CE Church of St John the Baptist, Cirencester [L] Wed, 19th April 2023

[DracoM]

CE Church of St John the Baptist, Cirencester [L] Wed, 19th April 2023

Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.


Introit: My beloved spake (Hadley)
Responses: Geoffrey Webber
Psalms 98, 99, 100, 101 (Pott, Ives, Tranchell, Tranchell)
First Lesson: Hosea 5 v.15 – 6 v.6
Office hymn: Ad regias Agni dapes (Plainsong)
Canticles: Evening Service in E flat No 2 (Wood)
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15 vv.1-11
Anthem: Haec dies (Matthew Martin)
Hymn: Lord of life, a new dawn breaking (Wood Green)

Antiphon: Vidi aquam (Matthew Martin)

Voluntary: Toccata (Sanders)

Kyoko Canaway, Martin Baker (Organists)
Matthew Martin (Precentor)

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 4 p.m.

[ardcarp]

I'll be interested to hear this! One of my daughters was a choral scholar there in Geoffrey Webber's day. They made many recordings and enjoyed a wider repertoire of music than on the average Anglican list....and blimey, they've got Martin Baker on board! Tranchell, by the way (known as Tranks) was a past Precentpr of G&C, in the days when there were no female choral scholars, i.e. altos on the top line. Charles Wood was also in charge of the music in the distant past when I think they had boy trebles. Continuing the gender theme, Patrick Hadley (of My Beloved Spake fame) was a Fellow of the College. The (possibly apocryphal) story is that he couldn't bear women, and that if he passed a known female student in the Cambridge streets he would stab himself in his wooden leg to cause utter dismay. (The wooden leg is fact, BTW,)

[mopsus]

I'll be interested to hear this! One of my daughters was a choral scholar there in Geoffrey Webber's day. They made many recordings and enjoyed a wider repertoire of music than on the average Anglican list....and blimey, they've got Martin Baker on board!

Martin Baker is doing quite a lot of freelance work these days I believe. He has played for a couple of services I've sung at Bath Abbey recently, where he's been used while we await the arrival of a new assistant DoM.

[ardcarp]

Wow. A top line to die for. Well-blended back-desks and fantastic direction. I bet the choir wishes it had Cirencester-like acoustics in its own Chapel, which is lovely but somewhat 'dry' for singers. Well done Matthew Martin and congrats on your anthem. Good to hear a composer who loves rhythm and doesn't fall back on boring minimalism!

[Simon Biazeck]

Very fine vocal deliveries from the minsters and readers - straightforward - no watery piety, and a reassuringly familiar plainsong style...

Excellent tuning and diction throughout with a wide dynamic range.

~SBz.

[ardcarp]

Very fine vocal deliveries from the minsters and readers - straightforward -

Delivery fine, but 'Preludising' (as the late Arthur Hutchings used to call it) before a reading or the Psalms seems to have become the norm.
Music excellent,

[Simon Biazeck]

Delivery fine, but 'Preludising' (as the late Arthur Hutchings used to call it) before a reading or the Psalms seems to have become the norm.
Music excellent,

And who do suppose may have told them to do that?

[ardcarp]

I can't imagine.....

[Simon Biazeck]

I can't imagine.....

[jonfan]

And who do suppose may have told them to do that?

No idea, who?
Very impressive singing here. The Responses seem to almost intriguingly break into folk song, very effective. The music of MM the most stunning part of the CE, the exciting anthem full of Easter joy and the very beautiful harmonies in the closing antiphons.
Referring to previous posts, was this a concert or not?
Patrick Hadley was my sister’s tutor at the RAM and he quite enjoyed sticking lecture notes into his wooden leg to unnerve students.

[ardcarp]

Patrick Hadley was my sister’s tutor at the RAM and he quite enjoyed sticking lecture notes into his wooden leg to unnerve students

So the tittle tattle I heard about him wasn't just myth! Musically, he's one of those one-trick ponies....My Beloved Spake (a very beautiful piece indeed) being the only thing most people know him for.

Going back to today's marvellous CE, my only regret is that the hymn at the end (words specially composed) was one I could not join in with Easter fervour.. (The neighbours were probably quite glad.)

was this a concert or not?

No, and if you listen to the rector's opening words, just after the Introit, he ends by saying something along the lines of 'listeners being held in the presence of God by the power of music'. Being somewhat agnostic, that's just what I want to hear to kindle the little faith I have. (To explain, I don't mind opening words of welcome, even a travelogue, right at the start of a service. It's just the preludising during any CE I find unnecessary and annoying)

[jonfan]

Hadley has another trick, I sing of a maiden with its incredibly long final chord that is just magic.
George Guest tells of when PH was giving an interview he stretched out his leg and banged in a drawing pin to keep his sock up.

[ardcarp]

Oh of course. I'd forgotten that one. It doesn't seem to be done so often these days. Here are Ely's girls singig it very beautifully (apart from this generation's pronunciation of 'to' and 'dew'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n60BW2Ncu2Y

[DracoM]

<< I don't mind opening words of welcome, even a travelogue, right at the start of a service. It's just the preludising during any CE I find unnecessary and annoying)>>

Hurray!