Choral Vespers from Leeds Cathedral Wed, 13th Feb 2019 [L]

[DracoM]

Choral Vespers Leeds Cathedral Wed, 13th Feb 2019 [L]


Order of Service:


Introit: Resplenduit facie eius (Victoria)
Office hymn: Caeli Deus sanctissime (Plainchant)
Psalm 26 1-14
Canticle: Colossians: 1:12-20
Reading: 1 James: 1-26
Magnificat quarti toni (Sermisy)
Anthem: Homo quidnam fecit coenam (Tallis)
Hymn: Sweet saviour, bless us (Sunset)
Marian Antiphon: Ave regina coelorum (Plainchant)

Voluntary: Postlude IX (Michael Bonaventure)


David Pipe (Organist)
Thomas Leech (Conductor)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002h7z

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[DracoM]

..And the repeat on Sunday, 17th Feb is at 2 p.m. - please note.

[jonfan]

Very enjoyable service from what sounded like a large body of singers. A beautiful, rich full sound sound with excellent soloists. The whole moved at a cracking pace with a sense of urgent worship [salutary reading for today's state of things from the large chunk of James' letter!]
Looking at the Cathedral web site jaw dropping work is being done by Thomas Leech and team in the Leeds Diocese with 3,500 young people engaged in the music ministry each week. How great to know young people of diverse ethnic backgrounds are being excited and inspired to perform in the service of the church. Long may it continue and prosper.
Thank you everyone at Leeds.

[Wolsey]

..And the repeat on Sunday, 17th Feb is at 2 p.m. - please note.

It can also be heard online at any convenient time until 4 March.

[Alison]

Good summary jonfan. I had other things to do but just had to listen on.

A sense of urgent worship

[DracoM]

Tribute to vigorous and confident singing.
Agree about the lesson! Woops! Are you listening, world?

[ardcarp]

A young, fresh and balamced sounding choir. What I liked especially was the flow of the service and the skill with which the choir moved from one thing to another. I suspect they had been practising hard for this broadcast, and they've certainly made their mark. Do they bring this level of performance to all their choral vespers? If so....

PS The organist played the closing Bonaventure voluntary brilliantly, but I have to say I didn't like it much. It belongs to the 'sewing machine' tendency of endless (and IMO pointless) repetitions.

BTW I'd no idea there was a Claudine de Sermisy. Yet another unsung female composer.

[hmvman]

PS The organist played the closing Bonaventure voluntary brilliantly, but I have to say I didn't like it much

I'm glad it wasn't just me! But otherwise it was a really enjoyable broadcast.

[Braunschlag]

Very enjoyable service from what sounded like a large body of singers. A beautiful, rich full sound sound with excellent soloists. The whole moved at a cracking pace with a sense of urgent worship [salutary reading for today's state of things from the large chunk of James' letter!]
Looking at the Cathedral web site jaw dropping work is being done by Thomas Leech and team in the Leeds Diocese with 3,500 young people engaged in the music ministry each week. How great to know young people of diverse ethnic backgrounds are being excited and inspired to perform in the service of the church. Long may it continue and prosper.
Thank you everyone at Leeds.

This choral development in the Leeds Catholic diocese is to be applauded. After years of neglect it’s been good to see them encouraging all sorts of new projects.

The same cannot be said of the Anglicans (and I mean no criticism of Leeds Minster which has had its own struggles). One might have thought that the CofE might take some ideas from the RC example, there are plenty of reasonably large choral groups across the diocese. Maybe it’s time for the RSCM to up its game, it seems to be floundering, very little on their website and some frequent staff changes over recent years. I’m not sure that the virtual/incognito presence of the RCO helps either.
Hats off to Leeds RC, they’ve shown it can be done with good staff and hard cash (and they are by no means wealthy).

[jonfan]

This choral development in the Leeds Catholic diocese is to be applauded. After years of neglect it’s been good to see them encouraging all sorts of new projects.

The same cannot be said of the Anglicans (and I mean no criticism of Leeds Minster which has had its own struggles). One might have thought that the CofE might take some ideas from the RC example, there are plenty of reasonably large choral groups across the diocese. Maybe it’s time for the RSCM to up its game, it seems to be floundering, very little on their website and some frequent staff changes over recent years. I’m not sure that the virtual/incognito presence of the RCO helps either.
Hats off to Leeds RC, they’ve shown it can be done with good staff and hard cash (and they are by no means wealthy).

The CofE needs to have a similar approach in the many schools it manages. The RC Church has shown itself to be alert to the possibilities of choral training, and immersion in the liturgy and beliefs, in the schools it manages. The right people are in the right place. Something similar could be equally effective in the CofE schools. At the moment the Anglican Cathedral music schools run on their own very successfully but benefit a small select few. A wider initiative is needed to engage the young people. The difficult trick is having the right people in place as the success of the Leeds Diocese has shown. The RC church can be ruthless to further their aims as unviable churches are closed with little notice or complaint. (In my area there are four CofE churches in a small radius catering for a Christian community that could fit in one building and still have room to expand. It’s as though the motor car hadn’t been invented.)
In support of the excellent work of the RSCM I find their range of resources and courses inspirational and the ‘Voice for Life’ scheme motivates the young people in my choir very successfully. It’s also not a branch of the CofE as it’s a catholic organisation open to anyone and any church to become a member.

[Braunschlag]

“The RC church can be ruthless to further their aims as unviable churches are closed with little notice or complaint.”

It’s very obvious here up north. Three examples are St Patrick’s in Leeds St Mary’s, East Parade in Bradford and Mount St Mary’s on Richmond Hill in Leeds. They did a major closure years ago.
The Bradford one makes sense I suppose, situated in a predominantly Muslim area, I really can’t see how that could survive. St Patrick’s in Leeds is, I think, maintained as a store for West Yorks Playhouse but marooned by road routes and Mount St Mary’s is fairljmiderelict now.
It’s lamentable in terms of architectural heritage and these are big and impressive buildings. Something had to give here and it can’t have been easy to close them.

[ardcarp]

The CofE needs to have a similar approach in the many schools it manages. The RC Church has shown itself to be alert to the possibilities of choral training, and immersion in the liturgy and beliefs, in the schools it manages. The right people are in the right place. Something similar could be equally effective in the CofE schools. At the moment the Anglican Cathedral music schools run on their own very successfully but benefit a small select few. A wider initiative is needed to engage the young people. The difficult trick is having the right people in place as the success of the Leeds Diocese has shown.

I wonder how many times in the past the organist/choirtrainer of a local parish church has thought about the possibility of striking up a relationship with local primary school? It should of course be a win-win situation where some proper singing could take place in the school and some choristers could be found for the church choir. I suggest it has been thought of many, many times. Sadly the ethos of most primary schools (CE or otherwise) does not chime in with ideas such as these.Then there's the bureaucracy.....

On a slightly more positive note, there is one CE school in Devon where all the kids, twice a week, go into the adjacent parish church and have their morning assembly there which includes the singing of a hymn. There is no regular choir in the church on a Sunday.

[jonfan]

I wonder how many times in the past the organist/choirtrainer of a local parish church has thought about the possibility of striking up a relationship with local primary school? It should of course be a win-win situation where some proper singing could take place in the school and some choristers could be found for the church choir. I suggest it has been thought of many, many times. Sadly the ethos of most primary schools (CE or otherwise) does not chime in with ideas such as these.Then there's the bureaucracy.....

On a slightly more positive note, there is one CE school in Devon where all the kids, twice a week, go into the adjacent parish church and have their morning assembly there which includes the singing of a hymn. There is no regular choir in the church on a Sunday.

The CofE needs a more coordinated approach as the RC has obviously done in the Leeds Diocese. Individual initiatives, however worthy, don’t have the same impact. CofE schools should be centres for choral training end off, the ethos should be there to start with.
Yes I was a teacher in the local primary school similar to the example cited above, not church managed, and it was fertile ground for recruiting for the church choir which I ran. Many families joined the church as a result. It was my own initiative. Seems obvious that the Devon school could be the basis for a Sunday choir to lead worship?

[mopsus]

“The RC church can be ruthless to further their aims as unviable churches are closed with little notice or complaint.”

It’s very obvious here up north. Three examples are St Patrick’s in Leeds St Mary’s, East Parade in Bradford and Mount St Mary’s on Richmond Hill in Leeds. They did a major closure years ago.
The Bradford one makes sense I suppose, situated in a predominantly Muslim area, I really can’t see how that could survive. St Patrick’s in Leeds is, I think, maintained as a store for West Yorks Playhouse but marooned by road routes and Mount St Mary’s is fairljmiderelict now.
It’s lamentable in terms of architectural heritage and these are big and impressive buildings. Something had to give here and it can’t have been easy to close them.

Was the 'major closure' the one that was preceded by sending round a DVD to the parishes affected? Local Catholics still remember that with a shudder.