Chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge Wed, 6.iii.2019 [L]

[DracoM]

Chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge


Ash Wednesday


Order of Service:


Responses: Byrd
Psalm 51: Miserere Mei, Deus (Allegri)
First Lesson: Isaiah 1 vv.10-18
Canticles: The Short Service (Weelkes)
Second Lesson: Luke 15: 11-32
Anthem: Ne irascaris, Domine (Byrd)


Voluntary: Prelude in E minor, BWV 548i (Bach)


James Anderson-Besant (Junior Organ Scholar)
Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002zvr

[Y Mab Afradlon]

"Old School" Ash Wednesday repertoire - can't wait ..... on the evidence from the webcasts this year's crop is in sparkling form.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[Keraulophone]

on the evidence from the webcasts this year's crop is in sparkling form

Indeed.

None finer, anywhere.

Particularly looking forward to hearing the Byrd: https://youtu.be/UED2vnsIfjc (A forthright New College Choir from 27 years ago.)

[DracoM]

On that NCO recording, what I love is the total confidence and the big open vowel sounds that give so much drama and shape to it. And 'Ne Irascaris' has a number of traps for the unwary too! EH took it at a pretty brisk pace as well.

Yes, today at St J's will be interesting.

[Keraulophone]

On that NCO recording, what I love is the total confidence and the big open vowel sounds that give so much drama and shape to it.

It’s the sound I remember, having left the college two years before this recording for CRD. I have long bemoaned what was to become the unblended sound of their senior boys, trained by their vocal coach to sing with unabashed vocal enhancement and sounding somewhat like the sopranos of the then BBC Singers (who now make a more ingratiating sound with their current director).

At ‘questions?’ at the end of an informal concert in NC chapel for Old Members, I persuaded Mrs K to ask EH why he approved of such a sound. He answered, rather wearily, that their voices needed to be trained to their fullest potential so that they could be heard properly above accompanying orchestras in concerts, and so that they could perform solos of fully ‘professional’ quality (something one hears on their astonishing Monteverdi Vespers recording, for instance). He was quite adamant that such a choir, singing in their chapel as well as in sacred and secular buildings around the world, could not and should not have a blended sound, as as KCC and to a lesser extent SJC, whose acoustics govern to a certain degree their way of tonal production.

Under the current regime, NCO no longer sing in the manner EH cultivated so determinedly; whether it’s a change for the better or worse is up to each listener to decide. What is clear to me is that they have quite a way to go to come up to what is being achieved at St John’s today - it’s another golden age for SJCC under Andrew Nethsingha, perhaps the most intelligent choir director I have known well.

[DracoM]

Well, it's a change that [a] makes them less distinctive [b] BUT that vibrato-finished boy voice EH seemed to favour in his soloists certainly did not ingratiate the choir to me, and from what you say above, neither, it would seem, did it much allure others.

[ardcarp]

Whilst I'm generally a fan of the 'straight head-voice', I think there is room in the world for some variety, and I absolutely salute Higginbottom for his latterday NCO recordings with that 'full' and, yes, sometimes vibrato-ish treble sound. So there's room for all...King's with Willcocks, Guest with St John's, George Malcolm with Westminster Cathedral* and everything that the really good choirtrainers of the present bring to the table. The one thing that has to be there is musicality.

* Did anyone hear the closing moments of R4's Today programme when 3 Drome choristers did a snatch of Allegri's Miserere...the favoriti bit arr. in 3 parts? Bit scary doing a top C live in a dead radio studio.

[vinteuil]

Westminster Cathedral*


* Did anyone hear the closing moments of R4's Today programme when 3 Drome choristers did a snatch of Allegri's Miserere...the favoriti bit arr. in 3 parts? Bit scary doing a top C live in a dead radio studio.

... I do wish that people wdn't use "Drome". It's cliquey and exclusive of those who aren't in 'the know'.

.

[mopsus]

I hope no one listening thought the opening words of the service were from the Book of Common Prayer, as announced.

[DracoM]

... I do wish that people wdn't use "Drome". It's cliquey and exclusive of those who aren't in 'the know'.

.

AND at that time in the morning!!

[mw963]

Perfection (although I didn't hear the anthem).

And I do like a bit of Bach played live by an organ scholar - somehow there's a youthful energy and sense of verve and fun that you don't hear (naturally enough) in recordings.

Terrific all round.

[Keraulophone]

I think there is room in the world for some variety, and I absolutely salute Higginbottom for his latterday NCO recordings with that 'full' and, yes, sometimes vibrato-ish treble sound.

I'm all for a variety of approaches to boy treble vocal production in church and chapel, but it depends where you 'draw the line', i.e. the extent to which a few strong young vibrato-laden voices dominate the texture and sound quality of the choir. There is a point at which, IMO, a group of singers can cease to be a 'choir' with a collective sound and ensembe, and becomes a collection of individual voices. That's fine in solos, trios or quartets, perhaps, but not in a choir whose members are listening carefully to one another to achieve the desired style, timing, volume, balance and, yes to a certain extent, blend.

What we have just heard from St John's proves that great expressivity, together with the sufficient power, can be achieved with a treble (and A,T & B) sound full of colour and sensitivity without having to resort to the over-developed vibrato of some older boys, which, to my mind, destroys the collective nature of what the choir as a whole ought to be achieving. I should probably express this better, but haven't the time as I've got to leg it to rehearsal!

[DracoM]

Fine singing, fine discipline, BUT the tempi..........?

Lent is a time of repentance - yes, and Ash Wednesday signals it - yes, and DOM Nethsingha obviously well knows what his team can do and do well, but for me the tempi partic of 'Ne Irascaris' was such as to rob it a lot of its drama, immediacy, and inner energy. Frankly it became a finely sung wallow. The skill needed to bring that off is terrific and I am in no way disparaging the musicianship of any participants.

[ardcarp]

I'm all for a variety of approaches to boy treble vocal production in church and chapel, but it depends where you 'draw the line', i.e. the extent to which a few strong young vibrato-laden voices dominate the texture and sound quality of the choir. There is a point at which, IMO, a group of singers can cease to be a 'choir' with a collective sound and ensembe, and becomes a collection of individual voices. That's fine in solos, trios or quartets, perhaps, but not in a choir whose members are listening carefully to one another to achieve the desired style, timing, volume, balance and, yes to a certain extent, blend.

I agree with every word. I have to make a tiny exception for NCO because the choir achieved so much, for instance its 'mood' CDs (Agnus Dei, Nativitas, etc) and I wouldn't be without their John Passion and Monteverdi Vespers.

Higginbottom was a most musical person, and I shall relish the times I heard the choir 'live' at NCO just doing routine CE with extraordinary eclat. And the Psalm pointing just made me giggle.

Today's Ash Weds from John's was beautifully controlled and dignified...but as suggested, it would have been more dignified without the introductory splurge. I would have quite liked a short Lenten hymn too, but that wouldn't have fitted in. I notice AN modified the awkward 'ficta' note in Ne Irascaris. I'm all for it.