CE St Paul's Cathedral Wed, 2nd April 2014

[DracoM]

CE St Paul's Cathedral



Order of Service:



Introit: O hearken thou (Elgar)
Responses: Radcliffe
Psalms 83 & 84 (Watson; Parry)
First Lesson: Jeremiah 13: 20-27
Chorale: Ach, arme Welt du trügest mich (Brahms)
Canticles: Noble in A minor
Second Lesson: 1 Peter 1:17 – 2: 3
Anthem: Warum ist das Licht gegeben den Mühseligen (Brahms)
Hymn: There's a wideness in God's mercy (Corvedale)



Organ Voluntary: Allegro, Chorale and Fugue (Mendelssohn)




Simon Johnson (Organist and Assistant Director of Music)
Andrew Carwood (Director of Music)

[edashtav]

My Choir will be using Maurice Bevan's Corvedale (There's a Wideness in God's Mercy) at its Lenten Evensong on Sunday week. I think its a fine example of 20th century hymn-tune writing. "Warum Ist" will bring back memories of singing it at the Bedford Festival a quarter of a centry ago.

[ardcarp]

Maurice Bevan's Corvedale (There's a Wideness in God's Mercy)

[Keraulophone]

Rightfully No.1 in the St Paul's Hymn Book.

When Truro broadcast Warum, there were murmurings about it being better suited to a mixed choir with female altos. Quite a challenging piece to bring off, either way, and good Lenten choice IMO.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[ardcarp]

All unfolded at a suitably Lenten pace. What a ghastly lesson the Jeremiah passage is, all about lifting skirts; presumably likening Jerusalem to a whore. How very relevant to our daily lives. Oh well, the hymn didn't disappoint, and thank goodness for Mendelssohn's cracking Allegro!

I know there is much rather 'ordinary' music in the Anglican canon which is nevertheless much loved. Unfortunately T.T. Noble's oeuvres don't fall into that category for me.

[DracoM]

NB Repeat next Sunday is at 5.30 p.m.

[DracoM]

What was fascinating about this service was the way engineers cope with extreme challenges of acoustic, distribution of forces, as well as changes to speaking / singing positions. Of course, St P's should be fairly familiar to the BBC and its agents - I imagine there are logged plans of microphone placement etc that get wheeled out.

The engineers were to an extent helped in that much of the music was thickish textured, no exciting soaring intricacies as in late 15th century settings, no seriously challenging modern settings either. It was quite plump-sounding all round, even a bit middle-aged, nothing hurried - some might argue it was all a bit ponderous - until the final voluntary which suddenly made the whole place live.

The days of John Scott's and Malcolm Archer's ways with treble training seem to have gone, and while the boys sounded more than respectably competent, in truth they had been given little material to stir the heart IMO, and it all sounded a bit, well, anti-climactic. Usual St P's men sound of recent years - big, pushy. 'this is our show' stuff, and of course, they are right - Brahms, Elgar both have beef to deliver, and the men certainly did.

The Noble was very grateful on the ear too, of course.

[ardcarp]

The Noble was very grateful on the ear too, of course.

Not to mine, it wasn't....but that's nothing to do with St Paul's!

Ignoble in A minor
'effin Darke
B*******s in D

...any more?

[Magnificat]

Not to mine, it wasn't....but that's nothing to do with St Paul's!

Ignoble in A minor
'effin Darke
B*******s in D

...any more?

ardcarp,

Of course the great BR would have made any of these sound the best thing ever written!!

VCC

[Gabriel Jackson]

ardcarp,

Of course the great BR would have made any of these sound the best thing ever written!!

VCC

The sad thing is he thinks they are!

[Triforium]

The sad thing is he thinks they are!

Easy now, there is much to be said for singing whatever is in front of you with conviction and musicality. I have heard him say – ‘What is your favourite piece? It’s the piece you are singing now!’ I’m sure this extends beyond trusted standards to include contemporary commissions.

[PeterboroughDiapason]

The sad thing is he thinks they are!

Don't really understand this. Can you explain?

[mopsus]

Corvedale seems to be the standard tune now for 'There's a Wideness in God's Mercy' (the original first two verses of this hymn are long gone). In fact, I think the tune has helped to revive the use of this hymn. I'm a little sad to hear the sunshine edited out of the penultimate line, though.