CE Ely Cathedral Wed, 9th November 2016

[Dafydd y G.W.]

The gem must be Truro, surely? Any advance on Truro?

A really lovely building to sing in.

In Salisbury you feel as if you're singing on your own, which is disconcerting. In Liverpool you can barely see the other side, let alone hear them. Liverpool Metropolitan is just odd.

[Dafydd y G.W.]

S. Paul's isn't as bad as one might expect, considering the distance between Dec and Can and the cavernous acoustic.

[Quilisma]

On the subject of different buildings and their various acoustical peculiarities, I've been lucky enough to experience what it is like to sing in the choir stalls in a number of different places away from Ely (Carlisle, Chichester, Christ Church Oxford, Clare College Cambridge, Guildford, King's College Cambridge, Lincoln, Peterborough, St Edmundsbury, St John's College Cambridge, Wells, Westminster Abbey, Winchester, Winchester College...), and they are all very different. In a sense, Ely is very lucky to have its own set of radically different acoustic environments, such that one never gets lulled into being acclimatised only to one of them, which helps greatly when singing elsewhere: the Quire, the High Altar and Presbytery, the Octagon, the west end of the Nave, and of course the Lady Chapel, each present a different set of pros and cons to the singers, both when it comes to being able to hear and when it comes to being able to be heard.

I have never sung in St Paul's, but it was interesting to attend an evensong there a couple of years ago when a visiting choir were singing. They were clearly singing very loudly, as it seemed to them, and making a lot of effort, and there were plenty of singers, and I was sitting not very many feet away. But they were almost completely inaudible. I should imagine that singing in that cavernous space must be terrifying unless you are used to it. That also surely explains why their home team sings as it does: needs must.

Westminster Abbey is a much more confined space than St Paul's, but it has a very "vertical" acoustic such that audibility is a real problem. A definite "shrill but plummy" sound, with a lot more projection and heft and assertive diction than might seem necessary, does the job there. This has been well understood there at least since the days of William McKie, who had done vacation experience in Ely Cathedral when he was a student and was therefore accustomed to similar acoustical oddities. One of McKie's Westminster Abbey countertenors, the pioneering soloist John Whitworth (coincidentally himself originally from Ely), was a major influence on the young Michael Howard, along with Henry Washington at the Oratory (and presumably George Malcolm at Westminster Cathedral), and when Howard became Director of Music at Ely Cathedral in 1953 he got Whitworth to come and help train the choristers, along with his keen young Assistant Organist, Arthur Wills. At that time some people thought the Ely sound was somewhat wacky, although there were direct parallels in several other places at the time and that controversy now seems rather arcane. It's true that some of the recorded monuments of the Wills era, captured close up, sound almost violent, but presumably they sounded fine to those a little further away in the building itself, whereas anything "less" would likely have sounded like a weedy disembodied mush with no colour and no discernable words. It's always a trade-off.

[Keraulophone]

The gem must be Truro

Glad to read this after learning of Simon Jenkins's view expressed in his recent England's Cathedrals that 'it is really rather dull'. At least he couldn't have been referring to the lively acoustic.

Yesterday our girls were assisted by Exeter's Year 8 girls and the ideal resonance of the building, plus very supportive Father Willis, to thrilling effect in Howells's St Paul's Service.

[ardcarp]

On the subject of different buildings and their various acoustical peculiarities, I've been lucky enough to experience what it is like to sing in the choir stalls in a number of different places away from Ely (Carlisle, Chichester, Christ Church Oxford, Clare College Cambridge, Guildford, King's College Cambridge, Lincoln, Peterborough, St Edmundsbury, St John's College Cambridge, Wells, Westminster Abbey, Winchester, Winchester College...), and they are all very different.

Wells is a pleasant place to sing. But isn't France lucky where most 'ordinary' churches have a great acoustic! I think I've mentioned before that attending CE at Westminster Abbey..especially if shoved far East on the wooden chairs...is not a great experience. (Never sung there, though one of my old friends was a Lay Vicar there for most of his adult life.) Westminster Cathedral, however; wow...the full RC experience.

[Finzi4ever]

Wells is a pleasant place to sing. But isn't France lucky where most 'ordinary' churches have a great acoustic! I think I've mentioned before that attending CE at Westminster Abbey..especially if shoved far East on the wooden chairs...is not a great experience. (Never sung there, though one of my old friends was a Lay Vicar there for most of his adult life.) Westminster Cathedral, however; wow...the full RC experience.

Disagree about Wells - too dry: possibly thanks to the profusion of prettily embroidered cushions in the quire!

[Quilisma]

Enjoyed the service, and am glad the mix of the choir was announced at the start. The kids sounded like kids (i.e. mot manicured) which I liked. The final voluntary was obviously chosen because of its solemnity. It is, maybe, untypical of AW's organ compositions, many of which are quite 'French' and fiery. Really liked the canticles and wish they were done more elsewhere.

Thanks, ardcarp! Bear in mind that this was only the third day back after two weeks of half term. (Well in fact the boys came back a day early as usual to do a full Sunday of Amner, Campion and Mundy with the men.) The boys and girls rarely get a chance to sing together because they have entirely separate (albeit largely parallel) school and rehearsal schedules, and of course different directors and assistant organists. Also, it's slightly more complicated than in the announcement: there are only six lay clerks, but the back row expands to twelve (ideally) for Sundays and other special occasions; there is a pool of extra singers, each of whom is booked more frequently or less frequently depending on availability, and they appear on the day. It was sensible, therefore, for this Monday's evensong (which would normally have been girls and lay clerks plus two sixth-form choral scholars) to become boys, girls and the twelve-person back row for Wednesday, and for the music to be Wills Responses, Wills Verse Service, Wills "The Spiritual Railway", and Wills "Elegy", that service and the twenty-odd-minute rehearsal beforehand acting as a bit of extra pre-broadcast preparation for the full team. (Different psalmody and office hymn, though, and no Howells.) The boys and girls rehearsed together for an hour on Wednesday morning (which is usually a choir-free day for the boys, and indeed for the men), but other than that and Monday it had been some weeks since they had worked together at all: it's a relatively rare luxury. It's also very rare indeed for the men (or indeed the boys) to get to sing that particular office hymn, because it's set for regular Wednesdays, and Wednesday is almost always girls only.

I agree with you about Wills Verse Service, particularly that headily fragrant incense-swirling quasi-Messiaenic Nunc (hints of Ondes Martenot???), and it's almost outrageous that although this was its third broadcast from Ely it was also only the third time it had been sung in Ely since 2001 (first Easter Sunday 2016, then Monday, then Wednesday). Let's not leave it another fifteen years before the next time! (Pity we couldn't hear more of the building's ethereal acoustic halo: it's an essential part of this music...)

By the way, the Wills Plainsong Tones Service is one of my all-time favourites too. (I'm not quite so enthusiastic about his Responses; they're OK...) And I think possibly "Elegy" pre-dates the full development of his love affair with French harmonies and textures. Fine piece, though!

[ardcarp]

Disagree about Wells - too dry: possibly thanks to the profusion of prettily embroidered cushions in the quire!

OK, not the most reverberant, but you don't feel you are singing into a void as in some places. Also, of the the organs perched on screens, this one is (in my somewhat limited experience) the easiest to accompany from.

[light_calibre_baritone]

Also, of the the organs perched on screens, this one is (in my somewhat limited experience) the easiest to accompany from.

Southwell must be similar...? I'm not an organist so no idea but there never seems to be an issue of getting choir and organ "together"...

[ardcarp]