Bath Abbey - 3.30 Weds 7th Jan 2015

[ardcarp]

Introit: The Three Kings (Willan)
Responses: Richard Shephard
Psalm 119 vv 81-104 (Buck; Hopkins; Sidwell)
Office hymn: A great and mighty wonder (Es ist ein Ros')
Lessons: Jeremiah 23 vv1-8, Matthew 20 vv1-16
Canticles on Plainsong Tones (Arthur Wills)
Anthem: Praise our Lord all ye Gentiles (Byrd)
Hymn: Brightest and best of the sons of the morning (Bede)
Organ Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in G BWV 550 (J S Bach)

Peter King, Director of Music
Marcus Sealy, Sub Organist.

[jean]

Let's hope there'll be no buskers competing for attention!

[ardcarp]

It's forecast to be a rainy day...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2656173

...so let's hope they'll be sheltering somewhere other than the West Door.

[DracoM]

Today @ 3.30 p.m.
Any buskers out there will be drowned.

[mopsus]

Today @ 3.30 p.m.
Any buskers out there will be drowned.

Weather in Bath now: overcast but lightly spitting with rain.
As for buskers, Bath & NE Somerset Council have put out a survey about amplification here: http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/consultati...ection-order-0 If you've visited Bath recently or live locally, you're entitled to have your say.

[LTFC1990]

Fantastic psalm singing! They compare very favourably to any Cathedral choir I've heard in a long while!

[DracoM]

All I can say is any buskers in Bath are dead lucky if it's just spitting with rain: opp 'ere in Ultima Thule, I cannot even SEE the fells, and it is hosing it down driven by a strong and nastily chilly westerly.

To business: big, confident sound to choir, good balance, splendid top, forthright but not overbearing men, resonant acoustic but engineering which took an intelligent view of the location / choir. Many thanks.

Liked the Willan - new to me. Psalms - yes, OK, not for me outstanding, but highly competent, good pacing and attack. Canticles: good, liked the spare simplicity, excellent contrast with much around them, particularly the [for me, bizarrely] embroidered final hymn which took me a bit by surprise to say the least. Happy with surprise as a stance, of course, but wondered if the choir were totally inside the musical challenge - in some ways the most complex challenge of the service perhaps? They certainly sang it with a smile on their faces as if they were relishing in anticipation the kind of impact it might have!

Marcus Sealy's big scale account of the Bach vol rounded off a very fine service.

[edashtav]

All I can say is any buskers in Bath are dead lucky if it's just spitting with rain: opp 'ere in Ultima Thule, I cannot even SEE the fells, and it is hosing it down driven by a strong and nastily chilly westerly.

To business: big, confident sound to choir, good balance, splendid top, forthright but not overbearing men, resonant acoustic but engineering which took an intelligent view of the location / choir. Many thanks.

Liked the Willan - new to me.

I like the Healey Willan, too:, a gentle , reflective piece containing a good dialogue between TB and SA. I did wonder if the balance/ microphony was a little awry with the men being rather recessive so that I had to work hard to make sense of their words. A refreshing change of repertoire from the old Epiphany standards although this piece has been popular for some years across N. America.

The microphony issue arose again during the Byrd. I felt the engineers left too much "in reserve". Settings that ere fine when the choir needed to be balanced against a powerful organ could, perhaps have benefited from a closer study of the voices in a capella music. I could hear the trebles well but some of the more intricate, more quickly moving, parts from inner voices tended to blur too readily for my liking. Of course, Bath Abbey has a big acoustic but engineers can abstract a cleaner image of voice parts, if they so choose. Byrd didn't write homophonic music, I'm sure he'd have been delighted to hear distinct contrapuntal strands.

[ardcarp]

Yes, impressive singing from Bath. And to get a descant sung twice in consecutive verses, well, a bonus!

I too liked the canticles. Arthur Wills was a very good composer, IMO.

[bach736]

Arthur Wills was a very good composer, IMO.

... and still is!

[ardcarp]

I beg his pardon!

[DracoM]

The Byrd was my on;y reservation. Bit too one-paced and more or less flat out loud for me. Joyous, yes, subtle...erm.....

[LTFC1990]

Surely a candidate for the best parish church choir outside London?

[mopsus]

Surely a candidate for the best parish church choir outside London?

Bath Abbey has an unusual status in that it has a Bishop's throne in it (and the Bishop celebrates some major festivals there), but isn't now a Cathedral. It is in many ways like a Cathedral, for example by having a choral foundation, although it doesn't have as many choral services in a week as a typical Cathedral.

The acoustic isn't as large as you might think, but it has an unusual property: you can be quite close to the choir and yet it sounds far away. Visiting choirs can have a problem hearing the half of the choir opposite them. Glazing in the choir stalls a few years ago has lessened this, but it's still noticeable. The BBC are no strangers to this building of course, as they have broadcast many Bath Festival concerts from it. (How many they will do in future is another matter, as the Festival seems to be in trouble).

The tune 'Bede' for 'Brightest and best' is the one Bath Abbey usually uses. It is fun to watch congregations trying to handle it - there can be few hymn tunes with a two leaps of a seventh and a leap of an octave all in one line.

[ardcarp]

Bede is an OK tune for B&B, but I can't abide the old A&M tune, whatever that's called. The Brightest and Best tune for me (albeit in a minor key) is the one set in EH, namely the chorale Liebster Immanuel which fits the words very well.