CE Chichester Cathedral 15th June 2011

[DracoM]

CE Chichester Cathedral
The Eve of the Feast of St Richard


Order of Service:


Introit: Prayer of St Richard (Louis Halsey)
Responses: Clucas
Office Hymn: Let saints on earth in concert sing (Dundee)
Psalm: 78 (Oakeley, Ouseley, Crotch, Goss, Atkins, Howells, Finzi, Mann)
First Lesson: Numbers 27: 15-23
Canticles: Sumsion in A
Second Lesson: John 10: 11-16
Anthem: You Have Seen the House Built (Will Todd)
Hymn: Thanks be to God for his saints (Lobe den Herren)


Organ Voluntary: Pièce Héroïque (Franck)


Timothy Ravalde (Assistant Organist)
Sarah Baldock (Organist & Master of the Choristers)

[ardcarp]

Well, I'm keeping an open mind about the Will Todd piece.

[bach736]

Well, it lasts 6 minutes - so at least Draco will be happy!

[AscribeUntoTheLad]

Well, I don't know....what's the minimum length it needs to last for him to be satisfied?

[decantor]

Well, I'm keeping an open mind about the Will Todd piece.

I shall try to do the same ......... though the door is already creaking on its hinge.......

[DracoM]

Just bumping as a reminder.

[Finzi4ever]

Oh goodie, looks like a full 15th evening psalm by all those chants listed.

[BBMmk2]

I only visited Chichester Cathedral last week!! This ois weoird! Has anyone heard opf the organist Horace Arthur Hawkins. I am asking this, because I saw that he composed a Te Deum, for large male choir, four part choir, brass ensemble and organ. the caqthedral said they havnt this score in the library? Any ideas?

[Contre Bombarde]

The name rings a very faint bell. Someone with a similar name may have been a pupil of Widor; I remember seeing something when I studied in Paris and such an essentially English name stuck in my mind.

I'm probably completely wrong. Madame Voix Céleste occasionally mentions that possibility...

[DracoM]

" Horace Hawkins was appointed as organist and Master of the Choristers after Harvey Grace had left Chichester Cathedral. The Cathedral Chapter tried to entice the noted musical educator Geoffrey Shaw into the organist's seat, but it was not to be; after a long interregnum, they appointed Hawkins on his retirement from Hurstpierpoint College, where he had been organist for 22 years.
Hawkins had been a chorister at King Charles the Martyr Church, Tunbridge Wells, and articled to W. H. Sangster at St. Saviour's, Eastbourne. He was for a time, assistant organist at Winchester Cathedral; eight years at St Andrew's Church, Worthing, were followed by a spell in Paris. Hawkins studied with the Solesmes monks and took lessons with Widor (whose Ave verum, still sung by the Cathedral Choir, is dedicated to Hawkins), as well as being organist of St. George's Anglican Church.
Hawkins totally encompassed the French symphonic style of organ-playing and was noted for his improvisation and liturgical use of the organ. His compositions, which were never published, include a setting of the Te Deum for massed men's voices, four-part choir, brass and organ. "


It says here.

Any help?

[ardcarp]

Well, I really enjoyed the broadcast. Just love the full 15th evening psalmody, and the choristers gave it some due welly where reqired...and did the soft bits sensitively. We heard Will Todd writing in a very different style...and I found the piece quite pleasing. It had a few awkward corners vocally, but hey it was written for a good choir, so why not? I personally get a bit fed up with Sumsion (endless consecutive first inversion chords) but I know many people love it...and it was well done. A most enjoyable CE.

[decantor]

I enjoyed the service too - very much. I must withdraw with apologies my upthread implied slur on Will Todd's skill - he gave us a perfectly valid and musically interesting anthem. I assume the rather anodyne Sumsion setting was chosen for its relative brevity, allowing us the full majesty of Ps.78 (for the second time in less than a year!), chanted with great feeling and appropriate variety. And I do think there is something special about the small-scale Chichester choir: everything is delivered with precision and TLC - no histrionics, just a controlled and sensitive beauty of sound. My thanks to them all for an uplifting evensong.

[Y Mab Afradlon]

Thank to being released early from an afternoon meeting and not having to go back to school to take our weekly staff meeting I had the luxury of listening to this evensong in DAB digital glory. I have always been very fond of this Cathedral and it's setting and in recent years have heard several live evensongs. Today as ever I had the feeling that I was attending an intimate chamber recital in someone's drawing room. Ms Baldock has managed to continue the strong tradition and the music chosen was ideal to show off the choir's prowess. The Halsey was new to me, good individual lines in the lower parts sustaining the sensitive accompaniment of the melody. Clucas Responses crisp and precise. Psalm 78 with varied and appropriate chants that culminated in the Daddy Mann favourite. Sumsion in A has always been a fav of mine. Unless you can see the lines that Sumsion wanted to come through the texture you can make it sound very naff, especially in the Nunc which was superb. I have heeard more dismal and disjointed performances that good ones, none better that we heard this afternoon. Will Todd got pelters for his Jazz setting but he is a young composer who is finding his voice and when writing for commission can obviously deliver. Can I commend to the board his anthem Stay with me Lord as recorded by HC and the 16 on Coro Thank you Chichester for a very polished service.

[DracoM]

Small very young-sounding choir. Erm...is this wide of the mark, but inexplicable start to the Halsey - well, it sounded like a false start or something? So just a tiny bit rough early on, but professionally they settled to delivering the long trek of the fifteenth evening psalms - some nice chants chosen. Sumsion not my cup of tea - like ardcarp, I find it a bit cliched. Todd anthem was the best thing they sang in the service IMO: liked the echoes of blues here and there, small cells played around with and developed.

Voluntary: I know nothing: did Cesar Franck dictate or merely suggest or leave the registration entirely open to the player? 'Fraid, to my ears, it sounded a bit turgid, but that may be nothing to do with the player and everything to do with the piece.

[ardcarp]

Erm...is this wide of the mark, but inexplicable start to the Halsey - well, it sounded like a false start or something?

Just re-listened a couple of times to the Halsey. The start sounds OK to me...it just begins on a low-ish and quiet-ish bass note. I didn't know the piece. It has all the craftsmanship you'd expect from a renowned choir-trainerr but it's unashamedly backward-looking in style. Lovely though.

Franck did indicate registration. I think the problem is that when doing Franck on an English organ...especially one with a nice 'clean' sound like Chichester's...the player tends to couple together a lot of stuff to make it sound more 'French'. Not many English organs sound naturally French. No doubt others will have examples, but Buckfast Abbey in Devon can make a good fist of it, and Exeter College Chapel (Oxford) has a new-ish French-style instrument. Sorry. I'll shut up about organs now.