CE St George's Cathedral, Cape Town, South Africa [Archive]

[DracoM]

CE St George's Cathedral, Cape Town, South Africa
Wed, 14th Dec 2016
The Cathedral Choir, St George's Singers and Voices of Cape Town
[2005 Archive recording ]


Order of Service:


Responses: Barry Smith
Psalms 137, 138 (Wesley, Knight)
An African Freedom Song
First Lesson: Isaiah 35: 1-10
Office Hymn: Hark a thrilling voice (Merton)
Magnificat (African fauxbourdons arr. Chris Chivers)
Second Lesson: Revelation 21: 9-12,21-25; 22:1-2
Nunc Dimittis (Spiritual arr. John Harper)
Homily: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Anthem: A Song of Hope (Peter Klatzow)
Final Hymn: Mine eyes have seen the glory (Battle Hymn)


Organ Voluntary: Toccata (Hank Temmingh)

Assistant Organist: Grant Brasler
Directors of Music: Barry Smith and Lungile Jacobs

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[Op. XXXIX]

Nice harmonization of 'Mine eyes...'. Anyone know the source?

[mw963]

Interesting you say that, because on the original broadcast that hymn was the only thing that made me sit up and take notice, and my feelings were identical this time round. Glorious version!

I must say that I'm disappointed that we are being subjected to so many repeats this autumn, and that they are repeats that I myself would not have selected from the vast archive available.

But then a straightforward cathedral evensong seems to be a last resort nowadays on Choral Evensong. I wouldn't mind so much if we still had two a week but we don't.

No doubt I shall be accused of conservatism and embracing familiarity, but with my "ordinary" (low-brow?) tastes I realise I'm in a minority here. Still, at least there was no Leighton!

[DracoM]

Why this repeat? Well perhaps......Outreach? Diversity? Adaptation of the Advent message to beyond Europe?
Why cathedrals? Well, maybe because they have weekly / daily regular evensongs with pro choirs on tap and a big pool of material to draw from?
I can certainly understand why no cathedral is going to welcome a live broadcast in the midst of one of the most relentless singing stints on the rota.
BUT I fully endorse a question as to why some broadcasts ARE being repeated, when there must be a huge number of others, and perhaps just as if not more interesting originals? Always makes me wonder how the 'archive' repeats get chosen.

[oddoneout]

I don't have a problem with the initial repeat as such - but why is it being repeated for the second time on Sunday? Surely it isn't cast in stone that Sunday's repeat must be of the Wednesday broadcast regardless of whether that was a live or repeat broadcast? A missed opportunity to hear Advent services from the archives - I can't believe that there aren't a few to choose from.

[DracoM]

.................particularly as some cathedrals eg Truro / St Thomas Fifth Avenue NYC / major OxCam colleges fairly regularly webcast services anyway.

[Pulcinella]

I don't have a problem with the initial repeat as such - but why is it being repeated for the second time on Sunday? Surely it isn't cast in stone that Sunday's repeat must be of the Wednesday broadcast regardless of whether that was a live or repeat broadcast? A missed opportunity to hear Advent services from the archives - I can't believe that there aren't a few to choose from.

Pedantic, I know, but the Sunday isn't always a repeat of the Wednesday, the recent broadcast of the Advent Sunday St John's service being a case in point.
But I don't disagree with your general argument.
With LA, it seems nonsense (and laziness?) simply to repeat Wednesday's offering on Sunday, just like it does to have a repeat of This Week's (de)Composer on the same day!

[ardcarp]

it seems nonsense (and laziness?) simply to repeat Wednesday's offering on Sunday

..but is it better to have the CE slot on Sunday filled by a repeat of Wednesday's broadcast or by some unknown horror? I don't see the BBC forking out for two live broadcasts per week as in the good 'ole days. They aren't even forking out for one per week at the moment!

Taking your argument to an extreme, is there any point in having any recorded music at all on the radio, as we are moving into an era when we can 'access' what we want, when we want via a profusion of different 'platforms'. (Hope you like the cool jargon.)

Thank goodness Radio 3 is still able to broadcast quite a lot of its In Concert series live.

[Pulcinella]

..but is it better to have the CE slot on Sunday filled by a repeat of Wednesday's broadcast or by some unknown horror? I don't see the BBC forking out for two live broadcasts per week as in the good 'ole days. They aren't even forking out for one per week at the moment!

Taking your argument to an extreme, is there any point in having any recorded music at all on the radio, as we are moving into an era when we can 'access' what we want, when we want via a profusion of different 'platforms'. (Hope you like the cool jargon.)

Thank goodness Radio 3 is still able to broadcast quite a lot of its In Concert series live.

True, but we started talking about archive material, so some of that could be used for the Sunday 'repeat' slot.
Whether or not it would be a 'horror' (some might remember the original broadcast) I couldn't say.

(PS: Yes, I like the jargon.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... it seems nonsense ... to have a repeat of This Week's (de)Composer on the same day!

Although, pedantically, if the repeat were not on the same day, the programme would have to be renamed "Some Other Week's Composer"?

But I agree - in these days of Listen Again, a repeat of a programme on the same day seems unnecessary; much better use of the airtime could be made by having really good, fixed schedule Jazz, World, Contemporary, and Very Early Music programming at 6:30 every evening. (Or at Noon, if more listeners prefer to listen to CotW in the early evenings.

[Pulcinella]

Although, pedantically, if the repeat were not on the same day, the programme would have to be renamed "Some Other Week's Composer"?

But I agree - in these days of Listen Again, a repeat of a programme on the same day seems unnecessary; much better use of the airtime could be made by having really good, fixed schedule Jazz, World, Contemporary, and Very Early Music programming at 6:30 every evening. (Or at Noon, if more listeners prefer to listen to CotW in the early evenings.

I seem to remember that at one time the repeat was that of the previous week's series of programmes, so technically each slot was a week's worth.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[subcontrabass]

I don't see the BBC forking out for two live broadcasts per week as in the good 'ole days.

In the period of twice-weekly CE, at least when it was Wednesdays and Fridays, one of the services was usually pre-recorded (using the Psalms and Lessons for the day of the scheduled broadcast). This enabled choirs to perform some more challenging material from the repertoire.

[oddoneout]

Pedantic, I know, but the Sunday isn't always a repeat of the Wednesday, the recent broadcast of the Advent Sunday St John's service being a case in point.
But I don't disagree with your general argument.
With LA, it seems nonsense (and laziness?) simply to repeat Wednesday's offering on Sunday, just like it does to have a repeat of This Week's (de)Composer on the same day!

As I posted I realised that there were exceptions, but decided the bit of generalisation wasn't enough of a crime to warrant correction.
I happen to find the CotW repeat useful(lacking suitable alternative platforms) but am aware that it's increasingly a questionable bit of programming in some respects - although in others, such as saving money, it presumably has its merits....