CE Lichfield Cathedral 6th July 2011

[DracoM]

CE Lichfield Cathedral


Order of Service:


Introit: View me, Lord (Richard Lloyd)
Responses: Rose
Office Hymn: When in our music, God is glorified (Engelberg)
Psalms: 32, 33, 34 (Turle, Howells, Finzi, Hylton Stewart, Day)
First Lesson: Exodus 35: 20-35
Canticles: Stanford in B flat
Second Lesson: Revelation 21:22 – 22:5
Anthem: For lo, I raise up (Stanford)
Hymn: Take my life (All Saints)


Organ Voluntary: Fanfares for Chad (Paul Spicer)



Martyn Rawles (Organist)
Ben Lamb (Director of Music)

[DracoM]

I quote from the Lichfield Cath website:

"Lichfield Cathedral Choir, the Cathedral Directors of Music, Ben and Cathy Lamb and organist Martyn Rawles.
Lloyd View me Lord, a work of thine
Tomkins Third Service [ - which is deffo not what the BBC R3 schedule suggests - see above ]
Stanford For Lo, I Raise Up
Paul Spicer Fanfares for Chad "

[ardcarp]

Not up to Tomkins, so put in a pot-boiler instead?

[DracoM]

Have it on excellent authority that it is as billed on R3 website - Stanford in B flat. . Sorry to disappoint Tomkns fans.

[DracoM]

Reminder of this afternoon's CE.

[Magnificat]

Well, considering the controversy regarding the appointment of Ben Lamb ( I still think the post should have been advertised ) I think he did pretty well this afternoon. The boys sound is good, better I would say than those of quite a few other choirs we have heard recently, and he may well have not yet really determined the sound he wants to achieve. Perhaps the men were a bit weak at times but they were as good as many provincial cathedral back rows. I thought the psalm singing very good.

At least we have heard Lichfield men and boys within twelve months of the appointment of a new DoM which is more than we have from some other places eg Lincoln, Norwich ( with a specialist choral conductor too ) and we all know that it took Matthew Owens five years to broadcast his boys and men.

Well done Lichfield.

VCC

[AscribeUntoTheLad]

Why was the organ so sharp? Is it a Lichfield tradition?

[richardshakeshaft]

Why was the organ so sharp? Is it a Lichfield tradition?

The organ is was built, and is still tuned to, Philharmonic pitch (where middle C=540 hertz); the same is also true of Peterborough; more information about the organ is available at http://www.cathedralchoir.org.uk/organ.php and there is an article in the current edition of 'The Organ' about it.

[ardcarp]

When I was a kid, Lichfield was my 'home' cathedral. The organ has always been sharp. When the last but one rebuild was done (still in Richard Greening's day) there was discussion about lowering the pitch, but it would have firstly been a major engineering feat and secondly have spoiled the 'scaling' of the pipework. Presumably the same factors applied to the latest rebuild. I can remember singing (as a tenor) VW's 'Let all the world' and thinking OMG that top A's a bit excruciating.

The choir in RG's day sounded very different...a homogenous, gentle. head-voice sound typical of its day. RG directed with the minutest finger movements. He didn't like the thought of extravagant flapping gestures in the choir. He was a lovely man with a fund of stories (not all suitable for young ears) who sadly died rather young...not long after leaving Lichfield.

On the subject of today's broadcast, it was enjoyable. I felt the treble sound tended to be somewhat dominated by a couple of individuals, and that the overall sound of the choir was bit unrelieved, especially in the psalms. But it was a job well done. Also I was not listening on the best of equipment.

[egg counter]

I seem to remember that lichfield have glass panels behind the choir which do nothing for recording in the place which is evident in the broadcast, a very difficult place to record but not to sing.

EG.

VCC Norwich have a specialist voice trainer not a choral conductor.

[DracoM]

Would lilke to endorse ardcarp's last para.

All a bit mf - fff most of the way through, not a lot of light and shade, and actually, pace VCC, I thought given the organ pitch, the men particularly did pretty well in the canticles, altos particularly! I tried to sing along in bits of the Stanford and it really was a bit of a stretch. Competently done, robust singing.

I just kept on having a secret hankeing for the axed Tomkins!

[ardcarp]

I have just LA-ed... on better equipment...to the Stanford anthem (For lo I raise up) and would like to amend my earlier rather grudging praise to unreserved congratulations for a fine performance. It was beautufully shaped bythe choir and its director, and the boys and men sounded well balanced. Lichfield (despite its gothic proportions) is not a very resonant place to sing in; the acoustics, unlike Truro which is a gift for singers, do not give you a great 'feel' which makes the performance all the more creditable.

[decantor]

I did a fashionable U-turn during this service. Early on, I decided the back row were average, the front row well disciplined but raw in timbre (no harm there – at least they sounded like boys). But as we went on, I had to revise my thoughts: nicely wrought psalms, if a bit dead-pan, musical Responses, and superbly controlled pianissimo top notes by the trebs at the end of the Nunc and the last Amen. I reckoned the anthem combined all the slowly emerging virtues.to fine effect. And a word for the treble soloist – winning confidence and authority there.

Lichfield is also my native cathedral, and so it was gratifying to be able to enjoy their first broadcast for three years. (VCC, York did a CE in RS’s first year. More remarkably, five years ago Tewkesbury did a CE just two weeks after switching choir school and losing some good voices in the process.)

[ardcarp]

We seem to be singing from the same song sheet here decantor. Did you notice that the start of the service had a slightly wobbly moment of tonality? The preces were not in a particularly friendly key following the Lloyd introit..and things seemed to take a moment or two to settle down.

[decantor]

We seem to be singing from the same song sheet here decantor. Did you notice that the start of the service had a slightly wobbly moment of tonality? The preces were not in a particularly friendly key following the Lloyd introit..and things seemed to take a moment or two to settle down.

Gosh, you're an 'ard man, ardcarp. I just did an LA, and I reckon the trebles just wandered a bit sharp on the second note at the start of the preces (you're probably right about the reason for it). But I also noticed that the last verse of that chorale-like introit was beautifully done. And, in the antiphonal sections of the psalms, Cantoris sounded like a quartet, and Dec like a semi-chorus - it was fascinating, but maybe a trick of the mikes or the lead chorister on Can - or my equipment. But undoubtedly the anthem was their principal success. Nice to know that Lichfield can still do the business.