Christmas at King's, 1954, on BBC Four

[Gabriel Jackson]

AFAIK, the 'final event' has been very rarely televised live, or recorded for later transmission.

Isn't the 1954 broadcast the only time Nine Lessons itself has been televised?

[Chris Watson]

I wonder how much rehearsal time the choir had. I can certainly think of some conductors who could learn from his directing style.... It proves that a group of that size in choir stalls with an organist half a mile away can perform musically and with good ensemble without anything other than a subtle finger! It would be very interesting to see a list of the names of the singers. Anyone got one?

[Gabriel Jackson]

I wonder how much rehearsal time the choir had. I can certainly think of some conductors who could learn from his directing style.... It proves that a group of that size in choir stalls with an organist half a mile away can perform musically and with good ensemble without anything other than a subtle finger! It would be very interesting to see a list of the names of the singers. Anyone got one?

Very straightfoward music though, Chris - apart from the Pearsall all homophonic in four parts.

[Wolsey]

It would be very interesting to see a list of the names of the singers. Anyone got one?

For starters, I believe the 'Once in Royal' treble soloist was Rodney Williams.

[Simon Biazeck]

I am reliably informed that Ord was suffering the effects of a recent stroke at this time, so the minimal movement may be more due to that than anything else. Perhaps someone who sang with him could confirm what relation, if any, it bears to his fitter self.

Plummy vowels aside, there is a culture in the signing here that seems lost now: integrated, balanced, clear and meaningful enunciation of the text. Yes, simple enough material but as they say, the simpler the music, the harder it is to bring off.

I am not at all a fan over over-homogenised choral singing, but I seem to hear so much rough, argumentative and what sounds to me like slightly angry singing these days, especially from the back rows, often in the name of 'continental style', but which is anything but to my mind.

#choralgrinch

[DracoM]

Particularly agree with your last sentence. Men can always out-shout a young front line, but it gets worse when with women singing sop, we get even further jostling, competitive striving which is NOT what proper 'choirs' do where blend is all. As opposed to groups of singers who seem to see the music as merely conveniently juxta-posed solo lines to be sung as such.

[Nick Armstrong]

For starters, I believe the 'Once in Royal' treble soloist was Rodney Williams.

Indeed - and he is interviewed as he is now (including a couple of amusing vignettes about Ord), in the '60 years' documentary broadcast earlier today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04w0vg5/carols-from-kings-60-years-of-carols-from-kings

- a fascinating watch

[DracoM]

A few VERY tentatively offered thoughts:

Many of the professionally trained men singing with pro ensembles seem to keep to their styles / habits when singing behind boys, but the result can be that in a number of prestigious choirs in foundations we regularly hear and revere, the back rows are populated by 'big hitters', men with superb voices of great power, projection and experience. But...................!!!

I've lost count of the number of postings on The Choir board with listeners making the point week after week that in the broadcast from X Cathedral the men eclipsed the front line - be they boys or girls. Often writers suggest [kindly to the singers and unkindly to the engineers and I'm as guilty as anyone] that this must be due to microphone placement, or the engineered balance, or both.

But is it?

Setting up to transmit live from a huge acoustic like a cathedral is indeed a formidable challenge in anybody's money and usually against strict time deadlines, but I imagine that while the engineers have skill and sensitivity to what they hear, and can exercise those skills in presenting the material, in the end they must also trust that participants choose discipline ahead of assertion.

[Magnificat]

Deeply embarrassed? No comment. It's 'Hail! Blessed Virgin Mary' arr. by C Wood. CC2, number 11.

Wolsey,

I didn't know this either but what a lovely piece and so beautifully sung. I can't get the tune out of my head.

VCC

[ardcarp]

I am reliably informed that Ord was suffering the effects of a recent stroke at this time, so the minimal movement may be more due to that than anything else. Perhaps someone who sang with him could confirm what relation, if any, it bears to his fitter self.

Simon, I was lucky enough to know two lovely people, now long dead, who were choral scholars at Kings before the 2nd War. They were Vernon House and Derek Hetley, alto and bass respectively. Derek first joined the choir in A.H. (Daddy) Mann's time and sang in the first ever broadcast. Both sang under Boris Ord. They told me quite categorically that conducting 'out front' was seldom done (never in Mann's day). This applied at the time to most cathedrals, where displays of flapping surplices in between the stalls would have seemed unfitting.

[Keraulophone]

conducting 'out front' was seldom done

That this was indeed the norm is confirmed by my experience of watching Bernard Rose conduct the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, during the late 1970s, when, for most of Evensong, he would often wave gently, or use just an index finger, standing beside the treble at the 'west' end of Decani. Occasionally he would place his foot on the choir bench next to the boy, and wave the finger with his right elbow resting on his raised knee. He would usually emerge a little further to conduct the anthem, but still discreetly, with minimal 'flapping'. In contrast, more typical of the younger generation, Simon Preston down the road would 'flap' to inspirational (musical) effect!

[Vile Consort]

If my recollections from the mid-seventies are correct, George Guest only conducted the canticles and anthem. The rest was coordinated by the westernmost choirmen. Indeed, I have read that he used to nip upstairs during the psalms and slide on to the organ bench between verses. I think it was much the same at King's.

[Stanley Stewart]

Indeed - and he is interviewed as he is now (including a couple of amusing vignettes about Ord), in the '60 years' documentary broadcast earlier today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04w0vg5/carols-from-kings-60-years-of-carols-from-kings

- a fascinating watch

Indeed, Caliban, I am DVD recording at this moment an early repeat of this enlightening documentary as it collates 60 years of Carols from King's on BBC 2. A real collector's item.

[Simon Biazeck]

Simon, I was lucky enough to know two lovely people, now long dead, who were choral scholars at Kings before the 2nd War. They were Vernon House and Derek Hetley, alto and bass respectively. Derek first joined the choir in A.H. (Daddy) Mann's time and sang in the first ever broadcast. Both sang under Boris Ord. They told me quite categorically that conducting 'out front' was seldom done (never in Mann's day). This applied at the time to most cathedrals, where displays of flapping surplices in between the stalls would have seemed unfitting.

Very interesting. Many thanks.

[Vox Humana]

I wonder how much rehearsal time the choir had. I can certainly think of some conductors who could learn from his directing style.... It proves that a group of that size in choir stalls with an organist half a mile away can perform musically and with good ensemble without anything other than a subtle finger!

Really? Personally I don't think his minimalist style did anything for the ensemble and I was left wondering just how much notice, if any, the choir were actually taking of him. I kept feeling that he could have got a much tighter precision had he (a) conducted properly and (b) made the choir watch him. As it was, on the one visible side of the choir I could detect only one boy and maybe four men who ever gave him a glance. Mostly they seemed to be managing the ensemble between themselves and were clearly able to manage perfectly well without him, as was obvious when we went to read the lesson. The boy who began "Once in Royal" was interviewed on the "60 years" programme and seemed to admit that he was ignoring the beat and doing his own thing. But whether a tight choral ensemble would have been on Boris's or anyone else's agenda at that time is possibly questionable, so maybe what he got was what he wanted.