Maybe the semantics of 'lapsed Philistine' is best avoided...or at least banished to Pedants' Corner. BTW has anyone noticed that Pedants' Corner is PC?
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I'm a little surprised to read that St John's Chapel has no acoustic. I've sung and been to services and concerts there a number of times, and it certainly has reverberance (perhaps rather less if the ante-chapel is full of people?). The Chapel architecture is based on Merton College Oxford's, except that it has an apse.Comment
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Well, it certainly isn't....
... as one of our number would have it! As you say, mopsus, there is a pleasant bloom to the sound when empty-ish. I was surprised how un-dry the acoustic sounded in the Advent broadcast. It's just silly to make architectural or acoustical comparisons with Kings. One snag is that it's a bit close to road traffic...or was. I'm not sure if Cambridge rising bollards are so placed to cut that down. Haven't been there for a while......a grim old Victorian pile with no acousticComment
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There was a complaint (at least one, maybe more) in R4's feedback programme this afternoon. Not traditional enough, the listener took the BBC to task for its choice of uncomfortable 21st century music......
The Producer did set us right, we were invited to hear St John's service, the BBC doesn't get to choose and, anyway he was unapologetic for the music that was broadcast.Comment
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Sorry, but that service was way, way below any high water mark of 'advanced music. We hear more challenging stuff on many CE's.Comment
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Yeah, but people like things a bit more fluffy this time of year... A few tunes.Originally posted by DracoM View PostComment
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So the aim is to trap John's into fluffiness the same way that in a sense KCC has been in 'Xmas' and 'oooh! Aren't they sweet'.....is it?
i.e. 'fluffiness' as a 'celebration' of ADVENT - with Lent, a penitential season?Comment
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Personally, NO WAY! But it sounds like a majority of the listening audience want something more easy to listen to... The producer is completely correct in pointing out that the service is St John's, not the Beeb's.Originally posted by DracoM View PostComment
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And long may it remain.
A very fine annual event like the justly widely known Advent at St John's Service allows them to introduce rather more left-field repertoire and I hope they go on being inventive. 'Fluffy' this ain't, and must not be allowed to become so, unlike the KCC Xmas Box.Comment
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DracoOriginally posted by DracoM View Post
Light calibre baritone does, however, highlight a very important point for cathedrals generally to bear in mind.
Cathedrals have to cater for the once a year Christians more than the private college chapels. It is very easy for DoMs and music departments to become very self indulgent at this time of the year.
I don't mind settings of The Magnificat or Stainer's God So Loved The World being included along with things like Poulenc's Christmas motets, Judith Weir's Illuminare Jerusalem or even some rather tuneless new commissions etc but most people who go to cathedral services of lessons and carols want to hear settings of what they consider to be proper carols like they have at KCC.
Personally I think the KCC format of lessons and carols cannot be beaten and it is what people worldwide want to hear at Christmas. The St John's Advent service is nowhere near as widely known by the public in UK or around the globe and they can get away with inventiveness more easily apart from the odd complaint or two.
VCCComment
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To my mind, part of the problem hinges on the word carols (“An Advent Service with Carols”), which in public perception has become inseparably linked with Christmas – and mostly with Christmas hymns or Christmas “fluff”. If St John’s billed their seasonal offering as simply “A Service for Advent”, false expectations would not be raised.
I thought this year’s music from SJCC was admirable in both choice and execution.Comment
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KCC package is how the BBC among others has more or less made people globally come to see as the blueprint for Xmas, not Christmas.
The reason I love the John's and other foundations Advent services is that they can be far more diverse, more inventive, very often with more interesting music, and more inventive in exploitation of both scriptural / liturgical and secular readings. This allows local and regional material to be included. There is nothing like the rigid blueprint that Truro and then KCC, and then the BBC have ossified into TOWIK.
Totally agree that these days most foundations are dealing with "once a year Christians", I fully accept that. You can / maybe even should use material to help them feel 'at home', BUT the Nine Lessons model has become so ubiquitous and 'de rigeur' down to parish church level that many 'once a year Christians' think that that is the ONLY way Christmas can be experienced and celebrated. Do they come to Christmas services for a cosy singalongaJesus and that's it??? Thus religious experience / practice loses dynamism, it can inhibit responses to new needs, new imperatives, new musical and literary material. As I said upthread, poor old King's has got itself into a mighty bind, aided and abetted by BBC looking to King's to - among other things - advance its global brand, the record companies, and all manner of other agencies that cash in on and thus promulgate the Nine Lessons model. I genuinely feel sorry for them.
I know that saying that is going to get me into trouble, but the older I get, the more I want to see / hear renewal / freshness / invention and means to make me re-think stale ritual.
When I hear John's I am at least in part expecting newness, maybe the unusual. For my money the Service isn't quite as inventive as it might be, but I welcome its - for me I must stress - less rigid format. I hope it goes on searching out the new, the revelatory.Last edited by DracoM; 06-12-15, 09:52.Comment
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I'm not being critical VCC - I understand you are expressing tolerance, but please can someone re-assure me - that there is not a demand amongst congregations (semi-regular or Christmas only) for God So Loved The World. My heart sings when I hear that dreary piece of music. Thank goodness I don't have to sing it any more!Originally posted by Magnificat View PostComment
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For one who doesn't likewhy this sudden urge for God so loved the World? Anyway, I thought that came from the Crucifixion, so its relevance to Advent, Christmas or carols rather escapes me.a grim old Victorian pileComment
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