A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols [L] 25.xii.2020

[Pulcinella]

I don't remember ever hearing 'I saw three ships' sung starting with 'As I sat on a sunny bank' so is this Poston arrangement rarely sung?

The King's Singers seem to be on the young side presently. I last saw them about four years ago and the personnel seem to have changed completely in that time. Is this usual?

Interesting link here:

https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/songs/isawthreeships.html

And the ships sail in, not by, it would seem, possibly to Hull!

[ardcarp]

The King's Singers seem to be on the young side presently. I last saw them about four years ago and the personnel seem to have changed completely in that time. Is this usual?

The original group stayed stable for some years, but now change of personnel is not unusual. When they decide (for whatever reason) a replacement is needed, they audition their shortlisted candidates by getting each in turn to sing as part of the group. They look for outstanding musicianship of course, plus an ability to memorise, but especially a voice which blends into the Kings Singers' characteristic sound. Their latest recruit (I think) is one of the Ashby family, who has several siblings in other well-known choirs. Agreed, they all look younger every day....but maybe that's just me getting older.

PS The Kings Singers of course have a prominent 'brand name' and I think their schedule of gigs here and abroad can get quite exhausting.

[Roger Judd]

I think I'm right in saying that the (almost) original six stayed together for the first 25 years, confounding David Willcocks' prediction when they started "I'll give you six months" ... which they never tired of reminding him!
RJ

[DracoM]

Sang with Simon Carrington on a Marlborough Summer School. Fine musician and good leader too.

[ardcarp]

Nigel Perrin, one of the originals I think, took to conducting one or two choirs after he left. He did a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers with some chamber choir (Bath?) in a church in the SW, and I and a colleague sang the two tenor solo parts.....some time ago now. In Audi Coelum (the duet where one tenor repeats a phrase as from a distance) I was the echo, and it was Nigel's idea to have me doing it from the organ loft, approached by a narrow spiral staircase. At the rehearsal, the door at the bottom of the staircase had been left locked by the caretaker, so I and my accompanying arch-lute sang from the bottom. When we arrived before the performance, someone had found the caretaker and the door was open, but obviously we had no time to rehearse from that position. In Duo Seraphim, at ground level, all went well. At that point I and my accompanying arch-lute headed for the organ-loft. I skipped up the stairs just fine, but the poor arch-lutenists just could not fit his instrument, with a massively long fingerboard, up the narrow twists and turns of the spiral staircase. So I warbled away at the top while he plucked valiantly from the bottom. Definitely a disembodied experience.

[DracoM]

'Dear Claud,

Just a little note for you, mate - erm AGAIN.
That Duo Seraphim palaver...you know, we DID talk about it.....well, me and Giulio had a right bloomin' hassle getting sorted in time, right? And that's just in the run-through.....So, on Friday when we're actually in San Marco, mate, can you bleedin' well sort out the instrumentation so as we can actually deliver....- I mean, mate, this ain't the first time we've 'talked' about this , is it?

Yrs, JoJo.

[jonfan]

Brian Kay, another amazing musician who inspired high standards in choirs with rigour but also fun at the same time. He had an incredible ear plus a memory for faces. At a Huddersfield Choral concert he called me over just before we went on to sing - ‘page 24, line three, bar 6; you always get that bit wrong, miss it out tonight.’ That was out of 200 singers; I sat further back after that in the hope I could hide!
The DOM wanted him dismissed as Chorus Master of HCS, but the chorus went with Brian and the DOM left in a considerable huff! Conductors are two a penny, but a good CM priceless.

[Wolsey]

[...]Their latest recruit (I think) is one of the Ashby family, who has several siblings in other well-known choirs.[...]

Two new members (Nick Ashby and Edward Button) were announced together in the summer of 2018 and joined in January 2019.

[Alison]

The organ playing was excellent IMHO, unshowy and nothing to prove.
Really fine voluntaries to round off.

[mopsus]

Nigel Perrin, one of the originals I think, took to conducting one or two choirs after he left.

Nigel Perrin founded the Bath Camerata (which I sang in for a time) and conducted it for some 30 years, till Ben Goodson took over. They made it to the finals of 'Choir of the Year' at least once.

Since 1990 he has also been conductor of the Bath Bach Choir.