CE St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh Wed, 30th Aug 2023 [R]

[DracoM]

CE St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh Wed, 30^th Aug 2023 [R]
The Charles Wood Summer School

Introit: A hymne to Christ (Imogen Holst)
Responses: Maggie Burk
Psalms 147, 148, 149, 150 (From Luther, Aldrich, Boyle, Stanford)
First Lesson: Jeremiah 5: 20-31
Canticles: St Paul’s Service (Howells)
Second Lesson: 2 Peter 3: 8-18
Anthem: Let All The World in Ev’ry Corner Sing (Bob Chilcott) (world premiere)
Hymn: He who would valiant be (Monks Gate)

Voluntary: Glagolitic Mass (Organ Solo) (Janáček)

Philip Scriven (Organist)
David Hill (Conductor)
.

[ardcarp]

Wow. The organ solo from The Glagolitic Mass is renowned for its difficulty. Phil Scriven is an amazing organist however, so who better to play it?

[Pulcinella]

Wow. The organ solo from The Glagolitic Mass is renowned for its difficulty. Phil Scriven is an amazing organist however, so who better to play it?

Mainly foot/pedal work though, isn't it?

[ardcarp]

I don't know about 'mainly'. There is indeed a lot of unusually rapid pedal-work yes, but done at the same time as some pretty busy chordal and melodic passages with the hands. I've often wondered about that organ solo in the Mass. Whilst Janacek did study the organ along with the piano as a student, he is not especially noted as an organ composer, and I can't help feeling that he was trying to prove something with all that pedal-work!

(See post under The Organ heading.)

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 4 p.m.

[daktari]

Really enjoyed the psalmody: great attention to detail, the flourish on 'and his word runneth very swiftly', the accent on 'so' in 'He hath not dealt so with any nation' (psalm 147), and lovely colouring by said Philip Scriven including a fitting zimbelstern for the 'well-tuned cymbals' of psalm 150. Delightful!

[DracoM]

[jonfan]

Very uplifting CE. The whole a very satisfying act of worship.

[ardcarp]

And Phil made the Janacek organ solo sound almost easy. He really has an amazing technique. As a younger man (still an organ scholar I think) he played Vierne's entire organ works with hardly a break in between.

[daktari]

Psalm 150 reminded me of the first time I heard this chant, recorded in 1993 in The Netherlands. The choir was St John's CC under Christopher Robinson and included Iestyn Davies as a treble. The organist was a young Philip Scriven and Mr Scriven sr. contributed a trumpet part in Psalm 150. A much cherished recording of chants and psalm-based anthems which was not distributed in the UK afaik.

[ardcarp]

Mr Scriven Snr (Peter Scriven) has sadly died. He was (as you say) a trumpeter and he played the organ at an (extremely) High Anglican Church. I'm going to ramble a bit now, so just ignore the rest if tedious.
Years ago, when the (ultra) High Priest of the church died, there was the most amazing choreographed funeral; biretta on top of coffin, many other priests bobbing and gesturing, and so much incense one could scarcely breathe! Phil Scriven (as an adult) played the organ, and he had arranged for a large choir to sing. Mrs A and I were included. The service began with the choir singing I was Glad while processing in. Interesting! Going back to Phil as a child, he sang in that church choir as a treble. His voice and musicianship ware recognised by the above mentioned Reverend Father and Phil duly became a chorister at Westminster Abbey, the school fees in those days being negligible.

[daktari]

That's a great anecdote, Mr A - thank you very much and I was sorry to learn Mr Peter Scriven is no longer among us. The concert tours and recording sessions of St John's CC in NL were organised by the representant of the Dutch equivalent of a very low church variant (Lindenberg Boeken & Muziek / Terdege) and I remember a most sincere ex tempore prayer for choir and director in best-attempt English at the end of a concert in Kampen in 1996 the like of which they would never have heard before. All of this opened the ears of many Dutch folk for the beauty of English cathedral music, and Choral Evensongs and Festivals of Nine Lessons and Carols continue to increase in frequency and popularity across the North Sea. That's my ramble.

[ardcarp]

Very interesting, daktari, especially the bit about increasing popularity of the 9 Lessons and Carols format. Definitely not a ramble.
My experience of Christmas music abroad is confined to Norway, where they have a good boys' choir, The Silver Boys' Choir. They do a Christmas concert each year, with a packed out audience. Whilst the carols are on religious texts, it is not a service. (Norway still has strong Lutheran leanings.) Without wishing to diminish in any way the excellent sound of the Choir, their Christmas repertoire as I remember it tended to consist of fairly simple verse-repeating items. Beautiful, but it led me to wish they could include something more musically challenging, of which they are clearly capable, as evidenced by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wcy2P0H48 (Just stay with the architecture shots...the choir will appear.)

[daktari]

Thank you very much and I will look at the YouTube clip. Interestingly Kampen now has its own choir after the cathedral and collegiate model, which has had a number of summer residencies at Westminster Abbey and made occasional visits to sing CE in Ely, Rochester, Canterbury, Southwark- and St Paul's Cathedrals. It featured in Choir & Organ recently CO_Kampen_Boys_Choir.pdf (kampenboyschoir.nl) in the context of an exploration of the growing popularity of English cathedral music in The Netherlands.

[ardcarp]

Thanks Daktari.. I've just dug out the July/August 2023 copy of Choir and Organ and found the article, "Front Stalls". It shows a picture of Dec and Can trebles singing in a motor-home garage...socially distanced during Covid! That apart, the running of the choir is impressive.