CE Winchester Cathedral Wed, April 26th 2017

[Lizzie]

Indeed, I do remember and very good it was too! You'll do a sort of 'SCF' route at some stage! All best

[omega consort]

Indeed, I do remember and very good it was too! You'll do a sort of 'SCF' route at some stage! All best

Thanks Lizzie! 2018 is Portsmouth and 2019 Guildford. Salisbury will have to wait (though we were there in 1998 and 2005)! We loved our week in Winchester; all the staff were so welcoming and warm towards us. My only negative was all the scaffold and wood in the quire, but I guess without that, there wouldn't be a cathedral!
Richard

[Nazard]

Lizzie,

I wish the lady Precentor had sung as well. I'm sure she is very good in all other aspects of the job but she hasn't got a decent singing voice and it spoilt this service for me.

It is very difficult for any cathedral to find clergy who can sing well these days so why not just accept this and let one of the lay clerks intone.

VCC.

May I ask the purpose for putting the precentor's gender so pointedly in the above post? It strikes me that their singing ability is unrelated to their gender.

Forgive me, but your wording might suggest that you think there *is* a link...?

[DracoM]

The kids / trebles in the choir I sing with regularly always say that the lady precentor is actually MORE difficult to pitch from than the gentleman.
Why, no-one can explain. I can't either, except from experience, I agree with the front row.

[mw963]

The rare times I was let loose on the organ (many years ago) we had a late-middle aged lady-reader who sometimes did Evensong. She was great fun, and always sidled up to the organist before any service with the words "Tenor G (or A) for me dear boy, it works so much better".

And it did....

[Tenebrae]

The pitch or gender should be, and are absolutely irrelevant to a decent choir. Vocal quality and consistency of intonation is another thing

[DracoM]

Phew, for a moment, I'd deceived myself that I was singing with a decent choir.

[Tenebrae]

Quality is subjective and relative. Winchester CC are not the Sixteen but they are miles above the average, and as such I can assure you they will have problems with inconsistent intonation but not with either the octave, or gender of the Precentor

[Nazard]

I don't think VCC was saying that the gender of the Precentor or the octave that she was singing in was adversely affecting the choir.

But what he did say was that she was not a singer of adequate quality to be singing the office and as part of that point, he deliberately stated that it was a female Precentor. Therefore, aligning her gender with her alleged lack of singing ability. That's what I was questioning VCC on.

[Lizzie]

I don't think VCC was saying that the gender of the Precentor or the octave that she was singing in was adversely affecting the choir.

But what he did say was that she was not a singer of adequate quality to be singing the office and as part of that point, he deliberately stated that it was a female Precentor. Therefore, aligning her gender with her alleged lack of singing ability. That's what I was questioning VCC on.

I've held back from commenting on the VCC remark but, Sue has a very fine musicianship and her intonation is very easy to sing with. I should know, having done so, and I can't claim to be a singer of any superior, or probably even competent, quality. Our Cathedral Choirs, Boys, Girls, and Men, seem to manage extremely well, week in and week out! Do please some of you, try to get over the antipathy for the female being involved in cathedral music! It all becomes very tedious, repetitive and tiresomely! Oh yes, and whilst we're on the subject, we have a brand sparkly new Dean here in Winchester, who can also sing in tune! Bye, bye, Boys!

[DracoM]

Indeed, Lizzie, agreed, and what irks me is that we also hear precentors of all stripes who must be a daily trial to their on tenterhooks choirs

[Nevilevelis]

I've held back from commenting on the VCC remark but, Sue has a very fine musicianship and her intonation is very easy to sing with. I should know, having done so, and I can't claim to be a singer of any superior, or probably even competent, quality. Our Cathedral Choirs, Boys, Girls, and Men, seem to manage extremely well, week in and week out! Do please some of you, try to get over the antipathy for the female being involved in cathedral music! It all becomes very tedious, repetitive and tiresomely! Oh yes, and whilst we're on the subject, we have a brand sparkly new Dean here in Winchester, who can also sing in tune! Bye, bye, Boys!

Here-here!

[sturkel]

Many years ago now, in the early days of the Choir of the Abbey School, Tewkesbury, we occasionally had one of the Non-stipendiary curates acting as Precentor. He was a lovely man, and a fine priest, but a singer he was not, and he struggled with things like the Rose responses.
Every time he was due to sing a service, Michael Peterson would rehearse the responses, deliberately intoning at the wrong pitch, or with the wrong music, or both.
Once we had stopped laughing, we managed to ignore what he was doing and concentrate on getting what we had to sing right.
So in the service, whatever Father Gerald threw at us, we were ready for it.

[jean]

Why do I get this feeling that jean will be on her way here now....??!!

She didn't need to be. She's clearly not the only person who notices that sort of thing.

[Lizzie]

Jean and Lizzie, the formidable force for, 'Women against mysogeny', or WAM, as I like to think of it!