Chapel of Clare College, Cambridge [R] Wed, Feb 10th 2021

[DracoM]

Chapel of Clare College, Cambridge [R]
Recorded 26 November 2020


Order of Service:


Introit: We shall walk through the valley in peace (Trad. spiritual, arr. Undine Smith Moore)
Responses: Rose
Psalms 53, 54 (Stanford, Barnby)
First Lesson: Isaiah 52 v.13 – 53 v.6
Canticles: St Augustine’s Service (Howells)
Second Lesson: Romans 15: 14-21
Anthem: By the waters of Babylon (Coleridge-Taylor)
Hymn: Abide with me (Eventide, arr. Graham Ross)

Voluntary: Paean (Howells)

Samuel Jones (Junior Organ Scholar)
George Gillow (Sir William McKie Senior Organ Scholar)

Graham Ross (Director of Music)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s31k

[Pulcinella]

According to the liner notes in the Priory CD of Howells canticles that includes this setting, it is the only set Howells composed for an English parish, rather than cathedral or college, choir: that of St Augustine's Church, Edgbaston, as a result of a commission in August 1967 from the then organist, Derek Williams. A sad history (the church choir went into decline) led to the fact that it was returned to the composer unperformed, but Howells did not reassign it, and it was eventually sung for the first time at St Augustine's in autumn 1980.

[ardcarp]

Good to hear the history of St Augustine's Service which I don't know. Good to get a CE which, although recorded, is being broadcast for the first time.

[DracoM]

[mopsus]

I am looking forward to this. I heard the St Augustine's Service on a broadcast years ago and enjoyed it; as I recall it is rather more dissonant than Howells' settings usually are. I've been waiting a long time to hear it again.

[Nick Armstrong]

Good to hear the history of St Augustine's Service which I don't know. Good to get a CE which, although recorded, is being broadcast for the first time.

Ditto: new Howells to me! Will definitely be listening!

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[mopsus]

The previous broadcast of St Augustine was on 6 February 1991, from Lichfield Cathedral. It must have made quite an impression for me to remember it almost exactly 30 years later. In those pre-iPlayer/BBC Sounds and repeat days, if I was going to be at work I would put a cassette in my radio cassette player, and plug the player in using a timer to come on at the time of the broadcast (4 pm I think it was in those days).

I owe the information above a search of to the wonderful BBC Genome site. The advanced search is very helpful in identifying particular broadcasts; if you remember what time of day and (in the case of CE) day of the week they went out, you can narrow the search for e.g. a particular composer. The site covers listings till 2009. The data has clearly been OCR'd and visitors are invited to make corrections. In this case changing a zero to 'O' and for the readings 'w' to 'vv'.

[Pulcinella]

Am I in a time warp?
Switched on at 15:30, and we were already into the first Psalm.

[jonfan]

Am I in a time warp?
Switched on at 15:30, and we were already into the first Psalm.

Glad I’m not the only one to think that. Weird.

[oddoneout]

Am I in a time warp?
Switched on at 15:30, and we were already into the first Psalm.

The filler for the end of the previous programme wouldn't play so they went straight to CE. A somewhat odd decision I thought.

[Nick Armstrong]

The filler for the end of the previous programme wouldn't play so they went straight to CE. A somewhat odd decision I thought.

[Simon Biazeck]

Fabulous Howells! I know the St. Augustine's Service well and was not disappointed – lovely, free vocal production from this choir, full of meaning and very well paced. Nowhere to hide in that small chapel and they know how to work it. The sinewy lines in the accompaniment worked well on the Neo-classical organ, although I could have done with more 8’ foundation stops in the fuller sections. It is what it is.

I heard an amateur Swedish choir sing the St. Augustine’s Service and the York Service at St. Paul’s on consecutive days during the Summer of 2019 (another world!). I made a pilgrimage of it. I have nearly all Howells’s choral music here and much else besides. For sustained dissonance in his settings of the Mag. & Nunc, try the ‘Winchester’ or ‘Chichester’ sets. The former is an almost hypnotic, mystical experience – I adore it. On Alwyn Surplice’s recording with Winchester Cathedral Choir (1973), time seems to stand still. It is also on a fairly recent Hyperion CD from the same choir. The opening of the ‘Magdalene’ Nunc dimittis is almost atonal.

I enjoyed Paean too!

SBz.

[Finzi4ever]

The filler for the end of the previous programme wouldn't play so they went straight to CE. A somewhat odd decision I thought.

It caught BBC Sounds out too, only recording once into the psalms.

[mw963]

I get stick on here from certain contributors when I say the modern BBC has poor standards, but NOT starting a programme early was - in the old days - one of the FIRST rules that used to be taught to any operational staff trainee. Didn't matter why, it was FORBIDDEN, for all the reasons that have now reared their ugly heads. Play something, talk, whatever, but don't go over early.

In the old days on Radio 3 they'd have had a bit of poetry to hand and it would have been read beautifully by someone with a mellifluous voice who had probably - heavens above - rehearsed it just in case it was needed.

As always, a hasty retreat for me back to German classical radio via satellite.