CE King's College, Cambridge. Wed, 4th March

[Simon Biazeck]

Not everyone would regard that as a recommendation.

:eek: Ouch! Do you know any of June Nixon's music?

But on to the broadcast.

Not bad for a school choir! Just the thought of being in that glorious, light-filled house on this early Spring day is food enough.

I'm not sure if any of the musical offerings had anything to do with Lent, mainly because I really couldn't hear all the text. I have now read the Herbert text, Vertue, and can see the sense - the diurnal cycle and seasons as a metaphor for the transience of life... perhaps. Media vita morte sumus (...)

http://www.hymnary.org/text/sweet_day_so_cool_so_calm_so_bright

I did like the sound of Sally Beamish's introit and would like to hear it again, but I'm afraid the rest of it left me a little cold, although that is not because I have any agendas regarding harmony - tonal, atonal, whatever, I don't mind. It just sounded rather dour and occluded, but perhaps that's the Lenten element, and as such, quite appropriate. I will listen again.

Having said that, I really don't know what the organ voluntary, Ettrick Banks, has to do with Lent, but perhaps someone else will be in the know. I dare say June Nixon has written something entirely appropriate for the season.

[Vox Humana]

:eek: Ouch! Do you know any of June Nixon's music?

Yes, though not a lot. However, I wasn't making any judgement about Ms Nixon's music.

[Simon Biazeck]

Yes, though not a lot. However, I wasn't making any judgement about Ms Nixon's music.

Fair enough!

[w0nderfunk]

I was singing on the broadcast today and I think Stephen's brief for programming was more to do with fitting R3 International Women's day than observing the Lenten period. But glad you enjoyed it.

[Simon Biazeck]

I was singing on the broadcast today and I think Stephen's brief for programming was more to do with fitting R3 International Women's day than observing the Lenten period. But glad you enjoyed it.

Well done to you and all your colleagues!

I wasn't aware International Women's Day was a liturgical feast! A naughty stir, yes, and I am no holy roller, but I'm not sure what a liturgical celebration is there for but to observe the prevailing season. Very happy for the gender of the music's creators to chime in with the Radio 3 schedule, but... hmm.

Still, very stimulating!

[Unison Off]

Excellent performance again from King's, but I wonder about the contemporary stuff pushing out the thousands of brilliant pieces in the cathedral choral repertoire that might have had an airing. Let's support modern composers, but not ignore our incredible heritage... I know King's produce a great music list - so I'm only talking about this broadcast.

Query: I wonder if the mic placement was different tonight? The words were not as clear? The Kings sound slightly different?

UO

[w0nderfunk]

The choir were positioned not in their usual place in the stalls, but arranged in three rows behind the organ screen, facing the east end.

[Simon Biazeck]

Query: I wonder if the mic placement was different tonight? The words were not as clear? The Kings sound slightly different?

I did wonder myself.

I have my own misgivings about the rep. used, but this was just one broadcast, one service, in which we heard mostly contemporary music. I wouldn't call the Leighton Preces & Responses contemporary, rather, classic cathedral music rep. and the chants were very trad., nay, classics! I appreciate you would like to have heard some of "King's (...) great music list" but having glanced at it often enough, it seems to me that new music sits happily alongside traditional repertoire. If we don't push the boat right out once in a while we may not find new shores, but you know that.

Welcome to this mad little corner of the playground BTW!

[DracoM]

Not sure packing all that repertoire into one CE was a wise move, whatever DoM Cleobury's brief was. Overload? Assault on ears, that made taking in all the various pieces' excellence individually pretty tricky
Weirdly, at a lot of points, the boys simply disappeared, occasionally the precentor was on the other side of the Cam, then suddenly booming in yer face. Hey ho. BUT given the density of the organ textures, plus the celebrated KCC acoustic, maybe the engineers deserve a medal for cohering the broadcast work at all.

Psalms felt just a teeny tad untidy in ensemble at times with even some lapses in intonation. But after rehearsing etc all the material elsewhere in the Order of Service, maybe that's understandable. Must have been a few nerves around.

Judith Weir's material impressed me - her 'less is more' style in both the anthem and the vol was pleasantly in contrast to the richness and somewhat grand bigness elsewhere.

OTOH the canticles seemed to me to be very 'instrumental' in shape and texture, as if the composer thought of voices as primarily extensions of organ timbres.
Certainly the rigours the organists had to undergo in this service throughout were hair-raising, and they deserve a deal of congratulation.

Whatever, I bet KCC dont; have as testing a CE for some time to compare with it. The concentration required to bring off repertoire like that is awesome.

[Simon Biazeck]

The choir were positioned not in their usual place in the stalls, but arranged in three rows behind the organ screen, facing the east end.

You record (CD's) and concertize on the other side of the screen - facing the West End, but it this the usual position for Evensong broadcasts?

[DracoM]

Only just seen info on the layout. Thx for that.
How did that affect things? Was that the layout you rehearsed most of the material in? Would surely have affected how you heard one another, given how you usually stand?

Woops, SB, great minds etc.......!!

[Gabriel Jackson]

Whatever, I bet KCC dont have as testing a CE for some time to compare with it. The concentration required to bring off repertoire like that is awesome.

The Vespers service they recorded yesterday (as live) for broadcast in September wasn't easy.

[Unison Off]

"Weirdly, at a lot of points, the boys simply disappeared, occasionally the precentor was on the other side of the Cam, then suddenly booming in yer face."

I agree. I have heard King's live on the radio maybe over 100 times - tonight that unique, amazing (IMO) reverb and clarity was missing. Thankfully, the service's repertoire masked some of this: had it been Stanford, Byrd etc. the short-comings of the new sound could have been exposed (... this happened in the psalms).
It seems the positioning of the choir in the chapel is more crucial to the 'sound of King's' than I realised...
UO

[Simon Biazeck]

Woops, SB, great minds etc.......!!

[Nick Armstrong]

The choir were positioned not in their usual place in the stalls, but arranged in three rows behind the organ screen, facing the east end.

The King's Choir Twitter profile featured a photograph of the position (this was apparently a rehearsal for the Vespers recording):