CE St Edmundsbury Cathedral 1st April 2015

[DracoM]

CE St Edmundsbury Cathedral




Order of Service:



Introit: When I survey the wondrous cross (Malcolm Archer)
Office Hymn: Nature with open volume stands (Nürnberg)
Responses: Tomkins
Psalm 88 (Howells)
First Lesson: Isaiah 63:1-9
Canticles: Heathcote Statham in E minor
Second Lesson: Revelation 14:18 – 15: 4
Anthems: The Lamentation (Bairstow)
Plangent eum (Judith Bingham)
Homily: The Very Revd Christopher Lewis
Final Hymn: At the Name of Jesus (King's Weston)



Organ Voluntary: Aus tiefer Not schrei' ich zu dir, BWV 686 (Bach)



Assistant Director of Music: Dan Soper
Director of Music: James Thomas

[Op. XXXIX]

Very much looking forward to this.

I attended CE last May at St. Edmundsbury, and whilst there were only 11 of us sitting in the quire, a full regiment of 18 boys and 7 men sang. It was a glorious service, matching the highest standards.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today at 3.30 pm.

[Quilisma]

I look forward to hearing this from our neighbouring diocese, where our DoM was DoM before he came here. I understand he was instrumental in invigorating the choral tradition there, and we're glad to hear that that legacy lives on. It's a great tragedy that the Abbey of St Edmund was not saved from destruction at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as Peterborough, Gloucester and Oxford acquired cathedral status and were saved, while we were one of several existing cathedral-priories around the country so the main church building was likewise saved essentially intact during the reordering. I won't get to hear today's broadcast yet because we will be fully immersed in our own Holy Week programme, but I shall catch it on iPlayer eventually. It's our turn on Easter Sunday (and in fact the boys will be pre-recording the Easter morning service for Radio 4 too), so I'm hoping we all manage to shake off the current spate of coughs and hoarsenesses in good time. I can reveal that original set of canticles for Sunday was vetoed by the BBC on account of being slightly too long for their time constraints; we are disappointed, as Howells St Paul's with about thirty choristers and about fourteen men would have been just the thing for Easter Day...

[DracoM]

A delightfully refreshing, very young sounding ensemble - no roaring and jostling! And indeed some truly excellent precentor work, no frills, just plain well sung engagement.
Good to hear the Heathcote Statham canticles - haven't heard them in years - and dark little Judith Bingham piece as well - not easy to sing, but highly relevant to the season

Sorry, but how many more 'presenter' intros to services are going to tell us that 'this place has been a centre of pilgrimage for X years'? I mean, work it out: aren't ALL cathedral foundations in one way or another 'centres of pilgrimage'? Indeed, if they weren't, the Church would be in some trouble.

[AjAjAjH]

Heathcote Statham. Organist at Norwich Cathedral when I sang in the Nave Service voluntary choir on a Sunday evening.
He conducted the one and only live performance of 'The Dream of Gerontius' I have attended. Back in 1956.
Happy days in my youth!!

[Op. XXXIX]

Wonderful. Loved the Archer setting and of course the canticles.

Heathcote Statham. Organist at Norwich Cathedral when I sang in the Nave Service voluntary choir on a Sunday evening.
He conducted the one and only live performance of 'The Dream of Gerontius' I have attended. Back in 1956.

The only live performance of Gerontius?

Of interest, perhaps, I attended a live performance of Gerontius in San Francisco back in 2001. It was very well done, and Davies Hall was almost full. The review in the local paper predictably took issue with Newman.

Anyway, many thanks, St. Edmundsbury!

[jonfan]

Reading these comments I listened to the broadcast again to check if my initial impression of the singing was correct. Alas no. Tuning issues were very unsettling throughout; the opening Archer had barely two phrases that were in tune. The responses were an uncomfortable listen as well. It sounded like a choir that is work in progress and not ready for national exposure.

[DracoM]

Can I suggest that you look carefully and read between the lines of material on the choirs at the St Edmundsbury website?

[Frostbites]

I concur with you Jon. When I was first involved with SEds, it was deemed one of the best choirs in the land. There was a certain primary school nature to the introit and the rest was patchy....

[jonfan]

Can I suggest that you look carefully and read between the lines of material on the choirs at the St Edmundsbury website?

I presume you mean there is no choir school. The beauty and joy of CE is that we don't know the background to the choirs and everybody's equal when it comes to 3.30 on a Wednesday. If you do chose to check, many of the services that remain in the memory are often from cathedrals without a choir school. St Davids is a case in point and they are singing on 27 May this year.

[underthecountertenor]

I wonder if DracoM's review would have read as it did had he done a Jeremy Summerly and listened to this broadcast 'blind', with no knowledge of its provenance. I fancy not, and the response to jonfan's objective criticism appears to support my hunch. Which leads me, not for the first time, to question the value and purpose of these reviews.

[underthecountertenor]

But then again, I realise that I'm a fool to myself for reading the things, and reacting to them, at all. Lessons learned are all too easily forgotten.

[DracoM]

Everybody's equal, are they? Hmm.
Test that interesting assertion against the musical resources available on site for a number of foundations who regularly appear on CE.

[underthecountertenor]

But what is the point of a reviewing policy that appears to involve deciding what level of objectivity to apply by reference to a perception of the foundation's musical resources? Perhaps, on your posts announcing each week's evensong, you should allocate the establishment in question a league division (from Premier to Beazer Homes League, Southern Division) so that we may all better understand your reviews. Ooh, then we can have your predictions as to promotion or relegation prospects after each broadcast. What fun!