CE Peterborough Cathedral Wed 2nd Dec 2015

[DracoM]

CE Peterborough Cathedral



Order of Service:



Introit: Vigilate (Byrd)
Responses: Matthew Martin
Office Hymn: Creator of the stars of night (Conditor alme)
Psalms 12, 13, 14 (Flintoft, Goss, Anon)
First Lesson: Isaiah 43:14-28
Canticles: Second Service (Gibbons)
Second Lesson: Revelation 21: 1-8
Anthem: A Song of the New Jerusalem (Matthew Martin)
Final Hymn: Hark! a herald voice is calling (Merton)



Organ Voluntary: Fantasia of four parts (Gibbons)


Organ Scholar: Jeremy Lloyd,
Assistant Director of Music: David Humphreys


Director of Music: Steven Grahl

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 pm

[oddoneout]

Enjoyed this one. Sounds as if there are quite a lot of young voices in the choir? The anthem by Mathew Martin I'm not qualified to comment on the musical merits of, but I liked the sound of it enough to listen again, and thought it was a good aural 'fit' with the rest of the music.

[ardcarp]

It gets very tiresome quoting Beecham, but I can't resist:

"the British may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes".

Sorry, oddoneout, no offence intended. I haven't heard the broadcast yet, so look forward to the noise it makes.

[oddoneout]

And no offence taken. The germ of truth in the quote is that if I like the 'noise' I'll make the effort to listen and then perhaps be able to appreciate the music! Although, as I am completely lacking in the music theory department(despite fairly eclectic vocal and instrumental performing experience over the years nothing seems to have rubbed off or stuck) I am unable to explain in technical terms why I think any given piece of music is good.

[ardcarp]

I wonder if anyone present could post in and give us some inside info about the choir and this CE in particular. I enjoyed the gusto of the young choristers who were doing a great job. The ATB sounded very professional; and maybe for the radio listener there was a tonal gulf between their full voices (e.g. in Vigilate) and the thinner, edgier sound of the top line.

[oddoneout]

maybe for the radio listener there was a tonal gulf between their full voices (e.g. in Vigilate) and the thinner, edgier sound of the top line.

Not for this radio listener - bit of a gap perhaps, but certainly not a problem.Hearing the trebles made me smile, they sounded as if they were enjoying what they were doing, and I happen to prefer a less beefy approach when something like Gibbons is on offer.

[anoncoward]

Byrd's Vigilate (sung as an Introit!) seemed over-ambitious here in every respect. However from the Gibbons canticles onwards, the choir seemed to blossom. An enjoyable service to hear from then on and the best I've heard from Peterborough in quite a while!

[mopsus]

Listening once more before it goes offline. I noticed a variant in the Magnificat from the Fellowes edition, a leap of a fourth in the treble line in the phrase that ends 'hath sent empty', rather than a semitone. Is this as per the OUP book of Canticle settings? I recently sang the Second Service from that book and I noticed also that the time signature is two beats in the bar, which conductor and choir found difficult. Whenever I've sung it from Fellowes' edition it's been conducted in four. The Gibbons is one of my favourite settings so I'd be interested to have some thoughts on this!

[Wolsey]

Listening once more before it goes offline. I noticed a variant in the Magnificat from the Fellowes edition, a leap of a fourth in the treble line in the phrase that ends 'hath sent empty', rather than a semitone. Is this as per the OUP book of Canticle settings?

This is what is given in David Skinner's edition published by Fretwork Editions which we also have, and when one looks more closely at the polyphony at that point, a musical phrase which ends by rising, falling and then rising by a semitone is somewhat weak. I suspect that a number of other foundations may also have invested in other titles from this publisher when the opportunity arose through the Cathedral Organists' Association some years ago. Fellowes' editions have long been superseded by the work of le Huray, Morehen (see The Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems, 1978) and others. Incidentally, anyone using the Fellowes edition will, in all probability, be perpetuating the misprint in the opening alto verse at 'rejoiceth' where the downward interval should be a third, not a fifth, as the imitation in the tenor verse attests. It's also nonsense to have a unison in both voices on that beat.

[mopsus]

Fellowes' edition of the Gibbons Second Service dates from 1936. My favourite touch is the footnote to an E natural in the alto line during the Gloria of the Magnificat, which clashes with an E flat in the treble line 'This note should be sung very lightly'. Earlier editions edited out the dissonance, and modern ears welcome it.

I think this work may be one of the last Fellowes editions to be re-edited. David Skinner's edition appears to date from the early years of this century. And I've heard many broadcasts (this setting comes round every year on CE broadcasts) which sounded like Fellowes. But now that there are two other editions by Skinner and by Robert King (for OUP), its day is probably now over - although I'm still not convinced by King's time signature.