CE St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh 19th August 2015

[DracoM]

CE St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh




Order of Service:



Introit: Ave Maria (Stravinsky)
Responses: Leighton
Office Hymn: Come ye faithful, raise the anthem (Neander)
98, 99, 100, 101 (Garrett, Russell, Ouseley, Brewer)
First Lesson: 2 Samuel 18: 19-33
Canticles (Paul Patterson)
Second Lesson: Acts 23: 23-35
Anthem: Tremunt videntes angeli (James MacMillan)
Final Hymn: How shall I sing that majesty? (Coe Fen)



Organ Voluntary: Church bells beyond the stars (Cecilia McDowall) first broadcast



Assistant Organist: Donald Hunt
Organist and Master of the Music: Duncan Ferguson

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.
But, I hope, not with the Choir In Residence in The Big Blue Pop-Up Tent.

[Keraulophone]

+ Kenneth Leighton Drop, Drop, Slow Tears during prayers for the late John Scott.

[Simon Biazeck]

Well, I may be having a rather emotional day myself, but when I turned the radio back on after an important phone call, I heard the minister say that they were singing Leighton's 'Drop, drop, slow tears' as a tribute to John Scott. I burst into tears. He loved Leighton's music. Of course Coe Fen threw me over the edge again after that - still reeling and thinking about his wife and choir. It's too much.

I enjoyed the vigor of this service - something John would have appreciated. They had a huge dynamic range and were happy to show it off with gusto. I particularly liked the canticles - clear, well crafted and idiomatic. I am afraid the Macmillan was lost on me, as most of his writing is. Well done, though. It is never a walk in the park.

The voluntary had quite a lot of Leighton about it - the peals that begin Paean, especially.

[DracoM]

Will listen later.
EXACTLY as I sat down to listen..............artisans arrived unscheduled to put in new doors everywhere! Place a hammering, planing chaos.
Grrrrr!

[Simon Biazeck]

Will listen later.
EXACTLY as I sat down to listen..............artisans arrived unscheduled to put in new doors everywhere! Place a hammering, planing chaos.
Grrrrr!

I have a vision of you living in a chateau! Presumably your day begins with a levée complete with an Italian tenor singing Strauss!

[jean]

He's not Lord Finchley, anyway.

...It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.

[Keraulophone]

Worth getting up for...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-UQt5HXWnQ

[Simon Biazeck]

Worth getting up for...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-UQt5HXWnQ

Well that made me cry again, thanks very much! Unbelievable technique and he seems to be wearing the bedspread, which is nice.

I/we had better stick to the topic, or we'll get our wrists slapped by Frenchie.

Mea culpa!

[DracoM]

The 'artisans' are mates of mine. It was meant to be a JOKE, people!

[Simon Biazeck]

The 'artisans' are mates of mine. It was meant to be a JOKE, people!

We got that, or I certainly did - just keeping it light.. oh, never mind!

[W.Kearns]

It was just the right service to have on during a grim, slow drive along the M4. Thanks, St Mary's - especially for that infinitely powerful piece by Kenneth Leighton.

[DracoM]

Big acoustic tended to blur a bit, but nothing could blunt the confident sincerity of the delivery. Men pretty good, particularly the basses.
For me the MacMillan Tremunt videntes angeli was outstanding - tenor first phrase a lovely arc against a Byzantine / pipe drone.
The material was both moving and beautifully sustained. The divisi / antiphonal elements worked very finely. Top line sensitive and nicely floated. Some wonderful, almost conversational interplay VERY finely disciplined.

Maybe MacMillan's trademark grace note folky / decorations have become just a bit much? Too many imitating them? He really doesn't need them. The splendour is in the richness of the rest.

With Simon on this - so good for a dreech afternoon.

The Leighton was both unexpected and deeply moving, and sung with searing intensity. Tears, indeed, the only recourse.

[Gabriel Jackson]

Maybe MacMillan's trademark grace note folky / decorations have become just a bit much? Too many imitating them? He really doesn't need them. The splendour is in the richness of the rest.

As has been pointed out before, what you call "grace note folky / decorations" are part of the music.

[DracoM]

Well, sorry, for me such figures get in the way. MacMillian develops such vibrancy of texture and onnerlichkeit in all his music, I get distracted back to what feels like a kind of tic.

I'm very familiar with the the great, ancient, declamatory solo folksong tradition he is sometimes channelling - I get all that, but.......hey ho!

.....chacun a son gout.