHOICE

LOUIS VIERNE SYMPHONIES POUR ORGUE

Played by Jeremy Filsell on the Cavillé-Coll Organ, St Ouen, Rouen. France. SIGNUM SIGCD063 TT CD1 76:36 CD 2 74:07 CD3 73:32

I experienced ‘live’ the tour de force captured on these 3CDs, when I heard Jeremy Filsell perform all six organ symphonies in a single day on the Harrison & Harrison instrument in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. It is a powerful organ, which cannot, however roar and overwhelm like the vintage Cavaillé-Coll of 1890 in St Ouen, the final and many think, the best work of its builder. In every way it is the ideal organ for the cycle but there are problems about achieving a clear and balanced recording of it, because of the kind of reverberation produced by the very lofty but narrow nave, which has the organ at its west end. It is bass-heavy but this is only problematic when a heavy pedal registration is used as in the outer movements. By most skillful pacing of the big climaxes the blurring effect is minimised. Each symphony is conceived on a big scale, like those of Vierne’s predecessor and teacher, Widor, with five movements, except no.1, which has six. Its opening does in fact lack clarity. The interpretations are in every way memorably sensitive to the composer’s aesthetic: haunting slow movements (usually the second and penultimate), where the incomparable Cavaillé-Coll strings hang in the air, giving way to the stentorian reed choruses in the climaxes, which are then smoothed out by the strong open diapasons (fonds), so typical of this organ builder. In the tradition of nineteenth century French composers, the registration is all prescribed and should never be tampered with. Tempi, on the other hand, can be more flexible, especially here where the organist is playing to the acoustic and opening out pauses. Filsell’s timings are noticeably longer in St Ouen than in St George’s but nothing is ever ponderous. His is the ideal, idiomatic approach to these complex works. The key of each successive symphony rises a tone (except 3 to 4 rises a semi-tone) and becomes structurally more cohesive. To appreciate this, they should be heard in order, which will involve some extra disc changing, because in this set they are not paired consecutively, so as to equalise the total time on each disc. Here in my view are the definitive readings of Vierne’s cycle. Jeremy Filsell has written the excellent notes, which set the seal on a really attractive production.

Roger Tucker

GREAT AUSTRALASIAN ORGAN VI

Jane Watts plays the organ of Wellington Cathedral.

Buck The Star Spangled Banner; W Lloyd Webber Pastorale; Introit; Arietta in A; Epilogue; Mathias Recessional; Guilmant Pastorale; Fugue in F; Offertoire; Pièce Caractéristique; Fugue in F minor; Morceau Symphonique; Sumsion Four Preludes on Well-Known Carols PRIORY PRCD 775 TT 73:31

Dudley Buck, William Lloyd Webber, Herbert Sumsion... not names you would immediately associate with composers of organ music, but they’re all here. Mr Buck’s opening organ throat-clearer is a lively set of variations on The Star Spangled Banner, and the first three Lloyd Webber pieces are great pre-Evensong material in a soothing Ireland-Elgarian vein (the final Epilogue isn’t bad either). Mathias provides an entertaining, typically spiky fanfare, and among other pieces the four quieter Guilmant numbers turn the spotlight on some beautiful pipework (which contains some by T.C. Lewis). The programme concludes with four pleasant preludes on Christmas carols by Sumsion. All in all, a good buy.

Martin Wolf

THE MICHAEL WOODWARD SERIES No 1

Gillian Weir plays the 1861 William Hill Mulholland Grand Organ in the Ulster Hall, Belfast. Meyerbeer Coronation March ; Mendelssohn Variations on ‘ Vater Unser im Himmelreich’; Eben Moto Ostinato; Bridge Adagio in E; Valente Lo Ballo dell ‘ Intorcia’; Frescobaldi Toccata for the Elevation; Zipoli Offertorio in C; Stanley Voluntary in G minor; Bach Concerto in D minor. Messiaen Joie et Clarté des Corps Glorieux; Franck Choral II; Mulet Rosace; Couperin Dialogue sur la Voix Humaine;Benedictus: Chromorne en Taille; Dialogue sur les Grands Jeux; Dupré Cortège et Litanie;Allegro Deciso (Evocation).

PRIORY PRCD 6000 CD 1 TT 47:25 CD 2 TT 45:19

Priory recently acquired the rights for the entire Michael Woodward record label, celebrated for its high-quality recordings of organ music and detailed LP sleeve notes in the 1980s. This particular one, the first to be digitally remastered by Priory, dates from 1983 and is, in Gillian Weir’s own words, “a tribute to the grand old lady of the Ulster Hall and to her versatility”. And may I say the old lady sounds good. Martin Wolf.

DANCES OF LIFE AND DEATH

William Whitehead plays the Oberthür organ of Auxerre Cathedral.

Alain Trois Danses; Aria; Deux Danses à Agni Yavishta; Variations sur l’hymne ‘Lucis Creator’; Litanies; Le Jardin suspendu; Duruflé Danse lente et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain.

CHANDOS CHAN 10315 TT 73:17

At the outset I must, in Parliamentary style, declare an interest. I have always been greatly attracted to the music of Alain and to have several favourite works superbly performed makes this issue a real treat. William Whitehead is in complete sympathy with the spirit of the music and is well served by the Auxerre organ (1986), whose colours he explores with a sure touch. Of the two Duruflé pieces which complete the programme, the Danse Lente is William Whitehead’s own transcription of the middle movement of the orchestral Trois Dances, Op 6 and he is to be congratulated for making a further piece available to organists in addition to Duruflé’ s all-too-small output. Alain’s music dominates the disc and once again one is made aware of the appalling loss his tragically early death inflicted on the musical world. The painter, J M W Turner, with characteristic generosity, remarked on his fellow artist, Girtin, who died young, ‘Had Tom Girtin lived, I should have starved.’ Olivier Messiaen might well have said something similar about Jehan Alain.

Alan Spedding

MENDELSSOHN

The Essential Organ Works.

CD1 Six Sonatas Op 65. Evangelische Stadtkirche, Lengerich.

CD2: Andante in D; Fantasia in g; Nachspiel; Andante con moto in g; Fugetta in D; Three Preludes & Fugues; Fugue in f; Fugue in e; Praeludium in c; Andante in F; Andante with variations in D; Allegro in d; Allegretto in d; Allegro in B flat; Fugue in B Flat; Allegro moderato maestoso in C, Statpfarrkirche St Alexander, Rastatt. Margaret Phillips. REGENT REGCD209 TT 149:12

This 2-CD set makes for fascinating listening: Disc 1 contains the Six Sonatas played on the Breidenfeld/Klais organ in the Evangelische Stadtkirche in Lengerich; Disc 2 is a chronological survey of other works (including the Three Preludes & Fugues and the beautiful Fugue in F minor 1839) played on the Stieffell/Jann organ in the Stadtpfarrkirche St Alexander, Rastatt. These two recently-restored instruments suit the repertoire extremely well, allowing the music to sparkle (without being brash), and enabling the clarity of textures to come through just the right amount. As one would expect, Margaret Phillips’ performances are exemplary and, coupled with her well-researched programme notes and information on registrations used, these CDs are a “must-have” for both the casual listener and also the serious organ student.

Julian Thomas

THE ORGAN MUSIC OF PETR EBEN – 4

Halgeir Schiager plays the organ of Hedvig Eleonora Kyrkan, Stockholm. A Festive Voluntary Variations on Good King Wenceslas; Chorale Fantasy ‘Amen, es werde wahr’; Two Choral Fantasies; Protestant Chorales; Sunday Music. hyperion CDA67197 TT 77:31

This fourth volume in the series of organ music by Petr Eben covers a wide period of composition, from the symphonic Sunday Music 1957-8 (with the well-known Moto ostinato 3rd movement) to a selection of Protestant Chorales written in 2000. The harmonic language achieves a fascinating balance between modernity and a firm traditional basis – in other words, it is approachable but not predictable. The disc opens with the Festive Voluntary: Variations on Good King Wenceslas which was written in 1986 for the re-opening of the Chichester Cathedral organ. Designed as a piece to show off an organ, Halgeir Schiager certainly does that with the chosen instrument in Stockholm. His playing is always assured and it is a very pleasing hour and a quarter’s listening.

Julian Thomas

GILLIAN WEIR

Gillian Weir plays the Grand Organ of The Royal Albert Hall. Liszt Fantasia and Fugue on ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’; St Francis of Paola walking on the waves; Howells Rhapsody No 3 in C sharp minor; Parry Toccata & Fugue (‘The Wanderer’); Cook Fanfare; Elgar Nimrod;Pomp & Circumstance March No1; Lanquetuit Toccata in D.

PRIORY PRCD 859 TT 77:53

This is the first recording of the Royal Albert Hall’s monster Willis organ since its £1.5 million sonic facelift was completed last year. Perhaps no recording can do full justice to the seemingly infinite array of tonal combinations possible with such a vast box of pipes, but this one certainly comes close, with Gillian Weir’s ferocious technique and the dazzling personality of Britain’s biggest and loudest musical instrument combining to make it a disc of significant historical importance. Informative booklet notes provide a potted history of the organ, plus, for organ disciples, a comprehensive tonal appraisal (taken from Organists’ Review) by Paul Hale.

Martin Wolf

SOUNDS SPONTANEOUS

Improvisations through the Church’s year by Malcolm Archer and David Bednall at the organ of Blackburn Cathedral.

LAMMAS LAMM 176 D TT 77:21

You could say this disc serves two purposes. Firstly, there’s the obvious appeal of hearing music moulded into shape on the spur of the moment. And indeed each track is a delight: most are based on Gregorian chant (including that on Victimae Paschali lasting nearly 14 minutes!) or other well-known tunes. Those dealing with Lent and Palm Sunday are free meditations. Equally, however, the disc carries a more serious message. David Bednall’s comment in the cover-notes that improvisation in the UK is all too often “regarded as mere ‘filling-in’, a form of liturgical wallpaper whose function is simply to cover the sound of moving feet” is not unfair. Sounds Spontaneous, then, sets out to prove that things don’t have to be like that. And without suggesting that organists guilty of the said crime are going to transform their playing overnight into something of the standard here, the disc may well prompt many to review the role of improvisation to enhance worship in the service as a whole. Track 6, for example – Lent –is a free meditation on Luke 4: 1-13, recounting Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The magnificent Blackburn Cathedral organ provides a colourful sound palette.

Martin Wolf.

SOUNDS PARISIAN

French organ music played in Blackburn Cathedral by David Bednall.

Hakim Le Tombeau d’Oliver Messiaen (Three Symphonic Meditations); Vexilla regis Prodeunt; Messiaen Apparition de I’Église eternelle; Vierne Messe Basse pour les défunts.

LAMMAS LAMM 175D TT 73:42

David Bednall’s first solo CD is an exciting display of Parisian delights. It opens with the stunning Le Tombeau d’Olivier Messiaen by Naji Hakim: quasiimprovisatory in feel, the harmonic language of Messiaen (Hakim’s predecessor at La Trinité) underpins the work, but there are shades of Stravinsky too and the dance-like rhythms sparkle, especially in the first movement. Messiaen’s Apparation de l’Église eternelle works superbly well on the Blackburn organ and, combined with the generous acoustic of the cathedral, one could almost be in Paris! Vierne’s Messe Basse pour les défunts makes a welcome contrast in this programme and explores the more Romantic colours of the instrument to good effect. Altogether a most enjoyable disc.

Julian Thomas

SOUNDS OF CELEBRATION

Kevin Bowyer plays organ works of Paul Fisher at Blackburn Cathedral.

Bradford; Three Fancies for Pedal and Left Hand; the Shadow of the Sun; For Helen; Wild Spirits; Noel Nouvelet; the Colours of Spirit.

LAMMAS LAMM 182D TT 72:23

Don’t be put off by the fact you may never have heard of Paul Fisher! Kevin Bowyer, that great champion of contemporary music, certainly presents a convincing case and uses the Blackburn organ to excellent effect. Fisher’s style ranges from shades of Dupré, through English Romanticism, to jazz (with the Three Fantasias for pedal and left hand), but is always accessible and tuneful – in the best possible way. The two items for flute and organ, The Shadow of the Sun and For Helen work well and the balance is handled sensitively. Definitely worth exploring – the perfect gift for the music lover who already has everything on CD.

Julian Thomas

SOUNDS FROM ST ALBANS

David Humphreys plays the organ at St Albans Cathedral.

Widor Allegro vivace (Symphonie V); Langlais Prélude sur une Antienne; Peeters Suite Modale; Eben Moto Ostinato; Reger Benedictus; Franck Choral No 3; Hurford Meditation; Messiaen Dieu Parmi Nous.

LAMMAS LAMM 178D TT 67:36

Clattering stop-changes aside, 22-year old David Humphreys’ playing is never dull, always imaginatively exploring the St Albans organ, and this, coupled with an attractive – although not altogether unknown –programme, makes for enjoyable listening.

Martin Wolf.

SOUNDS BAROQUE

Terence Charlston plays the IOFS organ in St Saviour’s Church, St Albans.

Muffat Toccata secunda; Purcell Voluntary in G; Couperin Kyries;Benedictus Chromhorne en Taille; Bach Allein Gott in der Höh sei Her;Toccata & Fugue in D minor (Dorian);Jesu meine Freude; Herr Jesu Christ; dich zu uns wend; Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, heiliger Geist; Komm, Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend; CPE Bach Sonata in A; Kirnberger Ich dank dir schon; Musical Circle; Stanley Voluntary Op 7 No 7;Voluntary Op 7 No 9.Böhm Prelude & Fugue in C. Lammas LAMM 181D TT 79:11

Terence Charleston presents a fascinating cross-section of Baroque organ music ranging from well-known works by JS Bach (Dorian Toccata and Fugue) and two Stanley voluntaries, to less familiar pieces by Georg Böhm, CPE Bach and Georg Muffat. The two-manual organ (after the style of Andreas Silbermann) copes well with the varied musical styles of the period and the recorded sound is clean and well-focussed. I found the softer combinations of sounds particularly pleasing, for instance in the Couperin Benedictus from the Messe pour les Pariosses. Organ aficionados will be interested to see the list of registrations used for each piece; and Kirnberger’s Musical Circle (an intriguing exploration of all the minor keys) demonstrates the temperament of the IOFS organ to good effect. Right from the opening moment, it is clear that this is stylish playing from a real expert of this period.

Julian Thomas

THE ENGLISH CATHEDRAL SERIES VOL X

Robert Sharpe plays organ music from Truro. Dupré Prélude et Fugue en Si majeur; Widor Andante sostenuto (Symphonie Gothique); Langlais Incantation pour un jour saint;Chant de Paix; Fête; Bach Fantasia & Fugue in G minor; Spicer The Martydom of St Oswald; Elegy; Fanfares for Chad; Howells Psalm Prelude Set 1 No 3; Saraband In Modo Elegiaco); Elgar Pomp Circumstance March No 1.

REGENT REGCD193 TT 74:38

This recording boasts two stellar performances, the first by organist Robert Sharpe, Director of Music and Organist at Truro Cathedral. Sharpe, previously the assistant at Lichfield until 2002, plays with authority and musical persuasion. A strong sense of rhythm, along with his crisp touch and releases in the big pieces, combine with a nice sense of line, timing and instrumental colour. The second star in the cast is, of course, the Father Willis organ of 1887, whose clearly recorded sound is bright and colourful. Sharpe chose a varied and attractive programme for his first Truro CD. Of particular interest are the pupil relationships, first of Widor—Dupré— Langlais (and, of course, from Widor the connection back to Bach!) and the second from Howells to Spicer. The exciting colours of the Truro Willis lend themselves very well to the big French pieces. The quieter pieces by Widor and Langlais are very sensitively played and show off the liquid flutes, beautiful strings and rich diapason tone. The Bach Fantasia & Fugue in G minor is a fine choice for this recording, and demonstrates the convincing versatility of Willis’s instruments. The playing is dramatic, clear, with appropriate rhapsody, ornamentation, and a marvelous sense of timing. The fugue goes at a good pace that never falters; the playing is rhythmic and well articulated. And who could argue about the effective buildup in registration? Polyphonic details are revealed in all their glory, even through the big ending, thanks to the player’s sure control of touch and timing. What more can one ask for?! Bravo! The programme continues with what seems to be the first recording of a trio of works by Paul Spicer, in which the composer pays homage to three people: his grandfather, and to Saints Oswald and Chad. The rich and colourful harmonies of Martyrdom of St.Oswald are woven within enticing linear threads. (It is interesting to note that the Truro Willis possesses only one pair of string celestes, which appear in so many guises within the recording’s softer works.) The hymn-like elegy speaks though rich, tertian harmonic language; it honours his grandfather, the organist Harold Spicer. This is earnest music, earnestly played. The third work, Fanfares for Chad, though moderate in pace, is dance-like in spirit and provides quite an array of organ sound. The interplay amongst the three divisions of the organ generates a spatial tour de force, making one wish to be in the room with the music! Howells’s Psalm Prelude (Set I, No. 3), at nearly 9 minutes, is the longest of the disc’s tracks. (It is misidentified in the notes as III/1, a minor quibble, along with the misspellings of ‘martyrdom’ in the playlists.) The combination of Howells + Willis is a ‘natural, akin to Widor and Cavaillé-Col or Bach and Hildebrandt. Indeed, the Truro organ was only five years old when HH was born. The playing in the two Howells is supple and expressive. The listener, hearing these through the cathedral’s generous acoustics, may occasionally wish for more clarity in the detail of the composer’s delicate textures. In the Saraband the addition of stops in the climax is a bit bumpy and here the pedal reed, though thrilling, is occasionally over-powering. The opening section of the Elgar seems a bit rushed (and consequently, indistinct). Nevertheless, it

comes together very well and includes an effective display of the reeds, both big and small. Can one imagine a nobler tone for the ‘Great Tune’? This recording offers a marvellous combination of organ, acoustic, music and player. It provides nearly 75 minutes of solid and musical playing, well recorded and engineered. This is a recording you’ll play a lot.

David Herman

FRANCIS POTT: CHRISTUS

Passion Symphony for solo organ. Recorded live by Jeremy Filsell at St Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, London. SIGNUM CLASSICS 2 CD Set SIGCD062TT

CD1 70:43 CD2 : 55:09

A truly stunning performance of this monumental work. Jeremy Filsell captures, in this live recording, both the exuberance and the desolation of the Passion of Christ across the five movements of the symphony: the opening of the fifth movement (Resurrectio) for example is as dazzling as any French toccata. Anyone who already has the world premier recording by Iain Simcock (from Westminster Cathedral) should still buy this new recording, if only to relish the freshness Filsell brings to the performance; he slashes a staggering 14 minutes off Simcock’s recording time, but it never sounds frantic or rushed except when intentionally so. My only gripe is that there is no information in the booklet about the organ at St Peter’s, Eaton Square.

Julian Thomas

BUXTEHUDE

Organ Music Vol 4. Craig Cramer plays the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Organ, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington.

Praeludium in D minor; nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist; Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott; Herr Jesus Christ, ich Weiß gar wohl; Canzonetta in G; D minor and E minor; ; Praeludium in E; and E minor; Ach Gott un Herr; Danket dem Herrn; Gelobet seist du; Jesu Christ; Nun Komm. Der Heiden Heiland; Peur natus in Bethlehem; Lobt Gott, ihr Christen allzugleich; Es spricht der unweisen Mund wohl; Toccata in D minor.

NAXOS 8.557195 TT 64:09

Three substantial Praeludia and the Toccata in Dminor provide the framework for this programme with a selection of Chorale Preludes and Canzonettas interspersed. The free organ works are nicely characterised and the contrasting moods of the different sections are well captured. Similarly the chorale preludes utilise the different registration possibilities to good effect, for example in the Advent prelude Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (with the judicious use of a mutation and a well-regulated tremulant). Craig Cramer plays with assurance and aplomb, but I feel the recorded sound is something of a let-down: it is quite a distant sound, and even with the volume up high and when the 32’ Posaune stop is pulled on the final chords of the Toccata I feel it just lacks that tingle factor in the recording.

Julian Thomas

ALEXANDRA PALACE ORGAN APPEAL ORGAN CONCERTS

Tuesday December 13 – 7.30 pm

The classic silent film ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ with organ accompaniment by Donald Mackenzie

Sunday March 26, 2006 – 3.00 pm

Nigel Ogden

Admission £7 Friends £5

Membership of the Friends – £15 p.a. Forms from: APOA, P.O. Box 2411, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 5XA Please visit our website: www.allypallyorgan.org.uk

Cathedral MUSIC Cathedral MUSIC

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2006 Gatherings

Fri 17 - Sun 19 Feb National Gathering at Canterbury Cathedral

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National Gatherings are arranged by the Secretary for National Gatherings, Peter Smith. Details are sent to those members who have asked for their names to be included on the National Gatherings Mailing List. If you wish to add your name to this list, please contact the Membership Secretary whose address is also given on the back page.

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Signum Classics are pleased to announce Jeremy Filsell’s latest release on Signum:

Louis Vierne: Complete Organ Symphonies

The Cavaille-Coll Organ of St Ouen, Rouen

from Regent for your Christmas list

ANGELS REJOICE

Arefreshingly different selection of music for Advent and Christmas, sung by Lichfield Cathedral Choir,directed by Philip Scriven,in his first recording with the choir, and Alexander Mason (organ)

Includes a beautiful performance of the wonderful Omagnum mysterium by Morten Lauridsen

REGCD212

ACOTSWOLD CHRISTMAS

The Abbey School Choir, Tewkesbury Benjamin Nicholas conductor Carleton Etherington organ

Anew recording from this superb choir in the unmatched acoustics of Tewkesbury Abbey and featuring a number of new carols

REGCD219

Triple CDSet

"Filsell, famously untroubled by technical demands, concentrates on wringing every last drop of sonority in deeply-felt, idiomatic performances" BBC Music Magazine

Available from all good record shops or direct from Signum Classics Telephone: 020 8997 4000 www.signumrecords.com

La Nativité Organ Music for Christmas

THEBETHLEHEMSTAR

The Choir of All Saints’ Church, Northampton with Brass Inc.

Directed by Edward Whiting

The thrilling sound of choir and brass and featuring the first recording of The Bethlehem Star -written for All Saints’ Choir by Robert Walker

REGCD231

Rupert Jeffcoat Coventry Cathedral Organ Rupert Jeffcoat’s staggering final recording from Coventry Cathedral, recorded shortly before he moved to Australia in July, features modern organ music for Advent and Christmas

REGCD230

From Six Fantasies on hymn tunes Kenneth Leighton Helmsley (Lo, he comes with clouds descending), Veni, Emmanuel (Ocome, o come, Emmanuel), Puer natus est nobis (From LeLivre du Saint Sacrament) Olivier Messiaen, Partita on Idzie, idzie bog prawdziwy (Go to see the new-born King) Andrzej Krzanowski, Laus Deo Jonathan Harvey, La Nativité du Seigneur Olivier Messiaen

The latest release in ✣ The ENGLISH CATHEDRAL Series ✣ VOLUME XII - RIPON played by Andrew Bryden

This marvellous romantic instrument in a substantial all-English programme. REGCD224

ConcertOvertureinFminor –Alfred Hollins, Retrospection –Harold Darke, Sonata in A minor –William Harris, Elegiac Romance –John Ireland, Impromptu, Op 5 –Francis Jackson, Capriccietto –Leonard Butler, Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue –Healey Willan

BAROQUERY

Peter King explores the sheer versatility of the stunning Klais organ of Bath Abbey in an exciting programme of dramatic Baroque showpieces.

REGCD222

Toccata in D minor Diderik Buxtehude, Chaconne in F minor Johann Pachelbel, Chorale Fantasia Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern Buxtehude, Concerto in B flat Tomaso Albinoni Praeludium in E minor (Great) Nicolaus Bruhns Batalla de sexto tono José Ximenes, Cornet Voluntary in A minor John Blow, Dialogue sur les Grands Jeux (Veni Creator) Nicolas de Grigny, Four Movements from Messe pour les Convents François Couperin, Prelude and Fugue in C, BWV547 Johann Sebastian Bach