CE Chapel of King’s College, London [R] Wed, 29th June 2022

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of King’s College, London [R] Wed, 29th June 2022

Feast of St Peter and St Paul
Recorded 28 June


Order of Service:


Introit: Tu es Petrus (Byrd)
Responses: Rose
Psalms 124, 138 (Moss, S. Wesley)
First Lesson: Ezekiel 34: 11-16
Office Hymn: With golden splendour (Annue Christe)
Canticles: Gloucester Service (Kerensa Briggs)
Second Lesson: John 21: 15-22
Anthem: Hymn to St Peter (Britten)
Hymn: Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfruen)

Voluntary: Rhapsody No. 1 in D flat major (Howells)

Mitchell Farquharson (Organist)
Joseph Fort (Director of Music)

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 4 p.m.

[ardcarp]

Hymn to St Peter maybe not one of Britten's best known works. I thought the solo towards the end was very well done. More info about the piece:

Written for the Quincentenary of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich in 1955 and based on the plainsong 'Tu es Petrus' which is loudly declaimed on the organ in unison before the choir's first entry. This more extended anthem picks up on elements which Britten had used in his Hymn to St. Cecilia thirteen years earlier. The broad unison melody with which the choral parts start is similar, however, to the opening of the Hymn of St. Columba. It is the middle section written as a scherzo which is reminiscent of the section in the St. Cecilia hymn at figure 8 ('I cannot grow; I have no shadow to run away from...'). This is also the part of this anthem which might give less able choirs some trouble. It needs to be sung 'quickly and lightly' as Britten indicates and his metronome mark at dotted crotchet = 112 is indeed fast! But the notes are not difficult and they certainly reward detailed work. The next section is a reprise of the opening which moves into a dying Alleluia. The final section has lovely solo (or semi-chorus) phrases in Latin separated by very soft choral interjections translating these phrases into English.

Some of the allusions in the above didn't seem obvious to me at first hearing. (Indeed the 'innocent ear' may have found difficulty in identifyimg Britten as the composer.)

[haldeman]

An otherwise good service, sadly ruined for me by the grotesquely over the top vibrato of one of the sopranos!

[DracoM]

Blimey, YES!

[Subtuum]

An otherwise good service, sadly ruined for me by the grotesquely over the top vibrato of one of the sopranos!

God forbid a women sounds like a women and not a small prepubescent boy. I do think people need to remember when adults (regardless of age) are singing, and when children are so they don’t get a shock (or whatever you’re feeling).

[oddoneout]

God forbid a women sounds like a women and not a small prepubescent boy. I do think people need to remember when adults (regardless of age) are singing, and when children are so they don’t get a shock (or whatever you’re feeling).

A woman doesn't have to have an excessive vibrato to sound like a woman. As it happens I don't like a fullblown vibrato full stop, regardless of age and/or sex, but for others it's not a problem, or acceptance depends on context.
I have to confess I didn't read the schedule properly and so did get a shock as I hadn't clocked the London bit in the venue...