Golden Oldies

[ardcarp]

I read that Sullivan composed the 'Lost Chord' as a memorial to his dead brother. Also as a party piece for his much adored mistress. I have also read - I think it was in Blackwell History of Music in Britain (correct title?) whose editors must be a wicked irreverent lot - that it was contrived as a careful parody of S.S. Wesley.

If so, more care needed, I think!

[rauschwerk]

This thread is proving rather illuminating, at least to me. Tastes in 'rubbish' (for want of a better word) vary just as much as tastes in 'good quality' music.

I once got together a small choir for a wedding, and the couple had requested S S Wesley's Blessed be the God and Father. In the middle of rehearsal, one of the singers expostulated, "My God! I thought The Crucifixion was rubbish but this is ten times worse!"

[ardcarp]

One thing I've mused over in, let's say, the last 25 years, is that a lot of stuff we sang as choristers and..in my case as a lay clerk...was so much part of the Anglican repertory that we didn't apply the same critical value judgements to it as we would to mainstream 'classical' music. Blessed be the G and F quoted above is just one example (and probably one of the better of SSW's anthems) but there are countless sets of canticles, for instance, which although much loved are actually rather naff. Oh well. Just a thought.

[rauschwerk]

One thing I've mused over in, let's say, the last 25 years, is that a lot of stuff we sang as choristers and..in my case as a lay clerk...was so much part of the Anglican repertory that we didn't apply the same critical value judgements to it as we would to mainstream 'classical' music. Blessed be the G and F quoted above is just one example (and probably one of the better of SSW's anthems) but there are countless sets of canticles, for instance, which although much loved are actually rather naff. Oh well. Just a thought.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. In any case, if singing in a religious service, one surely feels duty bound to try and take naff music seriously for the duration.

Btw, I have now heard the Liddle song referred to in post 1, and it seems to me one of the most unmemorable songs I have heard - in that respect the same as Stanford's A Soft Day. Because is another matter altogether, perhaps because I have always relished the opportunity to smack the piano con tutta forza in the playout.

[mercia]

personally I think I would rate SS Wesley (a lot) higher than Stainer. BbtG&F I think is a great sing.
Tear and Luxon used to sing those Victorian ballads didn't they. Excelsior springs to mind.

[Keraulophone]

Re anglican naffery, we have our annual Diocesan Choral Festival tomorrow, and Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley's anthem From the rising of the sun, 'a short piece of Hymn-like character, in what might be termed Ouseley’s self-imposed ecclesiastical compositional idiom' [W. McVicker], has been included in the festival booklet, I suppose because it is pretty straightforward for most choirs to learn.

It is so awful that the DoM has not allowed himself to put it down on the cathedral music list to give it a dry run.

[ardcarp]

Yes, that little Ouseley piece is a case in point. I can't help regarding it with affection, because I liked it when I about 9...and it was the first time I became aware of the technique of 'word painting'. I'm sure Ouseley wouldn't have wanted his compositional prowess to be judged by it...but there was a feeling at the time that religious music needed to be written with a certain religioity.

I'm sure most people know that Stanford (for instance) composed in many genres (orchestral, chamber music) but we are only really familiar with his church music.

[mercia]

Excelsior

crumbs - no sooner mentioned than it turns up on Breakfast

[DracoM]

Maybe they read these threads................?







As if.

[Mary Chambers]

crumbs - no sooner mentioned than it turns up on Breakfast

I heard it. What an extraordinary piece. Must look up the poem to find out what it was all about.

[Triforium]

personally I think I would rate SS Wesley (a lot) higher than Stainer. BbtG&F I think is a great sing.
Tear and Luxon used to sing those Victorian ballads didn't they. Excelsior springs to mind.

Oh, I don't know, Stainer's 'I saw the Lord' is an enjoyable sing. The 'O Trinity, O unity' section - easily an earworm for me.

[Vox Humana]

I tend to agree with Triforium. Many years ago, Magdalen College, Oxford, under Bernard Rose, issued a rather good LP of carefully chosen music by Stainer. Despite the odd buttock-clenching moment, (e.g. the first bar or two of "Eyesore"), Stainer came over surprisingly well. In particular, I thought "Let Christ the King" (an extract from some oratorio) had some real imagination and flair.

I don't think I'd want to say whether he is better or worse than SSW. They are quite different. SSW I find less conventional. Isn't "Wash me throughly" really quite extraordinary for an English church piece c.1840?

[Magnificat]

This thread is proving rather illuminating, at least to me. Tastes in 'rubbish' (for want of a better word) vary just as much as tastes in 'good quality' music.

I once got together a small choir for a wedding, and the couple had requested S S Wesley's Blessed be the God and Father. In the middle of rehearsal, one of the singers expostulated, "My God! I thought The Crucifixion was rubbish but this is ten times worse!"

rauschwerk,

There is a lot of good quality rubbish ( usually depends on how it is performed ); and a lot of 'good quality music' which is rubbish ( a Harrison Birtwistle carol composed for King's one Christmas comes to mind - what a load of c--p that was!! ) - give me S S Wesley and Stainer any day.

IMHO of course.

VCC

[Wolsey]

Re anglican naffery, we have our annual Diocesan Choral Festival tomorrow, and Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley's anthem From the rising of the sun, 'a short piece of Hymn-like character, in what might be termed Ouseley’s self-imposed ecclesiastical compositional idiom' [W. McVicker], has been included in the festival booklet, I suppose because it is pretty straightforward for most choirs to learn.

It is so awful that the DoM has not allowed himself to put it down on the cathedral music list to give it a dry run.

With Ouseley coming under the spotlight in the discussion of 'Anglican naffery', his anthem It came even to pass, which I remember singing in 1972 under the direction of Gerald Knight (with Roy Massey at the organ), must surely fall into this category.

[ardcarp]

The song, Excelsior! by Michael Balfe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfkZvm77UTA

(Sorry...best I could find on Youtube. It needs the likes of Robert Tear and Benjamin Luxon to do it credit.)

The poem by Longfellow:

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said:
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!