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Choir Notes
from Feb 1965
by StPetersYork
Christopher Tye's "0 come ye servants of the Lord" provided the usual starter to the year's work : a piece which although comparatively easy to sing is by no means devoid of musical interest, with the simple yet effective imitation in the latter half.
The Choir was once again asked to sing for the Yorkshire Harvest Thanksgiving Service which took place in the Minster, and which together with our own Harvest Service went off well.
Among the larger scale works sung throughout the term were "How lovely are the Messengers", no easy piece to perform, with its extended tessituri and Mendelssohnian discords. "Greater love", in which the two solos were admirably managed by Staines and Thirlwell, and "Walmisley in D minor", in all its nobility and breadth of style.
The altos, tenors and basses had a rest mid-term, to leave the treble's to make a courageous attempt at Handel's "Let the bright Seraphim", from "Samson".
The Carol Service was a little disappointing, probably due to lack of rehearsal time. One or two carols, however, did go off reasonably well, notably "Once in Royal David's City", in which the Choir stayed in tune at the beginning, and "A Spotless Rose" (Howells) in which the middle section was especially effective owing to Thirlwell's solo singing and the "togetherness" of the Choir when humming the soft solo accompaniment. O. G. H.
CHAPEL MUSIC THROUGHOUT 1964
"0 come ye servants of the Lord" (Tye). "Thou visitest the Earth and blessest it" (Greene). tNaylor in G Benedicite. "How lovely are the messengers" (Mendelssohn). t"Non Nobis Domine" (Quilter). "Greater love hath no man than this" (Ireland). "Let the bright Seraphim" (Handel). 1- Creation's Hymn (Beethoven). f Merbecke Creed and Gloria. Darke in F Sanctus Benedictus and Agurs Dei. "Rejoice in the Lord Alway" (Purcell). tWalmisley in D minor Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. "0 Little Town" (Davies). "A Spotless Rose" (Howells). "In the bleak midwinter" (Darke). t "God rest you merry gentlemen" (Traditional). "In dulci jubilo" (arr. Pearsall).
