CE Truro Cathedral Wed, 8th March 2017

[Vox Humana]

Well, I've no knowledge about Truro's thinking, but isn't it just common sense to have all the girls at one school? Imagine having to secure co-operation and, more importantly, mutual co-ordination from teachers, head and otherwise, continually from several different sources. It would be a nightmare. It would never work smoothly. To take one example: how could you ensure that school trips involving your choirgirls took place in all the different schools on the same day? You couldn't, because you would have no control. I'm conscious of the problems Mrs Humana has regularly encountered as a peripatetic string teacher, even within any single school she visits. The problem is communication - schools just aren't very good at it (at least not where music is concerned, maybe because it's generally of very low priority). If you were a professional musician dedicated to developing a choir functioning professionally as a finely honed unity I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to risk that sort of nonsense.

[DracoM]

[underthecountertenor]

Well, I've no knowledge about Truro's thinking, but isn't it just common sense to have all the girls at one school? Imagine having to secure co-operation and, more importantly, mutual co-ordination from teachers, head and otherwise, continually from several different sources. It would be a nightmare. It would never work smoothly. To take one example: how could you ensure that school trips involving your choirgirls took place in all the different schools on the same day? You couldn't, because you would have no control. I'm conscious of the problems Mrs Humana has regularly encountered as a peripatetic string teacher, even within any single school she visits. The problem is communication - schools just aren't very good at it (at least not where music is concerned, maybe because it's generally of very low priority). If you were a professional musician dedicated to developing a choir functioning professionally as a finely honed unity I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to risk that sort of nonsense.

It's not easy, but there are places that manage it.

[jonfan]

Places that do manage it include Wakefield and St Davids. St Davids accepts girls from age 8 to 18 recruited from local schools and therefore have 10 years of value both for themselves and to the maintenance and enhancement of the music ministry.
Superb service and agree with all the comments on this thread.

[oddoneout]

This from the Norwich Cathedral Girl's Choir webpage.
"The girl choristers are volunteers drawn from across Norwich and Norfolk"
Given the size of the county I imagine that more of the members come from in and around Norwich...

[Finzi4ever]

Fantastic singing, every word clear; sounded as though that Girls' Choir had been in place since Truro was built.

Absolutely knocked out by the chants! Loved the voluntary too.

But what were all those bangs and crashes? The first one happened when I was out in the kitchen having a cup of tea so was heard via a portable radio rather than the hi-fi, so not quite as scary as the ones that followed. Even the cat - who is rather deaf and normally impervious to CE, jumped a couple of times.

And oh, that silly silly girl in Con, leaping in yet again to ruin the atmosphere at the end.

KATIE - FOR GOODNESS SAKE HAVE SOME RESPECT BOTH FOR THE ORGAN VOLUNTARY AND FOR THE TRADITIONS OF RADIO 3, OF WHICH YOU SO CLEARLY ARE UNAWARE. How anyone with so little sensitivity gets to work in Radio 3 Con is beyond me. It's been a treat to have Katriona Young (who has a long and deep understanding of Radio 3) presiding in recent weeks, rather than Ms Dereham.

Sorry, harsh words, but all our entreaties in the past have been ignored.

Tremendous music, brilliantly executed! Psalms exquisite, loved the canticles - which is as far as I've got so far. Hope to get the full effect on Sunday.

[sturkel]

Wonderful evensong. I echo what everyone else has said.

Huge credit not just to the choir itself but also to Christopher Gray and Luke Bond for training the Girls Choir to reach this standard so quickly after their formation (not that I expected anything less!).

And also for the cathedral's enterprise in commissioning such fine and approachable new pieces, which will almost certainly remain in the repertoire. I read that Dobrinka Tabakova's music is part of an 18 month residency with the choir. Her first piece for them was performed at one of the 2016 Carol Services and can be found on the Choir's Soundcloud pages. What else is promised?

I knew nothing of Sasha Johnson Manning' work but enjoyed the responses and particularly the gorgeous chants.

[Finzi4ever]

Tremendous music, brilliantly executed! Psalms exquisite, loved the canticles - which is as far as I've got so far. Hope to get the full effect on Sunday.

Have heard the rest now, and wow! Great new pieces for the repertoire; all of them, from the Preces onwards, though perhaps without the apocalyptic thunderclaps from the late BHS (RIP) next door. Pity they couldn't have been re-scheduled till next Wed and fitted in to Psalm 78:49.

[ardcarp]

Pity they couldn't have been re-scheduled till next Wed and fitted in to Psalm 78:49.

Some cinema organs used to have special effects such as thunderclap, gale and drum-roll. Probably a bit OTT for Anglican use though.

[W.Kearns]

I caught the canticles this afternoon, and loved them. For me - like a previous poster - the closing hymn rouses powerful memories. Homesick at boarding school, the line 'Nearer and nearer draws the time' always carried a promise of half term/end of term. I imagine the tune owes its name to Bishop Benson of Truro - ? It sounded splendid. Thanks, Truro, for a great experience.

[ardcarp]

I imagine the tune owes its name to Bishop Benson of Truro

Probably, but the tune was written by Millicent Kingham....maybe the reason for choosing it for International Women's Day.

[Dafydd y G.W.]

I imagine the tune owes its name to Bishop Benson of Truro - .

Yes. This was his favourite hymn, tho' presumably it was either sung to a different tune or the tune initially had another name (or perhaps it became his favourite because the tune was called Benson for some other reason!). The conventional story doesn't quite make sense as it stands....

[Finzi4ever]

Some cinema organs used to have special effects such as thunderclap, gale and drum-roll. Probably a bit OTT for Anglican use though.

Cavaillé-Coll, I'm pretty sure, sometimes added Effets d'orage, for example at St Sernin, Toulouse & then there's the famous 'La Force' at Weingarten a 49 rank bottom C...

[Keraulophone]

Cavaillé-Coll[...]sometimes added Effets d'orage

...as requested by Lefébure-Wély at St Sulpice but (unfortunately) removed by Widor, who disliked such contraptions (explained by Daniel Roth in Fugue State Films's Widor CD/DVD set). However, L-W's Machine à grêle and Rossignol effects seem to have survived there.

[ardcarp]

A few English cathedral organs employed the diaphone method for the bottom octave of the 32' pedal reed. It could be labelled FOGHORN because I think Robeert Hope-Jones nicked the idea from fog-horns in lighthouses which used the same principle. There was definitely one at Worcester and maybe Hereford too.


While the Diaphone is in many ways similar to reeds, it is considered to be in a class by itself, sometimes called "valvular". Instead of a reed, it employs a beating palette to produce the vibrations which are amplified and fixed in frequency by a resonator. Unlike beating reeds, the pitch of a Diaphone is not affected by variations in wind pressure.

Many nautical charts still have "Foghorn Dia" thought it has been found that higher pitched (and no-doubt electronically generated) fog signals carry better. The old foghorns were deep, low and menacing...I remember them well.

Have I wandered off topic.....