London Festival of Contemporary Church Music

[Guest]

I'm not in the least surprised that I am the only one to comment upon this week's CE broadcast from St Pancras church; others must have been anaesthetised into silence by this unutterably dreadful programme.

It seems that it is an article of faith for writers of "contemporary music" to produce the the most unpleasant-sounding noises possible and if this is the case, the London Festival as exemplified here should be adjudged a huge success. Raw, adversarial and jarring are adjectives which readily spring to mind. The only inclusion of any merit remembered was Judge eternal throned in splendor; this version dated from 1902 which, even for someone of my advanced years, is hardly contemporary which, no doubt, is why I enjoyed it.

I imagine I shall be shot down in flames by the avant garde trendies but I think it a noble sacrifice indeed.

[Gabriel Jackson]

I'm not in the least surprised that I am the only one to comment upon this week's CE broadcast from St Pancras church;

Actually you're not.

It seems that it is an article of faith for writers of "contemporary music" to produce the the most unpleasant-sounding noises possible and if this is the case, the London Festival as exemplified here should be adjudged a huge success.

You're absolutely right! Whenever I receive a commission, the first thing I think about is exactly that - how can I create the most umpleasant-sounding noises possible. I'm sure the same is true of all my fellow-composers.

Raw, adversarial and jarring are adjectives which readily spring to mind.

Certainly, if my work were to be described thus I would be delighted. Those are just the qualities I am hoping to achieve when I put pen to paper, and I expect my colleagues feel exactly the same way.

I imagine I shall be shot down in flames by the avant garde trendies but I think it a noble sacrifice indeed.

On the contrary, I think you were very brave to tell like it is.

[ardcarp]

I'm not in the least surprised that I am the only one to comment upon this week's CE broadcast from St Pancras church; others must have been anaesthetised into silence by this unutterably dreadful programme.

It seems that it is an article of faith for writers of "contemporary music" to produce the the most unpleasant-sounding noises possible and if this is the case, the London Festival as exemplified here should be adjudged a huge success. Raw, adversarial and jarring are adjectives which readily spring to mind. The only inclusion of any merit remembered was Judge eternal throned in splendor; this version dated from 1902 which, even for someone of my advanced years, is hardly contemporary which, no doubt, is why I enjoyed it.

I imagine I shall be shot down in flames by the avant garde trendies but I think it a noble sacrifice indeed.

Not quite the only one, Cornet. Have a look under the'St Pancras' thread. I wouldn't wish to shoot anyone down in flames, but get your parachute ready just in case because I don't think self-immolation is strictly necessary.

Music has always progressed by composers doing something new. We would probably be grunting and ululating in caves had not son of Flintstone decided one day to do something 'experimental'. In truth what we heard from St Pancras was not violently revolutionary anyway. It won my seal of approval by (a) not confusing 'jazz' with 'contemporary' and (b) not following the current fashion for repetitive, a-rhythmic progressions of triads with the odd dissonant note thrown in to sound cool. (Now someone's going to shoot me down in flames.)

The Anglican tradition is uber-conservative, and, to make a sweeping generalisation, rather stuck with a repertoire of music which stems from what the Oxford Reform Movement would have considered suitably 'holy'. Without wishing for a moment to throw out the best of this much-loved tradition, we must embrace the new. This CE was dedicated to new music (and was billed as such) so good for LFCCM. As you will gather I was very taken with Toby Young's canticles, and hope they 'catch on'.

May I ask if you have heard Jonathan Harvey's I love the Lord? IMO it's a masterpiece. It starts off with a firm tonal centre then gradually leads the listener away creating a sense of increasing disorientation. It finally reassembles itself and ends, very beautifully, where it started. (Some wags refer to it as I love this Chord) I mention this, Cornet, because it may be a way for you, if you want one, to find new music other than raw, adversarial and jarring.

PS I see Gabriel pipped me to the post...and I trust you will detect a certain irony in his response.

[decantor]

ardcarp, I was just trying to compose a reasoned response to Cornet IV when I found you had saved me the trouble – and quite brilliantly so..... my thoughts entirely, though you were perhaps too casually damning of the ever-popular Eric Whitacre!

I admit that in past years I have often found the St Pancras Festival commissions quite challenging. Not so this year. As you say, it is to be hoped that the new Canticles might even claim a place in the standard repertoire, but I also found the anthem and Responses intriguing and agreeable. OTOH, I’m surprised that any member of this forum should recoil from the “raw, adversarial, and jarring”, when all are commonplace here: if so in life, why not in music?

While I share your view of Harvey’s I Love the Lord, it would be interesting to learn where Cornet IV’s cut-off in appreciation occurs. Stanford? Howells? Britten? Tavener? Tippett? Leighton? Moore? Dove? Gabriel J? Macmillan? Swayne? Whatever the case, music for the liturgy has been very fortunate in its frontier pioneers, and the St Pancras Festival gives us an annual glimpse of the cutting edge. We need to explore the new - hit or miss - just as much as to preserve the old. How can anyone not thrill to (for example) Alec Roth's Jubilate of 2012? Or so much else of that ilk.

I do hope Cornet IV doesn't feel flamed, but it's hard not to feel pity for his loss. Personally, I feel that the Anglican liturgical music of my lifetime (well over 70 years) has been its most exciting period since about 1625. I'm determined to stay alive lest I miss more that's seriously good!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Lovely, eloquent replies from both ardy and decantor. Just as an anecdotal afterthought, this "avant-garde trendy" was chatting a few weeks ago to a 78 year-old about the funeral service for Richard III. She was impressed by almost all of it, except that "horrible" piece of Music; "I don't understand why people want to write such deliberately unpleasant, dissonant sounds".

It took a couple of moments before I realized that she was not talking about something written for the occasion that I'd missed by, say, Peter Maxwell Davies - but Howell's "Take him, Earth, for Cherishing".

"Raw, adversarial and jarring" are in the ear of the listener.

[Cornet IV]

Not quite the only one, Cornet. Have a look under the'St Pancras' thread. I wouldn't wish to shoot anyone down in flames, but get your parachute ready just in case because I don't think self-immolation is strictly necessary.

Music has always progressed by composers doing something new. We would probably be grunting and ululating in caves had not son of Flintstone decided one day to do something 'experimental'. In truth what we heard from St Pancras was not violently revolutionary anyway. It won my seal of approval by (a) not confusing 'jazz' with 'contemporary' and (b) not following the current fashion for repetitive, a-rhythmic progressions of triads with the odd dissonant note thrown in to sound cool. (Now someone's going to shoot me down in flames.)

The Anglican tradition is uber-conservative, and, to make a sweeping generalisation, rather stuck with a repertoire of music which stems from what the Oxford Reform Movement would have considered suitably 'holy'. Without wishing for a moment to throw out the best of this much-loved tradition, we must embrace the new. This CE was dedicated to new music (and was billed as such) so good for LFCCM. As you will gather I was very taken with Toby Young's canticles, and hope they 'catch on'.

May I ask if you have heard Jonathan Harvey's I love the Lord? IMO it's a masterpiece. It starts off with a firm tonal centre then gradually leads the listener away creating a sense of increasing disorientation. It finally reassembles itself and ends, very beautifully, where it started. (Some wags refer to it as I love this Chord) I mention this, Cornet, because it may be a way for you, if you want one, to find new music other than raw, adversarial and jarring.

PS I see Gabriel pipped me to the post...and I trust you will detect a certain irony in his response.

Well, I have to confess that along with the Anglican tradition, I am uber-conservative - "that much is obvious" I hear you chorus! - but in some sort of defence, I should point out that my views were given from a liturgical standpoint rather than a purely musical perspective and perhaps I should have made this plain.

The broadcast was of Choral Evensong, not billed as the London Festival. The distinction is important because the former represents a very long-standing tradition; for me, the 1662 liturgy embodies permanence with the closing Grace giving a sense of peace and tranquility as intended. Quite the last thing I want is to be assaulted by some barbrous, self-regarding enharmonic statement that has no affect other than to destroy the gifts of the office. Had Aunty promulgated the programme in its proper form, i.e. The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, then I should not have listened, so I suppose it is including the programme under the inappropriate heading which has exercised me so. Contrary to any impression given, I am not antipathetic towards contemporary compositions, in the main, they just fail to excite or interest me.

Yes ardcarp, I have heard Harvey's I Love the Lord and I agree that it is a superior composition. A very long time ago, when a cathedral Treble and a few years later, a Lay Clerk, I sang much "modern" stuff; I particularly liked Hamilton Clark and well remember a thrilling version of Psalm 8 by a New Zealand composer whose name I have forgotten (he was Music Master at Christ's Hospital at one time), so I am not wholly ignorant of the newer chaps although I don't imagine that the likes of Ireland, Gardiner, Bainton or Wood are still regarded as "newer". Nevertheless, I do admit to a profound affinity with people like Croft, Wesley and the wonderful Rev Dr Sir Arthur Gore-Ousley, Bart.

I'm encouraged by the measured nature of the responses to my original observations - perhaps I shan't need my parachute after all?

[ardcarp]

You make a strong case for the 'liturgical point of view', Cornet IV, which most church musicians share to varying degrees. However...

to be assaulted by some barbarous, self-regarding enharmonic statement that has no affect other than to destroy the gifts of the office.

... is surely in the ear of the beholder? I, for instance, think Kenneth Leighton's Crucifixus Pro Nobis is one of the most beautiful and moving pieces written as an Easter meditation. You probably wouldn't.

It's all horses for courses, as with most things in life.

[subcontrabass]

the wonderful Rev Dr Sir Arthur Gore-Ousley, Bart.

You seem to have missed a couple of his titles. He was also Canon and Professor.

[ardcarp]

Great bloke, titles or not, and a champion of church music (St Michael's, Tenbury AND a manuscript collection...now a bit dispersed I think; mainly at the Bodleian) BUT not perhaps the greatest composer? Charming stuff and all that.

[Cornet IV]

Great bloke, titles or not, and a champion of church music (St Michael's, Tenbury AND a manuscript collection...now a bit dispersed I think; mainly at the Bodleian) BUT not perhaps the greatest composer? Charming stuff and all that.

No, he wasn't the greatest composer but regardless of that, he did indeed write some charming stuff, some of it of much consequence; one of my heroes in fact - such a pity Tetbury is no more. Another hero was my erstwhile mentor Herbert Sumsion, perhaps the last of the late Victorian/Edwardian school of English church music which produced so much of merit and contributed enormously to our national heritage.

Perhaps ardcarp, in putting the thread to bed, I can best express myself by suggesting that when I come to curl up my toes and close mine eyes, I should infinitely prefer my exit to be accompanied by the third movement of Beethoven's A minor quartet to Richard Pantcheff's Rex Gloriae. I suspect they might represent opposing directions of onward travel!

[ardcarp]

Tetbury

I can't quite let the thread go to bed without mentioning that it's at Tenbury Wells, a little way outside the town. It's a tall Victorian Gothic structure right in the middle of nowhere. The school buildings are now sadly used by some sort of language school, but the church still functions and still has its cathedral-proportioned Willis organ there. It is often used by visiting choirs.

Yeras ago I spent some time working on mss when the Library was still intact. My studies were punctuated by the baaa-ing of sheep in an adjoining meadow. All very pastoral.

[W.Kearns]

Having visited St Michael's Tenbury myself as part of a choir, I distantly recall seeing an affectionate tribute to Ouseley in verse, elaborately inscribed and framed, up on the wall of the sacristy. I can't remember the text, sad to say, though better informed message-boarders perhaps will. It ran to some six or eight stanzas.

[Cornet IV]

I can't quite let the thread go to bed without mentioning that it's at Tenbury Wells, a little way outside the town. It's a tall Victorian Gothic structure right in the middle of nowhere. The school buildings are now sadly used by some sort of language school, but the church still functions and still has its cathedral-proportioned Willis organ there. It is often used by visiting choirs.

Yeras ago I spent some time working on mss when the Library was still intact. My studies were punctuated by the baaa-ing of sheep in an adjoining meadow. All very pastoral.

Another of those wretched senior moments!

I don't know how I arrived at Tetbury but of course, I meant Tenbury - thanks for the correction. I should remember because I played the organ at St Michael's and on the same day rang a touch of Reverse Canterbury Pleasure Place Doubles at St Mary's in the village. The bells went quite well but I thought the Willis too romantic for my notions of Bach; hardly surprising given its provenance!

Happy memories of a pleasant visit but saddened by what was then the forthcoming closure of the original school and the loss of so much of what it had represented. I wrote at some length on the subject on the old BBC board but few shared my sense of loss.

Sic transit and all that . . . .