CE Chapel of New College, Oxford 18th November, 2015

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of New College, Oxford



Order of Service:



Introit: A Hymn of St Columba (Britten)
Responses: Rose
Office Hymn: King of glory, King of peace (Gwalchmai)
Psalms 93, 94 (MacFarren, Wesley)
First Lesson: Daniel 9:1-19
Canticles: St John's College Service (Howells)
Second Lesson: Revelation 11: 15-19
Anthem: At the round earth's imagined corners (Parry)
Final Hymn: Rejoice, the Lord is King (Gopsal)


Organ Voluntary: Fantasia in D minor, Op. 135b (Reger)



Assistant Organist: Timothy Wakerell
Organist: Robert Quinney

[ardcarp]

This will be interesting!

[DracoM]

It is said that RQ has apparently 'ironed out' signature treble vibrato? Hmm.

[Finzi4ever]

It is said that RQ has apparently 'ironed out' signature treble vibrato? Hmm.

Listen to their recent webcast to decide. he's certainly 'ironed out' the psalm rhythm!

[DracoM]

I suppose it's marginally easier to change the patterns of many years when you have a choir whose core is changing quite quickly as a university based choir with a front line of boys is bound to.

Interestingly, though, does it make your 'sound' less distinctive?

[DracoM]

And yes, the Oct 20th Leighton was interestingly sung, I agree. Quite assured.

[ardcarp]

Extract from NCO website concerning their webcasts:

As well as the odd extraneous noise, you might occasionally hear musical evidence of the performance’s unedited nature; in a less-than-unanimous entry, or a missed accidental. Thus, while it will not be ‘perfect’ in the manner of a CD recording, you can be sure that you are hearing a performance. We hope you will share something of the experience of those who were physically present in the chapel.

[DracoM]

Which of course makes the achievement of St Thomas Fifth Avenue NYC who broadcast EVERY sung service live, not just selected services by webcast - nowhere to hide. As it should be.

[ardcarp]

Britten's Hymn to St Columba (forthcoming Wednesday's introit) is in NCO's webcast archive:

http://www.newcollegechoir.com/webcast-archive.html

[decantor]

As well as the odd extraneous noise, you might occasionally hear musical evidence of the performance’s unedited nature; in a less-than-unanimous entry, or a missed accidental. Thus, while it will not be ‘perfect’ in the manner of a CD recording.........

Am I alone in thinking that "a missed accidental" is a curious instance to cite in craving the listener's indulgence? An accidental is, of its nature, juxtaposed to its note or within the same bar, and so is likely to be observed even by a sight-singer; in any case, it seems improbable that all the singers of one voice-part would miss the same accidental, and, if just one singer misses it, the resulting dissonance is conspicuous by its absence in these high-class liturgical choirs. It's true that, the more recent the composition, the more accidentals are likely to proliferate...... but more rehearsal time is usually allocated to such music. Of all that can go wrong during a 'live' performance by a choir, I would have thought "missing an accidental" is low on the list.

I intend no adverse criticism of anyone, really: I just found it odd.

[Miles Coverdale]

Am I alone in thinking that "a missed accidental" is a curious instance to cite in craving the listener's indulgence? An accidental is, of its nature, juxtaposed to its note or within the same bar, and so is likely to be observed even by a sight-singer; in any case, it seems improbable that all the singers of one voice-part would miss the same accidental, and, if just one singer misses it, the resulting dissonance is conspicuous by its absence in these high-class liturgical choirs. It's true that, the more recent the composition, the more accidentals are likely to proliferate...... but more rehearsal time is usually allocated to such music. Of all that can go wrong during a 'live' performance by a choir, I would have thought "missing an accidental" is low on the list.

I intend no adverse criticism of anyone, really: I just found it odd.

I think you might be taking this a little too literally. Surely it's just a way of saying that no-one is perfect and mistakes happen occasionally.

[ardcarp]

Am I alone in thinking that "a missed accidental" is a curious instance to cite in craving the listener's indulgence? An accidental is, of its nature, juxtaposed to its note or within the same bar, and so is likely to be observed even by a sight-singer; in any case, it seems improbable that all the singers of one voice-part would miss the same accidental, and, if just one singer misses it, the resulting dissonance is conspicuous by its absence in these high-class liturgical choirs. It's true that, the more recent the composition, the more accidentals are likely to proliferate...... but more rehearsal time is usually allocated to such music. Of all that can go wrong during a 'live' performance by a choir, I would have thought "missing an accidental" is low on the list.

I found it odd too! I think the webcasting is all in the hands of organ scholars, so maybe (with student pre-occupations with ficta ) they wrote the text.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[DracoM]

Well, that was certainly different.

Much faster and more aggressive sound - psalms declaimed mostly fff - deffo 'in yer face' . Negligible treble vibrato - ahem, that is when you could hear the trebles clearly, since the powerful back rows were manifestly delighted to show what they could do. In short, every vocal line seemed to have been put under pressure to assert itself, and inevitably, boys' voices can be out-done by exuberant men. Yes, yes, I know, you had to be there......etc etc.

The Parry anthem may well have been 'premièred' in that chapel in the early 20th cent, but I have to say, given its density of texture, and the very dry acoustic, I wasn't entirely convinced that that Chapel was the most ideal place for it. Chacun a son gout, of course.

[VodkaDilc]

A wonderful, full-bodied sound from the men. Good too to hear the hymns sung so well. I hadn't heard the arrangment of the final verse of Rejoice the Lord is King before: does anyone know the source?

A real bonus to hear the complete Reger, which certainly suited the organ and the chapel. I was dreading an abrupt chopping off, but they had timed the service to perfection.

(As an after-thought, do others agree that the sound engineers had an especailly good day?)