CE Tewkesbury Abbey Wed, 7th May 2014

[DracoM]

CE Tewkesbury Abbey
Schola Cantorum



Order of Service:



Introit: Antiphon (Walton)
Responses: Radcliffe
Psalm: 37 (Goss; Turle; Skarratt; Bairstow)
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 6
Office Hymn: A brighter dawn is breaking (Nun last uns Gott dem Herren)
Canticles: Murrill in E
Second Lesson: Ephesians 2:1-10
Anthem: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (Stanford)
Hymn: Jesus lives! Thy terrors now (St Albinus)



Organ Voluntary: Rheims - Allegro moderato (Sonata No. 2 in G Minor Op. 151 ‘Eroica’) / Stanford



Carleton Etherington (Organist)
Simon Bell (Director of Music)

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[mercia]

I wondered where he was going with that harmonisation of St Albinus
reminded me (for a moment) of when I disastrously improvised a harmonisation during a service and never got back to the home key

[mw963]

I no longer dare comment on the singing on these shows (although I must say I enjoyed this broadcast a lot) but what struck me was the more distant balance that seemed to prevail, and in fact the final organ voluntary was almost "mono" compared to the very "wide" sound that we're normally given on most CE's. In fact watching the levels during the voluntary on a set of BBC meters the stereo "difference" signal was about 14 dB down on the "sum" signal (confirming the rather narrow stereo image) whereas often the two signals on CE are much closer together in level.

Wondered if "someone else" was doing the balance or whether it's just a quirk of the venue....

[Lento]

I wondered where he was going with that harmonisation of St Albinus

Not sure about that one! Did I detect "diabolus in musica" in the pedal part?

[ardcarp]

I no longer dare comment on the singing on these shows

Oh go on......

[DracoM]

Well, for me it was a delight to hear men and boys singing a CE in Tewkesbury on R3. Let's hear it for Dean Close!
Lovely acoustic, just enough bloom on sound, but textures clear.

Top line was robust, fresh-sounding, and it bodes well. Tiny bit of stretch right at the very top maybe, but I put that down to tx nerves rather than ability. Good men, not swamping, or striving, just singing musically and supportively and respecting their place in the firmament. Good teamwork. Stanford anthem I felt might just have had a bit more rhythmic bounce, but that's a truly minor quibble.

I'm not an organist, but there was the odd interesting chord. Liked the Stanford vol. Plenty of presence.

[AuntyKezia]

Interestingly, the same Stanford anthem was sung again this morning, live, by the Manchester Chamber Choir on the Daily Service (R4 LW or Digital).

[Finzi4ever]

Excellently paced and well-painted psalms. Both big organs (Milton & Grove) superb in their own right, sound even better in that almost perfect acoustic. Ah, happy memories of New Year Exon broadcasts there of yore.

[mopsus]

Interestingly, the same Stanford anthem was sung again this morning, live, by the Manchester Chamber Choir on the Daily Service (R4 LW or Digital).

I think there just aren't enough anthems for the several weeks of the Easter season. I can think of half a dozen top-notch ones for Ascension straight off, but struggle for the 'Queen of Seasons'. We used to do the Stanford year in year out at church and I came to strongly dislike it - it is not one of his best. Chester thought out of the box for their Easter Day broadcast, but their anthem, though beautiful, was very gloomy-sounding.

[Finzi4ever]

I wondered where he was going with that harmonisation of St Albinus
reminded me (for a moment) of when I disastrously improvised a harmonisation during a service and never got back to the home key

Nothing really outrageous with that last verse harmonisation, in fact the more striking the harmony (within pretty wide bounds) the more powerfully dramatic it can be

[ardcarp]

Did I detect "diabolus in musica" in the pedal part?

I think that unless you are talking of medieval organum, there is nothing unusual about the Aug 4th/Dim5th. Every Dominant 7th has one, and (if we're talking organ pedal parts) just think of the final pages of Mulet's Carillon Sortie where you stride up the pedal board in a Dim 7th argeggio full of diabolici [is that the plural?]

Haven't heard the CE yet 'cos of TALK TALK not letting me stream anything beyond 100kb. It's a THRUPUT ISSUE out there in the cyberworld.

[Lento]

Only joking, of course.

[decantor]

Well, for me it was a delight to hear men and boys singing a CE in Tewkesbury on R3. Let's hear it for Dean Close!

Hear, hear! This was of course Simon Bell's first CE outing as DoM (presumably the change-over accounts for the two-and-a-half year gap since we last heard from Tewkesbury). He inherited a mighty fine choral unit from Ben Nicholas, and one hopes that, in due course, he will push out the frontiers further still. The auspices are favourable on this showing: the trebs remain committed and have a fine ring about them, and back-row support is first class. I much enjoyed listening to this service, though I too detected something of the engineering 'remoteness' mentioned above.

Yes, Milton and Grove organs are both splendid, but there was no doubt over which we heard today under the expert management of the resident organist, CE.

[ardcarp]

As The Choir board is sometimes used for organ ramblings, I wonder if anyone with recent knowledge of Tewkesbury organs would like to chip in? I played there quite a lot in the early 70s and my impression was of ambitious schemes (bits of organ everywhere) not quite brought to fruition and nothing working very reliably! There was a monstrous 4-manual console with everything coupled to it and a smaller two-manual console which played (I think) just the Milton organ. The Milton was all you needed really to accompany voices...a lovely English sound, enhanced by a kindly acoustic. I believe the Abbey was once considered for the seat of the Gloucester bishopric but that the other place won out.