Chapel of King's College, Cambridge [R] tx Dec 25th 2019

[Michael C]

Refreshingly committed singing, and enjoyable. Well done Daniel, Donal, chaps, and boys all, and thank you very much.

[Nigel_HD]

Shame the congregation see fit to make quite so much noise during that oh-so-incidental bit of Vierne on that oh-so-noisy organ.

Agree, but it must be said the Vierne was a refreshing 'new' piece to conclude the service. It deserves to be heard more often. The performance, especially on the final page (where some players lose their precise timing) was spot on. Well done Donal.

[DracoM]

[mw963]

Agree, but it must be said the Vierne was a refreshing 'new' piece to conclude the service. It deserves to be heard more often. The performance, especially on the final page (where some players lose their precise timing) was spot on. Well done Donal.

No criticism of the choice of Vierne on my part I assure you. Tongue firmly in cheek when I refer to it as incidental, I was putting myself somewhat sarcastically in the place of all those people so keen to start chattering instead of giving the organist due respect.......

Haven't we had it before in any case....?

[PeterboroughDiapason]

And Edgar Pettman

Mm. I thought the Philip Moore piece was a fine one, but I'm not sure that it expressed the words as well as the simple Basque/Pettman.

Wonderful, musical singing, though, that really fitted the acoustic. Lovely, also, to hear for once a choir where the front row is not fighting a losing battle with an unrestrained back one.

[ardcarp]

it must be said the Vierne was a refreshing 'new' piece to conclude the service.

An off-piste recollection (as usual) from me. When Phil Scriven was organ scholar at St John's, he played all six Vierne Organ Symphonies back to back in order to raise money for a Good Cause. Quite a feat. I can't remember what the Good Cause was, but knowing Phil it would have been something to do with the disadvantaged in life.

[Vox Humana]

Mm. I thought the Philip Moore piece was a fine one, but I'm not sure that it expressed the words as well as the simple Basque/Pettman.

Oh, I agree. It's lovely - but we did get it every year.

[Philip]

An off-piste recollection (as usual) from me. When Phil Scriven was organ scholar at St John's, he played all six Vierne Organ Symphonies back to back in order to raise money for a Good Cause. Quite a feat. I can't remember what the Good Cause was, but knowing Phil it would have been something to do with the disadvantaged in life.

Off topic, but I heard Simon Hogan do this at Southwell a couple of years ago on the 80th anniversary of Vierne's death. Nos 1, 2 and 3 in the morning (starting on the hour), a lunchtime concert of songs and other stuff, and 4, 5 and 6 in the afternoon. Simon told me it was his idea but that he hadn't planned to play them all himself! It was a wonderful day and while parts of 4 and 5 are hard work for the listener they weren't as unapproachable as I expected.

On topic, someone told me the BBC had poo-pooed the idea of Dieu parmi nous as the second voluntary this year. I'm sure it's been used in the past though. Vierne 6 is a fine choice though.

[ardcarp]

someone told me the BBC had poo-pooed the idea of Dieu parmi nous as the second voluntary this year

Pourquoi? One could understand that it might frighten the horses for the TV version, but it's only the Radio 3 repeat that gets the second voluntary, so what's the problem? In any case DPN is Messiaen at his most 'approachable', surely.

[Philip]

I listened to the service up to the Philip Moore commission on Christmas Eve at home and then en-route to our crib service but have only just caught up with the rest.

Echo all above - a very fine broadcast to kick off Dan Hyde's tenure. Some nicely different choices in places, and I thought the commissioned carol was excellent. The Basque tune is lovely (Malcolm Archer has done a nice, more elaborate arrangement than Pettman in 'Advent for Choirs') but we do hear it an awful lot.

Someone upthread mentioned In the bleak. I used to like the Darke setting but am frankly sick of it, it is so overdone and has lost any sense of magic for me. I think someone needs to lock it in a Darke room (haha) for about five years and then bring it back so it sounds fresh again. We do it at church every year without my fail (not my choice) and so many others do, because it is nice musically and not too difficult. In fact, it's coming up this Sunday...

Descants always come up here - it was nice to hear John Scott's Midnight Clear which I liked and might seek out as the ubiquitous Willcocks for this one isn't remarkable at all. I agree it would have been better with Ledger for Once in Royal and Cleobury for Hark - I think Sir Stephen's first attempt at the latter is the best around. I used to assume Willcocks was best by default but beyond O come and God rest many of his are only done because of their inclusion in CfC and because they bear his name, and there are better versions out there. No-one has come up with a particularly convincing version for While shepherds, so it is perhaps better without as it was here (or use God rest instead, which covers the shepherds bit of the story equally well and has the wonderful Willcocks last verse!). I'm thinking of mooting a descant revolution when we choose stuff for our carol service next year!

Enough rambling - kudos to all at King's for an excellent service, with I hope many more to come from Dan Hyde and team.

[Philip]

Pourquoi? One could understand that it might frighten the horses for the TV version, but it's only the Radio 3 repeat that gets the second voluntary, so what's the problem? In any case DPN is Messiaen at his most 'approachable', surely.

I can't remember the exact reason - I think it was in a conversation while I was playing the organ! But I think it was approachability. And I agree completely...

[ardcarp]

I used to assume Willcocks was best by default

They are still very popular, and have the advantage that if you're playing for a vaguely musically literate gathering, the upper voices can all join in without having the dots in front of them.

[Vox Humana]

someone told me the BBC had poo-pooed the idea of Dieu parmi nous as the second voluntary this year. I'm sure it's been used in the past though.

I'm sure it has too. It's very sad if the BBC has sunk to sanctioning recognised masterpieces that don't squeeze readily through the nozzle of the icing sugar bag.

No-one has come up with a particularly convincing version for While shepherds

Really? I think Alan Gray's is absolutely perfect - a good tune in its own right that uplifts the melody and doesn't over-cook the pudding by attempting to be clever.

[jonfan]

Agree about the Gray descant, just right, but isn’t Winchester Old the most boring tune for ‘While shepherds’? We sang Lyngham this year which was far more fun but exhausting for six verses. We had an almost total Ledger descant Advent and Christmas; recommend his ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ as the most bouncy and joyful and done with an economy of notes. We put down all the G Major Descants to F, a suggestion by John Rutter, and the Nine Lessons’ Service was less taxing for the sopranos.

[DracoM]

<< It's very sad if the BBC has sunk to sanctioning recognised masterpieces that don't squeeze readily through the nozzle of the icing sugar bag. >>

Totally agree, VH. BUT it raises the uneasy question as to how much else / what else the Beeb rejects when progs are presented by DoMs, doesn't it?
i.e. Is this a SERVICE, or just a 'programme package etc '