CE Chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford [A] 1.iv.2020

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford [A]
(recorded in March 2016 )


Order of Service:


In nomine (Ward)
Introit: Call to remembrance (Farrant)
Responses: Morley
Psalms 12, 13, 14 (Barnby, Rose, Smart)
First Lesson: Genesis 9 vv.8-17
Canticles: Fifth Service (Tomkins)
Second Lesson: 1 Peter 3 vv.18-22
Anthem: Down, caitiff wretch (Ward)
Hymn: Teach me, my God and King (Sandys)

Organ Voluntary for Double Organ (Purcell)

Phantasm (directed by Laurence Dreyfus)
Anna Lapwood (organ scholar)

Daniel Hyde (Informator Choristarum)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071d1gp

[cat]

I didn't catch this first time around. However I very much liked the discs containing this anthem and Tomkins 5th that they recorded in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Looking forward to hear how this compares.

[silvestrione]

Phantasm in Evensong! The luxuries of Oxford....

Sorry to be ignorant again: does Double Organ just mean two manuals?

[Vox Humana]

Sorry to be ignorant again: does Double Organ just mean two manuals?

Yes.

[ardcarp]

A pair of virginals OTOH......

[DracoM]

Woops, nearly forgot - such is the frantic rush of self-isolation----------reminder - today @ 3.30 p.m.
AND
..............note the DoM?

[jonfan]

Woops, nearly forgot - such is the frantic rush of self-isolation----------reminder - today @ 3.30 p.m.
AND
..............note the DoM?

Also note the organ scholar! Vintage team.

This was exhilarating and full of earnest excitement in the singing with also a sense of fun! If this is what a penitential season sounds like what did they do on Easter Day? Very expressive and forward delivery of the psalms, unaccompanied through all three. Great rhythmic vigour and communication in the canticles and anthem, everything topped by Anna Lapwood's virtuoso and fun Purcell; not forgetting Phantasm's period colour.
If DH can emulate the sound he gets from these boys at King's then we are in for a revolution [and a revelation!]. What punching though the texture and with a slight vibrato to give a sense of a special attention required from the listener and worshiper!
Thoroughly enjoyable hour.

[DracoM]

DoM's audition piece for St T's NYC maybe?

[ardcarp]

I wonder if DH is practising his penchant for unaccompanied psalmody at Kings? Anglican chant evolved relatively recently [much discussion here in the past] alongside organs in churches. Whilst unaccompanied bits are great, of course, I miss discreet organ colouring.

It was good to have Phantasm there. But did anyone else feel that the canticles were played at an incredibly low pitch? If my hearing is correct the bass solo began on a bottom F#, meaning the whole thing was pitched a minor third down from usual. This meant that the trebles were almost in chest voice (not an unattractive sound) and the altos were pretty much singing tenor. I wonder if anyone with scholarly knowledge can comment? If it was a question of viol parts only being available in F# minor, surely it wouldn't take that long to scribble out a transposed set?

PS Anna Lapwood benefited from the Jennifer Bate Organ Academy.

[Miles Coverdale]

It was good to have Phantasm there. But did anyone else feel that the canticles were played at an incredibly low pitch? If my hearing is correct the bass solo began on a bottom F#, meaning the whole thing was pitched a minor third down from usual. This meant that the trebles were almost in chest voice (not an unattractive sound) and the altos were pretty much singing tenor. I wonder if anyone with scholarly knowledge can comment? If it was a question of viol parts only being available in F# minor, surely it wouldn't take that long to scribble out a transposed set?

The original key-signature is one flat, with the first bass entry on a low G. If the viols were tuned to A415, that would explain the sounding pitch.

[ardcarp]

Thanks MC. I'm quite sure that in the past I've sung it a lot higher. Unfortunately I can't put my hands on a copy, but B minor seems to ring a bell. I think this is more like what I recall, even if unscholarly!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80nkGKp8mw0

or from St John's, this: https://www.sjcchoir.co.uk/listen/sj...rvice%E2%80%99

[Miles Coverdale]

The modern edition (by Bernard Rose, if I remember correctly) is up a major third from the original. The viol parts used here must have been editorially derived from the organ part in Musica Deo Sacra, which is the only surviving accompaniment.

[Vox Humana]

Yes, the pitch was a semitone lower than A=440, which is odd since an interesting article way back in 2003 established that Tudor pitch, including Tomkins's, was just a little over a semitone higher (though doubtless it varied a bit). Still low for modern choirs, of course, but Tudor choirs had no falsettists. Their countertenors and tenors were just our tenors and basses. The purely falsetto alto is a development of the end of the 17th century - William Knyvett (of Anglican chant fame) was one of the first altos to use falsetto exclusively. Before him it had been (as I understand it, but I'm open to correction), and continued to be, a facility used by all voices for their top notes as part of the Italian bel canto technique - which makes the distinction between earlier tenors and countertenors a bit vague, to say the least. I note that Magdalen gave all the countertenor verses to a tenor and I'm pretty sure there was a tenor stiffening the countertenor chorus parts - if the altos were singing at all.

[ardcarp]

and I'm pretty sure there was a tenor stiffening the countertenor chorus parts - if the altos were singing at all.

I wondered that too, but on having another listen there was some 'falsetting' going on.

My personal feeling is, leaving scholarship aside, that these canticles are more suited to a traditionally constituted SATB choir if sung at a higher pitch.

In the 'original' pitch, Tomkins 5 would be a good set for ATB only days.

On the subject of all voices using a bit of falsetto at the top end of their range, I think there is a distinction to be made between that and mezza voce, a sort of halfway house. It is used to great effect by tenors of the Italian 19th century repertoire who, although able to belt out top Cs in full voice when needed, like to be soft and tender in moments of soppy emotion! As an ageing tenor I find I have to use mezza voce for anything above a top G. The difficulty is getting the transition smooth.....

[Vox Humana]

On the subject of all voices using a bit of falsetto at the top end of their range, I think there is a distinction to be made between that and mezza voce, a sort of halfway house. It is used to great effect by tenors of the Italian 19th century repertoire who, although able to belt out top Cs in full voice when needed, like to be soft and tender in moments of soppy emotion! As an ageing tenor I find I have to use mezza voce for anything above a top G. The difficulty is getting the transition smooth.....

Thanks very much for that, ardcarp. That does make sense. In the days when I had a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive I once Googled 'falsetto' and came up with quite a lot of newspaper reports of concerts. Critics clearly set a lot of store by how well a singer could transition from chest voice to falsetto. Apparently the only one who could do it completely imperceptibly was John Braham. Do you agree, though, that the tenor Arturo's top F towards the end of Bellini's Il Puritani would need to have been sung in full falsetto? I can't see any other way of getting right up there.