CE: Chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge [R] 1.ii.23

[Guest]

An RCO event in Cambridge the year George Guest retired, included the opportunity to attend evensong at Kings And John's. At Kings, SC didn't conduct either the responses or Psalms - he remained in a back stall. At John's, GG accompanied the Psalms.

[DracoM]

Reminder: rpt this p.m.

[ardcarp]

This is probably irrelevant, but at Lichfield, Richard Greening after having 'conducted' the service with tiny finger movements, would disappear to the organ loft to play the final hymn. I gather that there was some ancient contract wording that The Organist (i.e. the O&C as it was then called) was required to play at all the services. Despite an obviously gifted assistant, RG still had to fulfil that requirement. A treasured memory is being in the organ-loft (two re-builds ago) and observing RG and his then assistant sitting side by side on the organ bench and playing a tricky Bach trio sonata as a duet on manuals only.

[MS0]

I wonder what date prominent conducting became common?

There was an article by Barry Rose, in Organists' Review decades ago, in which he claimed at least some responsibility for setting off the trend. He said that on taking up the reins at Guildford Cathedral in the 60s, he was faced with an unprecedented challenge of widely-distanced choir stalls and an organ situated between choir and congregation. The only solution seemed to be to stand in the midst of it all, give a beat and hope that it would unify the disparate forces.

That being said, choristers and lay clerks at some of the earliest joint festivals (the Three Choirs Festivals in the 19th century, for instance) had the experience of singing with a conductor out in front when performing large scale choral works with orchestra.