SoP snubs Bangor Cathedral Choir.

[Vox Humana]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43219450# No more than I would expect from this cheap, tacky programme. I have no idea what the choir is like nowadays, but even if the BBC didn't want to feature them alone, surely there were other options than simply relegating them to the congregation?

[oddoneout]

The cathedral choir hasn't been on 'Britain's got Talent'....
And the Cor Glanaethwy choir probably ticks all sorts of useful boxes for the Beeb.

[mopsus]

Songs of Praise quite often 'imports' choirs. There was some indignation among choirs in Bath (of which there are many) when an episode was filmed in a Bath church with a choir from Bristol.

[french frank]

surely there were other options than simply relegating them to the congregation?

I suppose all the choirs, including Bangor's, could have at least been treated the same way. Judging by the Dean's response, was it a question of the cathedral 'pocketing the money and the insult'?

[jean]

I remember being involved with a SoP years ago from Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral - by which I mean a choir I sang with being asked to infiltrate the congregation to make it appear that they were singing with greater enthusiasm than was the case - and I don't remember the Cathedral choirs being showcased then, but I may be wrong.

There was another one from there recently, but I didn't see that.

I should have thought a self-respecting choir would be glad to be out of it, but what seems to have happened here is that children from the Cathedral choir (I don't think there's a choir school) happen to be at the school whose choir has been chosen, and

...members of the cathedral choir have been teased by singers from Cor Glanaethwy at school over the decision...

A situation that should perhaps have been foreseen.

[jonfan]

The cathedral choir was very impressive last year on a Sunday Worship on R4. Surely a CE would be great to hear from them.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's the same with the orchestral players use in Songs of Praise. They're bussed in/flown in from everywhere. The programme is a fake.

[jean]

The cathedral choir was very impressive last year on a Sunday Worship on R4. Surely a CE would be great to hear from them.

Yes indeed, but this is Songs of Praise we're talking about here - a very different animal.

[teamsaint]

It's the same with the orchestral players use in Songs of Praise. They're bussed in/flown in from everywhere. The programme is a fake.

Seems a real shame. Surely people dont watch SoP for finely honed or virtuoso performances? If so, why did they have Aled on all those years?

Seems like a case of Fake Pews .

[Petrushka]

Fake Pews .

[jean]

I remember being involved with a SoP years ago from Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral...I don't remember the Cathedral choirs being showcased then, but I may be wrong.

There was another one from there recently, but I didn't see that.

I asked some of the choir today and they said no, the choir wasn't featured.

SoP prefers something a bit more community-based. A shame the Bangor children didn't understand that!

[Roger Judd]

If the Bangor Cathedral Choir isn't community-based, then I wonder what is. The children, according to the cathedral web-site, all come from local primary schools, and one imagines that the lay clerks all live and work in the area, as well as the choral scholars from Bangor University - what could be more community-based than that, I wonder?
RJ

[jean]

You know what I mean! What the BBC are after for this slot is the sort of 'community' choir that doesn't do sight-reading or auditions.

(Liverpool doesn't have a choir school, either.)

[MrGongGong]

It's the same with the orchestral players use in Songs of Praise. They're bussed in/flown in from everywhere. The programme is a fake.

NSS
You mean to say that all the players in the LSO aren't from London?

No way

You'll be telling me that footballers who play for Manchester United aren't from Manchester next !

[Vox Humana]

You know what I mean! What the BBC are after for this slot is the sort of 'community' choir that doesn't do sight-reading or auditions.

(Liverpool doesn't have a choir school, either.)

Roger has a point though. The cathedral choir is as much a part of the community as everyone else and it is their church which is hosting the event, so why sideline it? It rather reinforces the unfortunate impression that the programme is really interested only in reaching out to the lowest common denominator and, even more unfortunately, that God isn't interested in the best that his creation can offer him.