Westminster Cathedral : Martin Baker resigned

[vinteuil]

The New Statesman article is far more revealing - and troubling.

... for 'New Statesman' should I read 'The Spectator'?

[DracoM]

Woops..............sorry.
Yes. 'Spectator'

Been 'one of those days' etc etc. Weather here totally unpeakable, impenetrable, unquuenchable. Now shut down even more.

[vinteuil]

... Weather here totally unpeakable.

... wretched when you can't see the fells!




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[DracoM]

[Nevilevelis]

Check your inbox.

NVV

[Wolsey]

Apologies if this has already been covered but has any evidence been given to support the 'parents don't want their children to board' claim, as it specifically applies to the choristers? In other words has recruitment been a problem with boarding being the reason cited?

There have been no reports of evidence to support the assertion. In stark contrast, St Paul's Cathedral is building a new boarding house - hardly the thing to do if "parents don't want their children to board".

[DracoM]

“Choristership is central to the Cathedral’s life and its tradition of sung worship, which has been a mainstay of the Cathedral for over 800 years. This new development will provide much needed space for the School and enable us to extend the offer we can give to visiting choirs as well as enhancing support for our flagship music outreach programme”

Now I wonder who wrote that?

Yes, an official statement by......? St Paul's. Look at the meaning underlying it. Hmm. Odd that Drome can't and St P's can. Why? Schools must have pretty similar parent bodies and ideas about upbringing etc?

[mopsus]

I have been to Westminster Cathedral with a visiting choir and my impression was that they were regarded as something of a nuisance. We had no real base within the Cathedral and did our warmup in (I think) a library or similar room.

[greenilex]

As an ex-Catholic I have the feeling from personal experience that music has to be subordinate to doctrinal and missionary considerations in the church as a whole. Nobody cares, truthfully, whether an offering is even tuneful..

Sad, particularly when so many worshippers are desperately going through the motions.

[vinteuil]

As an ex-Catholic I have the feeling from personal experience that music has to be subordinate to doctrinal and missionary considerations in the church as a whole. Nobody cares, truthfully, whether an offering is even tuneful..

Sad, particularly when so many worshippers are desperately going through the motions.

... some churches make the effort : in the days when I attended, I used to go to the Jesuits at Farm Street or to Brompton Oratory - and the music was a significant draw.

.

[oddoneout]

As an ex-Catholic I have the feeling from personal experience that music has to be subordinate to doctrinal and missionary considerations in the church as a whole. Nobody cares, truthfully, whether an offering is even tuneful..

Sad, particularly when so many worshippers are desperately going through the motions.

What a good thing that so many composers didn't see music as subordinate to the doctrine.

[DracoM]

... some churches make the effort : in the days when I attended, I used to go to the Jesuits at Farm Street or to Brompton Oratory - and the music was a significant draw.

.

Exactly - which is why it seems amazing that THE central church of the Catholic presence in UK should become by stages choir-less.
Simply astonishing, more so that it is apparently with the Archbishop's active encouragement?

[Lordgeous]

Relations between the DOM and the authorities got so bad in George Malcom's time that they only corresponded by letter!

[mopsus]

I was told in about 1990 that almost all the DoMs of Westminster Cathedral to that date had been dismissed from the post. I don't know how true that is, though I expect there are people here who do.

[DracoM]

This is what we might be missing very soon, sooner than required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y9yM53TowA