CE Hereford Cathedral Wed,13th April 2016

[DracoM]

CE Hereford Cathedral



Order of Service:



Introit: God is a Spirit (Sterndale Bennett)
Responses: Tunnard
Psalms 69, 70 (Battishill, Elvey, Day, Bennett)
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 6
Canticles: St Paul's Service (Howells)
Second Lesson: Ephesians 2: 1-10
Anthem: Dum transisset Sabbatum (Taverner)
Hymn: Jerusalem the golden (Ewing)


Organ Voluntary: Incantation pour un jour saint (Langlais)


Peter Dyke (Assistant Director of Music)
Geraint Bowen (Director of Music)

[Miles Coverdale]

I believe next Wednesday (13 not 16 April) will be the exact bicentenary of Sterndale Bennett's birth.

[ardcarp]

(13 not 16 April)

Corrected

[light_calibre_baritone]

Been in the biz a while and never heard of or come across Sterndale Bennett, I'll have to look him up.

St Paul's Service, Taverner anthem AND the Langlais voluntary - perfection.

[DracoM]

COTW next week on R3.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Been in the biz a while and never heard of or come across Sterndale Bennett, I'll have to look him up.

Admired by (among others) Schumann, who dedicated his Symphonic Etudes to him.

PS - the sum total of my knowledge of WS-B: I shall be following next week's CotW!

[ardcarp]

Been in the biz a while and never heard of or come across Sterndale Bennett

That's because many people 'in the biz' (and I mean DoMs of course!) have rather neglected our Victorian forebears. Many think much of the repertoire to be musically undistinguished. Some undoubtedly is but no more so than much that sticks in the Anglican repertoire from a later generation of organist/composers. God is a spirit used to crop up quite frequently in cathedral music lists.

[ardcarp]

At the mention of William Sterndale Bennett,, I thought I would consult a vast source of data, namely a piece of research analysing all the music lists from 21 cathedrals and colleges with choir-schools from Advent 1974 – Advent 1975. The results are far too complicated to describe in any detail, but I though I would pick out six composers who were born and died within the 19thC....genuine 'Victorians'.

After each name and date below are two numbers, the first being the number of different anthem titles and the second the number of canticle settings by each composer found in the data source.

Goss 1800-1890 (5,1)
SS Wesley 1810-1876 (24,4)
Sterndale Bennett 1816-1875 (2,0)
Ouseley 1825-1880 (10,3)
Barnby 1838-1896 (1,0)
Stainer 1840-1901 (7,3)

I've also picked out just a few anthems by name, and following each are again two numbers. This time the first is the number of choral establishments singing it during the year, and the second is the number of performances it was given.

SS Wesley Thou wilt keep him (21,45)
SS Wesley Blessed be the God and Father (21,33)
Goss If we believe that Jesus died (14.19)
Goss O saviuor od the world (6,12)
Ouseley From the rising of the sun (9,12)
Stainer I saw the Lord (8,8)
Ouseley How goodly are thy tents (7,9)
Ouseley O saviour of the world (6,6)

It is interesting that SS Wesley was, in 1974-5 the most represented composer of all time on those 40-year-old music lists! Only Ireland's Greater Love received more performances than Thou wilt keep him. The later generation of composers, born from mid-19thC onwards (Stanford, Parry, Wood) are staple fare on most of them.

Wesley apart, the other true Victorians get short shrift, not appearing at all on many music lists. And l-c-b is right! Sterndale-Bennett had already died a death since my boyhood singing days. But I think he composed on a wider stage, as we shall no doubt discover in CotW.

[DracoM]

Fascinating piece of detective work. Maybe it also tells us that choirs enjoyed the variety in, and thus worked harder at producing good results in Wesley's music? Might be interesting to know the relevant stats for the 90s?

Reminder that the excellent Hereford Cath team are singing Howells St Paul's Service this p.m. @ 3.30.

[ardcarp]

Reminder that the excellent Hereford Cath team are singing Howells St Paul's Service this p.m. @ 3.30.

Just bumping up Draco's reminder!

[jean]

When I looked at the Order of Service, I remembered a setting of God is a Spirit that had lodged firmly in my brain from many years ago - I didn't think it could be the Sterndale Bennett because he seemed to be so little known.

But it was.

[ardcarp]

When I looked at the Order of Service, I remembered a setting of God is a Spirit that had lodged firmly in my brain from many years ago - I didn't think it could be the Sterndale Bennett because he seemed to be so little known.
But it was

It is very much 'of its time'. I think there was an expectation of what 'holy music' should sound like in the mid-19th century. Perhaps I'm not expressing myself well, but writing melodically or harmonically outside a prevailing orthodoxy would have been ruled out.

But on the subject of today's CE...just wonderful. My impression was of a choir capable of dynamic control, of sustaining long lines and of singing 'as one' under a sensitively musical director. Hereford's organ must be an archetype of 'the English cathedral organ' and was used to terrific effect at both ends of the ff and pp range.

[DracoM]

One of the very best CEs.

Trebles, who sounded like boys giving it their all as you jolly well have to if you want to deliver those particular Howells canticles. They were in noble, unafraid form, savouring the rhetoric as well as the quiet.

And I would also like to pass on tributes to the altos who were in terrific nick. And everyone had to be in the Taverner - a deceptively tricky piece and finely balanced.

And that wonderfully apocalyptic Langlais..........crikey!

Now wonder they left out the final hymn!
How does Geraint Bowen deliver such high-quality services every time the BBC comes to Hereford?

[chitreb]

Jean - I had exactly the same thoughts!

[Roger Judd]

How does Geraint Bowen deliver such high-quality services every time the BBC comes to Hereford?

Simple - by delivering high-quality services every day of the week.
RJ

ps. Haven't yet heard the service - iPlayer awaits...