1918 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, King's Cambridge

[Wolsey]

I wondered if Bell's Palsy had struck him but I gather he had a damaging encounter with a bicycle.

I'm trying hard not to interpret "damaging encounter" as flippancy. He was knocked down by a cyclist which resulted in a fractured skull and a spell in intensive care. His serious injury was enough to warrant an announcement on the College website from the Provost.

[mopsus]

He had an operation in August (not connected with the injuries he received from the bicycle collision) and was filmed shortly afterwards, before the immediate after-effects had worn off. He is due to have another operation (unrelated to both) in January and will be off duty for the rest of Lent term to convalesce.

[Old Grumpy]

Article from today's Graun. I did wonder from the programme what had happened to him. I presume the beard is/was a temporary affair. [N.B. Nothing against beards - I have had one myself for at least 40 years].

OG

Edit: Mopsus has provided the answer whilst I was posting.

[ardcarp]

The mention of Truro in earlier posts comes about from a different TV programme

Indeed it was. What I can't understand is why some reference to Truro as the originator of 9 Lessons and Carols was not made in this programme.

[oddoneout]

I'm trying hard not to interpret "damaging encounter" as flippancy. He was knocked down by a cyclist which resulted in a fractured skull and a spell in intensive care. His serious injury was enough to warrant an announcement on the College website from the Provost.

Most definitely not flippancy.

[Vox Humana]

Indeed it was. What I can't understand is why some reference to Truro as the originator of 9 Lessons and Carols was not made in this programme.

I have just caught up with this programme and have to agree that a brief acknowledgement of the Truro prototype wouldn't have gone amiss. One sentence would have done it. As it was, the script gave the impression that the service was invented by Milner-White for King's. Nevertheless, I thought that the programme was really quite fascinating. Quite the best insight into the choir's work that I have ever seen.

[ardcarp]

..and then there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6yZ-deibU

[Keraulophone]

..and then there's this:

Ah the ever-so-atmospheric 1954 BBC film, with Dr Ord directing with nod and finger. Unusually, they didn’t sing Hark the herald at the end but O Come all ye faithful. Jeremy Summerly told us in his Gresham lecture that the final Hark was the one musical feature unchanged throughout the history of this service.

[Vox Humana]

Unusually, they didn’t sing Hark the herald at the end but O Come all ye faithful.

Already with "that" chord a few years before Carols for Choirs (more easily heard in this remastering). Still could be a Willcocks thing, though, from his years as organ scholar.

[Keraulophone]

Already with "that" chord ... Still could be a Willcocks thing, though, from his years as organ scholar.

Indeed; I wasn’t expecting to hear it and it rather caught me by surprise. It would be satisfying to be able to confirm that it did originate with DVW.

[Roger Judd]

Someone more knowledgeable than me will come up with the relevant title, but I'm fairly sure that 'that' chord originates in an anthem by John Stainer that concludes with Adeste fideles.
Happy Christmas to all!
RJ

[Vox Humana]

Someone more knowledgeable than me will come up with the relevant title, but I'm fairly sure that 'that' chord originates in an anthem by John Stainer that concludes with Adeste fideles.
Happy Christmas to all!
RJ

That's fascinating, Roger. I wonder which anthem that would be? It's not any that I have and isn't among those on IMSLP or CPDL.

[Vox Humana]

Someone more knowledgeable than me will come up with the relevant title, but I'm fairly sure that 'that' chord originates in an anthem by John Stainer that concludes with Adeste fideles.
Happy Christmas to all!
RJ

A Facebook friend of mine tells me that the anthem is I desired wisdom - although he didn't actually have a copy to hand.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Indeed; I wasn’t expecting to hear it and it rather caught me by surprise. It would be satisfying to be able to confirm that it did originate with DVW.

I wonder whether it’s the one that’s referred to in Sullivan’s ‘The Lost Chord’?

Some years ago, when I raving about Willcocks’ genius in discovering it, an organist said, “It’s just moving into A minor”.

[oddoneout]

Just watched 100 Years of Carols from Kings on BBC2 Not a single mention of Truro. [Unless I missed it.]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...f-kings-carols

I saw a strange halfhour programme a few days ago which was called something like 'A year at Kings' and I'm wondering if it was a cut-down version of this as it really didn't hang together or seem to have a narrative. It had four brief sections each corresponding to a season, heading towards Christmas and ending with the November broadcast, and I think was produced for regional early evening consumption.