CE Chapel of Keble College, Oxford Wed, Dec 6th 2017

[jean]

It's a mistake - fairly recent one, I think. Strictly speaking the preces are what the priest sings, and the responses the answer by choir (or congregation), so both sets are "preces and responses". In the past "the preces" or "the responses" were used as shorthand for a whole set of preces and responses, and without any distinction between the set at the start and the set near the end of the service.

I think the mistake may have arisen when someone tried to rationalise the indiscriminate use of the two terms (or maybe it was a deliberate decision - "Since the two terms are equivalent we might as well settle on the convention of allotting one to the first set and the other to the latter so we have a handy way of distinguishing between the two").

Thanks - that makes sense! I was sure I'd sung from lots of copies called Preces & Responses and had always thought until recently that that title referred to both sets indiscriminately. Which apparently (until recently) it did.

[ardcarp]

I very much enjoyed this service, particularly the beautifully together ensemble of the choir.

How long has Keble had a professional Director of Music? I think that when Merton set up its choral foundation a decade ago only Queen's and Worcester of the mixed-voice College choirs had one?

I have just listened, and agree it was a very beautifully sung (and played) CE. Absolutely first rate balance of voices and ensemble, combined with a most musical delivery.

There has been a big increase in the number of Oxbridge colleges employing a professional director of chapel music. This week's CE bears the fruit. The downside (if such it can be called) is that less chapel choirs are run by the organ scholars. This was a huge opportunity, often involving a steep learning curve, for students to hone their skills in choir direction.

Keble College chapel building is impressive; a brick Victorian High Anglican edifice with a lovely acoustic and 'parish church style' seating. Schola Cantorum used to give some of its concerts there, which is when I got to know it. It used to have an electronic organ, but now has a fine Tickell instrument which sounded wonderful on the broadcast.

http://www.tickell-organs.co.uk/specInfo/opus75.php

[mopsus]

There has been a big increase in the number of Oxbridge colleges employing a professional director of chapel music. This week's CE bears the fruit. The downside (if such it can be called) is that less chapel choirs are run by the organ scholars. This was a huge opportunity, often involving a steep learning curve, for students to hone their skills in choir direction.

I have noticed this trend. The Cambridge college where I was a graduate student now has a professional DoM, though this holder of this post changes almost every year (a bit like being Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher). Last year I read in the Downing college magazine that there was a great shortage of organ scholars of a suitable standard.

I am a Mertonian and was surprised that in a world of fund-raising appeals I heard nothing about the new choral foundation there until it was competely funded and ready to go. I imagine the reason was to steal a march on other Colleges thinking of doing the same thing and so recruit a very good intake right from the start, so as to establish the choir’s reputation. On this week’s evidence, Keble (a much less wealthy College) could give Merton a run for its money.

[subcontrabass]

. Last year I read in the Downing college magazine that there was a great shortage of organ scholars of a suitable standard.
.

Is part of the problem that there are now a lot more organ scholarships? When I was an organ scholar at an Oxford College, most colleges (other than Christ Church, New College, and Magdalen) had either just one organ scholar or an organist. Following experiences with the two organ scholars before me the college changed during my time to electing one organ scholar every two years instead of one every three years. They now, like most colleges, have two organ scholars all the time.

As far as quality of applicants is concerned, this seems to be a variable problem. In my year there were eleven organ scholarships and exhibitions available across the different colleges. These had attracted a grand total of twelve candidates, one of who did not turn up for the practical. I was the only candidate for the scholarship at my first choice college. My successor, by contrast, had his FRCO before he came up in my third year.

[mopsus]

Is part of the problem that there are now a lot more organ scholarships? When I was an organ scholar at an Oxford College, most colleges (other than Christ Church, New College, and Magdalen) had either just one organ scholar or an organist. Following experiences with the two organ scholars before me the college changed during my time to electing one organ scholar every two years instead of one every three years. They now, like most colleges, have two organ scholars all the time.

My impression in the 1980s was that Oxford Colleges apart from the three choral foundations appointed every two years, and Cambridge ones two in every thee years. So i don’t think there has been a huge increase in the number of organ scholars. There are also now more women; there were almost none in the 1980s even though almost all colleges had gone mixed.

[subcontrabass]

My impression in the 1980s was that Oxford Colleges apart from the three choral foundations appointed every two years, and Cambridge ones two in every thee years. So i don’t think there has been a huge increase in the number of organ scholars. There are also now more women; there were almost none in the 1980s even though almost all colleges had gone mixed.

I was an undergraduate in the late 1960s.

[Dafydd y G.W.]

During the 1980s in Cambridge there was a shift from appointing organ scholars every other year to appointing every two of three.

The older system meant that the organ scholar would be on their own in their second year and thus would have to scrabble around to find someone to play the organ if they wished to conduct. This became a problem with the increasing expectation that choirs would have a conductor in front of them (arguably necessary if standard "cathedral" repertoire was to be performed with minimal rehearsal time available), and "conducting from the console" falling out of favour. There were also concerns about the impact of chapel duties on organ scholars' academic work.

With professional directors of chapel music, do organ scholars need to be appointed so often? Even once in every three years might suffice (tho' impact on academic studies is probably even more of a concern now).

(As a footnote to the above, my impression is that formerly in most college chapels most of the time music had been much more "parish churchy" - ferial responses, chanted canticles, simple anthems - so conducting from the console and limited rehearsal time would gave been less problematic.)

[subcontrabass]

(As a footnote to the above, my impression is that formerly in most college chapels most of the time music had been much more "parish churchy" - ferial responses, chanted canticles, simple anthems - so conducting from the console and limited rehearsal time would gave been less problematic.)

That was my situation. At Sunday evensong we were allowed two anthems per term in place of a sermon. Now the choir there sings canticles and an anthem every Sunday. In Michaelmas Term the carol service on the last Sunday counted as one of the two "anthem Sundays". My additional duties were to accompany the hymn(s) at one service per day Monday to Friday (Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings between the two sittings of dinner, Tuesday and Thursday after breakfast before 9 a.m. lectures). All previous organ scholars at my college had been single handed for all three years. That was what I expected when I arrived. It was a pleasant surprise to have a second organ scholar in my final year to share duties - he did all the weekday services, I ran the choir for Sunday evensong for one term (with him accompanying) and then we switched to him directing the choir with me accompanying until just before my final exams.

[Caussade]

During the 1980s in Cambridge there was a shift from appointing organ scholars every other year to appointing every two of three.

The older system meant that the organ scholar would be on their own in their second year and thus would have to scrabble around to find someone to play the organ if they wished to conduct. This became a problem with the increasing expectation that choirs would have a conductor in front of them (arguably necessary if standard "cathedral" repertoire was to be performed with minimal rehearsal time available), and "conducting from the console" falling out of favour. There were also concerns about the impact of chapel duties on organ scholars' academic work.

With professional directors of chapel music, do organ scholars need to be appointed so often? Even once in every three years might suffice (tho' impact on academic studies is probably even more of a concern now).

(As a footnote to the above, my impression is that formerly in most college chapels most of the time music had been much more "parish churchy" - ferial responses, chanted canticles, simple anthems - so conducting from the console and limited rehearsal time would gave been less problematic.)

Oxbridge choirs are now under a lot more pressure to maintain a public profile - recordings,tours, boradcasts etc. - than was ever the case even 20 years ago. Colleges expect more than a couple of simole evensongs a week for their money in many places. So even if there is a professional DoM, that person (who is often not an organist and has little idea of the issues involved for the organist in delivering their plans for the choir) will sometimes place demands on organ scholars they are just not equipped to meet. The supply at both places is far from secure, and while there are of course annual variations, the general trend is for fewer applicants. And there is now no slack whatever cut by admissions tutors (rightly). Organ scholars in Cambridge in the 1980s were expected only to achieve results allowing them to matriculate - EE at A Level. Try that now. So there have been years when even very major foundations have not been able to appoint, keeping on a graduate organ scholar as a sort of assistant to bridge the gap, and sometimes people are appointed very much faute de mieux who would never have been considered 20 years ago. The system is struggling, t's fair to say, and although a small number of brillliant players with the academic clout required crops up each year they are an increasingly rare commodity.

[ardcarp]

A female organ pupil of mine got an organ scholarship to Corpus Christi Cambridge in the early 90s. (I think she was one of the first Oxbridge female organ scholars.) She and another organ scholar shared chapel music duties, and the choir wasn'r half bad, run as it was in a slightly ramshackle way. But she (I won't name her) was a terrific all-round musician and among other things she played a four-hands version of The Rite of Spring, did a Belly Dance in the JCR, then went off to Paris to study piano at the Consevatoire. My point is that organ scholars got a lot of hands-on experience in those days rather than just being confined to the organ loft.

[mopsus]

(As a footnote to the above, my impression is that formerly in most college chapels most of the time music had been much more "parish churchy" - ferial responses, chanted canticles, simple anthems - so conducting from the console and limited rehearsal time would gave been less problematic.)

The last few posts have confirmed my impressions.

Until at least 2003, Merton College only sang full Canticle settings once a year, on a name-day of the College; the rest of the time the choir sang canticles to Anglican chant or faux-bourdon settings. This was at the insistence of the then Chaplain, who held that post from the 1960s till 2002 (and there wasn't a Dean of Chapel). Already though in the 1980s this seemed eccentric, and earned us the derision of other Colleges; Mertonians of recent generations barely believe me when I tell them!

My Cambridge College (OK I'll name it: Corpus) seems to have run an ATB choir for a while until women became more numerous in the University in the 70s, when they introduced a soprano top line. Sometimes, it was clear from marked copies, they sang SATB settings with some tenors singing the top line an octave down. There were also some 'proper' canticle settings where the congregation were allowed to sing along, and some copies were marked up to show how they should do so. The choir also seems to have sung a lot of plainchant in those days, to judge by the plainchant psalters in the choir library; I don't know whether this was because of a lack of different voices or High Churchmanship in the College at the time.

I'm surprised to read that Colleges still had sung weekday morning services as late as the 1960s! Presumably the legacy of the days when daily Chapel was compulsory?

[subcontrabass]

I'm surprised to read that Colleges still had sung weekday morning services as late as the 1960s! Presumably the legacy of the days when daily Chapel was compulsory?

It was not a "sung service" in any meaningful sense. Mostly conducted by undergraduates it was more like an old-fashioned school assembly: prayers, a scripture reading, and a hymn. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings was said Matins.

[subcontrabass]

. And there is now no slack whatever cut by admissions tutors (rightly). Organ scholars in Cambridge in the 1980s were expected only to achieve results allowing them to matriculate - EE at A Level. Try that now.

In my days at Oxford if you held a college scholarship you did not actually need A levels to matriculate. Those who took the entrance exam before A levels and were offered places (without a scholarship) would normally have a conditional offer of two Es. Now, other than organ, choral, and a few other music scholarships, all purely academic scholarships are only awarded from second year onwards.

[subcontrabass]

The last few posts have confirmed my impressions.

Until at least 2003, Merton College only sang full Canticle settings once a year, on a name-day of the College; the rest of the time the choir sang canticles to Anglican chant or faux-bourdon settings. This was at the insistence of the then Chaplain, who held that post from the 1960s till 2002 (and there wasn't a Dean of Chapel). Already though in the 1980s this seemed eccentric, and earned us the derision of other Colleges; Mertonians of recent generations barely believe me when I tell them!

"Dean of Chapel" is a title unique, I think, to Cambridge. At Oxford the college chaplains all combined their chapel and pastoral duties with academic teaching. That chaplain at Merton, whom I met a few times, was unusual in teaching Russian, rather than some aspect of Theology.

[ardcarp]

Gonville and Caius also ran an ATB choir. Peter Tranchell (he of the John's College 'carol' this year) ran it...after Patrick Hadley.

Although Gonville and Caius College was first founded as Gonville Hall in 1348, the current musical tradition of the College is only a century old, beginning with the appointment of Charles Wood as Organist and Fellow in 1894. The choir in Wood's day contained boy trebles, but became an exclusively undergraduate male choir under his successor Patrick Hadley. In 1979 the College first admitted women, and the since then the choir has comprised male and female undergraduates, most of whom hold choral exhibitions, who study a wide variety of subjects.

Geoffrey Webber is now the Director of Music.