CE Canterbury Cathedral Wed, 21st September 2016

[DracoM]

CE Canterbury Cathedral Wed, 21st September 2016
The Feast of St Matthew the Apostle


Order of Service:


Introit: Let us all rejoice (Gabriel Jackson)
Responses: Christopher Gower
Office Hymn: Let the round world with songs rejoice (Exultet coelum)
Psalm 106 (Smart, Goss, Ouseley)
First Lesson: Ecclesiastes 5: 4-12
Canticles: Arvo Pärt
Second Lesson: Matthew 19: 16-30
Anthem: Loquebantur variis linguis (Tallis)
Final Hymn: He sat to watch o'er customs paid (Canterbury)


]Organ Voluntary: Sonata - first movement (Whitlock)



Assistant Organist: David Newsholme
Organist and Master of the Choristers: David Flood

[DracoM]

Gentle reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[ardcarp]

A lovely service and great to hear the Tallis. A suitably rhythmic start of the proceedings thanks to GJ, and I thought the Part was very beautifully done. The Percy Whitlock was of course admirably played, but I'm not a great fan. Found it a bit rambling. Not sure how the engineers managed it, but on my equipment, the solo clarinet stop came over almost as loud as the full chorus of high-pressure reeds.

[Alain Maréchal]

Not sure how the engineers managed it, but on my equipment, the solo clarinet stop came over almost as loud as the full chorus of high-pressure reeds.

I have not yet heard it, but my man on the spot has emailed me to say "one of the organs stops was deafening and sounded like a herring gull with pneumonia".

[ardcarp]

That would be the clarinet. It was a rather coarse example! There was a trend to re-voice them to be more like a crumhorn. I don't know if Canterbury suffered this fate.

[DracoM]

Was very impressed by this service, tho' with ardcarp's reservations ref Whitlock.

Trebles in fine voice, and the Part canticles were beautifully managed and executed in that acoustic. Some fine solo work too. The whole service conducted with a quiet reticence by the ministers - less is more - and such a relief to have that. This Tallis not my absolute favorite, but again, finely articulated and ensemble disciplined.

Many thx.

[Finzi4ever]

Was very impressed by this service, tho' with ardcarp's reservations ref Whitlock.
Many thx.

Tush, say they, how should God perceive it ... Lo, these are the ungodly
I'll be the first to defend Whitlock but not that inadequate vehicle on which it was performed - the worst of late 70s hatchet jobs, chucking out the Solo organ including its warm Corno di Bassetto to leave only a very modest sized 3 decker with a new and ugly Cremona.
I thought there were plans to get rid but that was years ago now sadly.

Congratulations, however, to all at Cantuar. for making the best of it.

[tenorius]

New Organ

Tush, say they, how should God perceive it ... Lo, these are the ungodly
I'll be the first to defend Whitlock but not that inadequate vehicle on which it was performed - the worst of late 70s hatchet jobs, chucking out the Solo organ including its warm Corno di Bassetto to leave only a very modest sized 3 decker with a new and ugly Cremona.
I thought there were plans to get rid but that was years ago now sadly.

Congratulations, however, to all at Cantuar. for making the best of it.

Ah, indeed. A new organ is on the way. Plans were slightly scuppered (financially) by the Great South Window falling out....basically - see the news this week as that is all done now. Plans are there though and as ever it is moving ahead as I understand it from Dr Flood...

[tenorius]

A lovely service and great to hear the Tallis. A suitably rhythmic start of the proceedings thanks to GJ, and I thought the Part was very beautifully done. The Percy Whitlock was of course admirably played, but I'm not a great fan. Found it a bit rambling. Not sure how the engineers managed it, but on my equipment, the solo clarinet stop came over almost as loud as the full chorus of high-pressure reeds.

Alas, that is what that clarinet sounds like in real life! There is little that can be done, and there is the additional problem of the organ living in the roof ;-)

[ardcarp]

Ah, indeed. A new organ is on the way. Plans were slightly scuppered (financially) by the Great South Window falling out....basically - see the news this week as that is all done now. Plans are there though and as ever it is moving ahead as I understand it from Dr Flood...

I looked briefly online to find details of the organ...either old or proposed.....but without success. Can anyone find anything and maybe post it up? One would hope that the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion would get something decent.

[mw963]

I looked briefly online to find details of the organ...either old or proposed.....but without success. Can anyone find anything and maybe post it up? One would hope that the Mother Church of the Anglican Communion would get something decent.

The current spec is here

http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N14638

I'm glad that it wasn't me who had to lead the defence of dear Percy. From the very first time I heard that 1st mvt of the Sonata (about twenty years ago on a CE from Southwark) I was and still am mesmerised by it. In fact it's one of my "go-to" pieces when I need spiritual uplift. A heady mixture of despair, nobility and moments of almost painful intimacy. I bet Percy had heard the Reubke around the time he wrote it, it seems to me there are distinct echoes in parts.

I do rather find that what the old-timers on this forum dismiss is precisely what I enjoy, and vice versa. But I would agree that on this particular instrument the Whitlock didn't come over so well, and the Cremona was a positive embarrasment. And I've never got on with the final movement of this Sonata, although mvts II and III are vintage stuff.

[Tony Halstead]

Hmmm.... so where is the 'Clarinet' that everyone seems to despise? Is it maybe the 'CLARION' ?

[tenorius]

Not quite Tony....

Hmmm.... so where is the 'Clarinet' that everyone seems to despise? Is it maybe the 'CLARION' ?

Only if they are deaf and think that clarinets sound like trumpets? Presumably the choir Cremona ;-)

[tenorius]

The most recent 'news' from the Cathedral about the organ is hidden at the bottom of the American Friends newsletter: http://www.canterburyus.org/wp-conte...S-FEB-2014.pdf

A few years old but it confirms that the organ will be now in the north and south triforia (currently just the south) and will be restored to its 19th century scale with a new console in the north quire aisle...and Harrison's have the contract.

[DracoM]

Maybe if the choir hadn't inconveniently got in the way, we would have been able to hear more of the 'clarion'?