CE Chichester Cathedral Wed 18th Nov 2020 [L]

[DracoM]

CE Chichester Cathedral


Order of Service:


Introit: O how amiable are thy dwellings (Weelkes)
Responses: Smith
Psalms 93, 94 (Bellringer, Read, Atkins)
First Lesson: Zechariah 8: 1-13
Canticles: Collegium Regale (Howells)
Second Lesson: Mark 13: 3-8
Anthem: Lord, thou hast been our refuge (Bairstow)

Voluntary: Symphony No 5, Op 42 No 1 (Allegro vivace) (Widor)


Timothy Ravalde (Assistant Organist)
Charles Harrison (Organist and Master of the Choristers)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pgpp

[Resurgam]

It will be good to hear a live service sung by boys and men for a change.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today and LIVE @ 3.30 p.m.

[cat]

I'm looking forward to the Weelkes. I believe this is one of the smallest cathedral choirs featuring in R3 broadcasts, typically being no more than 18 in number.

[Pulcinella]

I'm looking forward to the Weelkes. I believe this is one of the smallest cathedral choirs featuring in R3 broadcasts, typically being no more than 18 in number.

That sounds right: I'm not sure how many boys they have but regularly there are only 6 adults (no pressure there, then!).
I know one of them, so will ask if they get extras/deps in to boost the lower parts for broadcasts; I've already asked him if they're recording another service for later transmission.

PS: Only 6 adults this afternoon. Nothing else recorded for future transmission, though.

[Simon Biazeck]

Sheer bliss and about as good as it gets – like listening to a sound from another time. A real ensemble with no passengers. It has to be! Fierce playing in the Widor too!

[DracoM]

Echo every word from Mr Biazeck!
The real thing!!
Energy, adventure, and so good to hear all in such cracking, joyous form. And boys giving it the real, real charge too.

[mw963]

Quite quite sublime. Amazing what Chichester can do with such relatively small forces.

Interesting that the organ was quite distant during the main service, but we got up really close and dirty in the voluntary, rather fun to hear the inner mechanical workings of the instrument, and explore the depths and colours so intimately. Slight shame though that there was some rather obvious manual gain riding on the Widor though.

As Resurgam hints, boys and men in a cathedral seems to be on the endangered list as far as broadcast CE is concerned, so this was a real treat, and more than surpassed the 10/10 rating.

[jonfan]

Great stuff; a smooth well blended sound from the boys which showed muscle and attack when needed. Thrilling singing from all sections; hard to believe there were only 6 men as they sounded twice that number!
The boys look a cheerful lot from their picture by the BBC van. Ben Collingwood has produced all these live CE’s since they got going again and his Twitter account often has extra info with pictures.
Thank you Chichester.

[Simon Biazeck]

Echo every word from Mr Biazeck!
The real thing!!
Energy, adventure, and so good to hear all in such cracking, joyous form. And boys giving it the real, real charge too.

[cat]

A glorious service. I have been following their YouTube livestreams since things restarted and thought we might be in for a treat. It seems they recovered from the first lockdown without blinking, although no doubt this involved a lot of hard work behind the scenes for which everyone involved must be congratulated.

[Pulcinella]

A glorious service. I have been following their YouTube livestreams since things restarted and thought we might be in for a treat. It seems they recovered from the first lockdown without blinking, although no doubt this involved a lot of hard work behind the scenes for which everyone involved must be congratulated.

Indeed, and because of lockdown they don't even get to go to the pub afterwards to celebrate/relax afterwards, something my friend there is missing!
I enjoyed the rather quirky (in places) psalm pointing, and agree that they did themselves proud throughout.
Thank you, Chichester.

[Nick Armstrong]

Sheer bliss and about as good as it gets – like listening to a sound from another time. A real ensemble with no passengers. It has to be! Fierce playing in the Widor too!

Agreed

[Quilisma]

I very much look forward to listening to this when I have a chance; I am currently in the middle of moving from one flat to another very close by, and everything else continues as normal (insofar as ANYTHING is really "normal" during lockdown), so it is a rather stressful time. However, it sounds as if I shall be in for a treat, as we should expect from what is, after all, an excellent choir. Chichester Cathedral is of course a very beautiful gem, and the relative "chamber-music" size of the ensemble is completely fitting for the scale of the building, and somewhat refreshing.

But I should clarify that it is actually not at all uncommon to have just six regular lay clerks. Admittedly, some places with only six regular lay clerks sometimes bring in extra singers at least some of the time, but it would be wrong to think that this was the norm or the default for those choirs. Back on Etheldreda's Isle, much as it is a pity that we hardly ever get to see any of our extra singers at the moment, it is refreshing to have to work as just the core team of six regulars in the back row almost all the time for the moment. The idea that any self-respecting choir ought to have twelve or more singers in the back row all the time is rather unhelpful, I think. Having only six regular lay clerks is very tough work, and it's certainly not possible to be a passenger, but it can work very nicely, even in buildings which are more vast than Chichester Cathedral.

I'm not sure I quite buy the argument that "boys and men" choirs have been underexposed in live broadcasts recently. Of course, since some (but by no means all) liturgical choirs were able to resume, there have been a huge number of complications and uncertainties surrounding whether or not any given choir might be able and willing to do a live BBC broadcast on any given day in a few weeks' or months' time. And obviously some places were able to keep things (at the very least) ticking over remotely during the spring and summer, whereas in some other places there were all sorts of obstacles, so it was not easy to predict in advance what state any particular choir might be in several weeks or months down the line, and for choir directors themselves there has been a lot of hoping for the best and working tirelessly towards it but also drawing up multiple contingency plans for less ideal circumstances. I'm delighted to hear that Chichester is in such a good state. Moreover, if people feel that "boys and men" choirs are not getting enough live exposure at the moment, then they need to watch some live-streams. I think I'm right in saying that every cathedral where sung services have been continuing through lockdown has been required to broadcast or live-stream everything. That means that all configurations of any given choir which is currently singing can be heard in their respective live-streamed services. (Some cathedrals, including my own, have opted to make live-streamed evensongs available only for a limited amount of time afterwards, to reinforce the idea that this is a particular act of worship on a particular occasion and the congregation are those watching and listening, and to respond to the idea that anything which is broadcast in any way should carry a full extra fee on the grounds that it is an extra imposition, which is a moot point.)

[mw963]

I'm not sure I quite buy the argument that "boys and men" choirs have been underexposed)

In adding the words "recently" you are perhaps right, but some of us have detected a long term shift in the ratio - put simply - of cathedral-to-other-places broadcasts, at the increasing expense of the cathedrals. Coupled with the fact that it's inevitable that girls choirs will (and should!) be given their fair share of broadcasts, it's becoming something of a rarity to have boys and a cathedral.

I started a thread on this some years back, it's entitled something like "Why are there so few cathedral broadcasts?".