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CE Chapel of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Wed 22nd April 2015
Hello everyone by the way. I have been a reader of this entertaining forum for a while but only just registered.
Hello, ocarina - welcome
'Entertaining' ?? Hehe ...
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
Yes, Hi ocarina. Hope you manage to stay on board despite the rough waters sometimes encountered around here.
The service was well directed and the choir full-blooded. It may be that this sort of sound has been decided on as the best way to fill a slightly lacklustre acoustical space. I really enjoyed the Holloway organ voluntary. (Did anyone notice The Keel Row at one point, BTW?) To play it....or anything.... on that instrument makes one feel quite exposed and alone...nowhere to hide. I guess organists will know what I mean. So it was a very creditable performance. I'd like to hear it again in a bigger space.
Many years ago, St Clement Danes broadcast The Wilderness on a live CE. The countertenor was a certain J. Bowman. It really blew me away. But comparisons are odious.
....... to stay on board despite the rough waters sometimes encountered around here.
Ah well, if the forum is acknowledged as choppy waters, I’ll set my sail despite fear of foundering.....
Wood and Wesley mean less to me than Walcott and Weekes: thus the bulk of the music left me high and dry. But I warmed to the introit as it went on, and look forward to renewing acquaintance with it; Guy Turner’s Responses struck me as unusually and pleasantly lyrical, especially in the setting of the Lord’s Prayer; and Holloway’s Sortie had more wit and bonhomie than many of his works I’ve heard – yes, the Keel Row was in the mix for sure.
I do admire the G&C choir – their CD All the Ends of the Earth is one of my favourites – and they did nothing today to damage their high standing. Even so, I nodded in agreement with Draco’s BBCS comment above (#12), and the dry acoustic made me feel that CE was taking place in my sitting-room – which, to be honest, is not the effect that I want: I look to be transported out of time and into space.
Almost exactly 51 years ago, I ushed at a wedding in G&C College chapel. I didn't register the 'dryness' then - but of course one wouldn't at a wedding.
Music festivals have evolved from simple communal gatherings into massive global phenomena, drawing attendees from all walks of life and connecting individuals through the universal language of rhythm and melody.
I've just caught up with this service. I really enjoyed 'The Wilderness' . Ok, it is repetitive, self-indulgent and sentimental, but I love its tunefulness and extraordinary mix of tenderness and gusto. Hearty cheers and many thanks to recent editor, singers and all concerned.
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