CE Chapel of Selwyn College, Cambridge [L] Wed, 18th Jan 2023

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of Selwyn College, Cambridge [L] Wed, 18th Jan 2023


Order of Service:

Introit: O gracious light (Austin Echols)
Responses: Sarah MacDonald
Psalms 93, 94 (Slater, MacPherson)
First Lesson: 1 Kings 19: 9b -18
Canticles: Evening Service in B flat (Howard Helvey)
Second Lesson: Lesson: Mark 9: 2-13
Anthem: Brightest and best (Sarah Rimkus)

Voluntary: Missa di Gloria (Gloria) (Leighton)

Adam Field (Organ Scholar)

Sarah MacDonald (Director of Music)

[jonfan]

Three different tunes to Brightest and best in 8 days. Is this some sort of record?

[ardcarp]

I like it best to the chorale tune Liebster Immanuel in Songs of Praise. In RC churches the same tune is often used for 'Mary Immaculate, Star of the Morning'.

One of the old A&M tunes (can't remember its name) was surely one of the worst hymn-tunes ever, especially the third line.

[mopsus]

I recall singing it to Liebster Immanuel in my College chapel once and it was not popular, I think because people claimed the minor key was dreary. Or maybe they didn't like the diminished 4th in the last line. (I had no such problems with it myself.)

I think the A&M tune you dislike would be Bede, which was the standard tune it was sung to at Bath Abbey until recently. Congregations would indeed have fun trying to sing the third line, which contains two leaps of a seventh and another of an octave. It's adapted by John Goss from Handel's Athalia.

(But for utter unsingability, nothing comes close to Kilvaree, a tune in the same metre but set to different words, which appeared in the 3rd edition (only) of the Church Hymnary. The only explanation that I can think of for it was that the composer was trying to see just how much he could put past the editors.)

[jonfan]

Liebster Immanuel has great magisterial portent about it but Bach’s adventurous harmony unsettles a congregation. Joseph Thrupp’s tune is the most popular and quite serviceable, though RVW placed it in the Chamber of Horrors! My favourite is SS Wesley’s tune with its minor key section for Cold on his cradle, though again more suited for a choir to enjoy.

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 4 p.m.

[Roger Judd]

I have a very soft spot for another fine tune to these words by my one-time mentor, Alwyn Surplice. 'Wessex' appears in the New English Hymnal (1986). It has a good sweep to the melody and attractive harmonies, IMHO of course.
RJ

[Alison]

That was a fine Voluntary. Enjoyed this LIVE service very much.

It did feel live!

[ardcarp]

....yes, and weren't the readings well delivered.

Good to have a live one...though not next week. I guess the Beeb have saved a bob or two by recording Selwyn for the nest Sunday Worship while they had all their kit there.

[jonfan]

Lovely expressive singing with a gentle vibrato on the top line. In the Introit all the lines were beautifully clear. There was effective use of a wide dynamic range, especially in the psalms. A concentrated devotion permeated the whole. I too thought the lesson readers were superb, especially the Old Testament, so much so that I wanted to break into Mendelssohn!
The NRSV translation sound of sheer silence seems totally inadequate to express the inexpressible, KJV is preferable with a still small voice

[Keraulophone]

The NRSV translation sound of sheer silence seems totally inadequate to express the inexpressible, KJV is preferable with a still small voice

Hear, hear!

At NRSV'd Truro we miss many other gems of the KJV, e.g. 'For now we see in a mirror, dimly' instead of the implaccable 'For now we see through a glass, darkly'.
.

[Alison]

Is the Missa de Gloria a work with which anyone is familiar?

I’m on the lookout for a recording now.

[Roger Judd]

There are two excellent pieces on YouTube about the Leighton Missa de Gloria from St Thomas, 5th Avenue New York. In one the Rector talks to Jeremy Filsell about the piece, and in the second Jeremy talks about each movement and then plays it. As a bonus you hear the wonderful, John Scott inspired, new organ. During lockdown, when there was no choir, they used the Leighton liturgically.
RJ

[Caussade]

Is the Missa de Gloria a work with which anyone is familiar?

I’m on the lookout for a recording now.

https://www.resonusclassics.com/prod...works-volume-1 which has KL’s magnificent duet Martyrs too