CE Ely Cathedral 21.vi. 2023 [L]

[Quilisma]

... thank you! And thanks to all at Ely.

(My poor ma almost ended up being called Etheldreda. Her mother, a devoted parishioner at St Etheldreda's (not Ely Place but Fulham, Anglo-Catholic in those days) wanted it so - happily the priest persuaded her that Audrey wd be just as good.
So my brothers and I, naturally, referred to her as Etheldreda, Æthelthryth, Æðelþryð, Æþelðryþe... )

Marvellous! I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know Fulham had a St Etheldreda's Church, and even more so that I still haven't managed to visit St Etheldreda's, Ely Place (formerly Ely Palace!), although I've walked past it numerous times... In fact I haven't even been inside St Etheldreda's (RC) Church in Ely, and they have one of the few bits of her which managed to be rescued when her shrine was destroyed; I think it's a finger or a hand...

There's a "St Audrey's Lane" in the town where I grew up, which I now realise is because it'sa thoroughfare heading in the general direction of Ely. This is also the origin of "tawdry", presumably because the "Tawdry lace" souvenirs sold to pilgrims visiting "St Audrey's" shrine were a bit tacky. (Compare "Tooley Street" in Bermondsey, after St Olaf.)

How Æðelþryð ended up as Audrey is a classic example of sound change: in colloquial speech the ð in Æðel- often progressively weakened and dropped out, leaving Æel-, which coalesced with the almost identical-sounding name-element Eal-, while the /y/ in -þryð progressively underwent dialect-specific developments, merging with /i/ in most areas but /u/ in the West Midlands and /e/ in Kentish/London. (That's why "bury" is as it is: the spelling that went forward is West Midland and the pronunciation that went forward is Kentish/London!) Norman-French didn't have either voiced or unvoiced /th/, so -drey reflects the Normans' attempt to render the later Kentish/London development of -þryð. Aldrey latterly became affected by the French velarisation of syllable-coda /l/, hence Auldrey and eventually Audrey. This exists alongside the Latinised version of Æðelþryð, namely Etheldreda, but Audrey is the version most often (or rather less rarely!) used nowadays as a given name. But as Æðelþryð herself pre-dated the Norman conquest by four centuries we tend to use the Latin form of her name for her, because it's closer to what she would actually have been called, i.e. the Anglo-Saxon form of her name.

Incidentally, I know of at least one ecclesiastical dog named Audrey, and one of our choristers has a puppy called Ethel, which is short for Etheldreda!

[Quilisma]

By the way, here is a rather nice role-play film about Etheldreda, her life and times, posted on Ely Cathedral's YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/tDD46lzSAh0

[vinteuil]

This is also the origin of "tawdry", presumably because the "Tawdry lace" souvenirs sold to pilgrims visiting "St Audrey's" shrine were a bit tacky...

WW Skeat (Etymological Dictionary) adds : "... first used in the phr. tawdry lace = a rustic necklace; explained in Skinner (following Dr. Hickes) as being a necklace bought at St. Awdry's fair, held in the Isle of Ely (and elsewhere) on St. Awdry's day, Oct. 17. ... Wedgwood doubts the ancient celebrity of this fair (which I do not), and accepts in preference the alternative account in Nares, that St. Audry 'died of a swelling in the throat, which she considered as a particular judgment, for having been in her youth much addicted to wearing fine necklaces;' see Nich. Harpsfield, Hist. Eccl. Anglicana, Saec. Sept. p.86; Brady, Clavis Calendaria, Oct. 17." Skeat goes on to explain the etymology of Etheldreda...

I also like - "She hath given her name to a Causeway in the Isle of Ely, where there is a Fair kept, and much ordinary Lace sold there, which makes the Country Girls seem finer than they are, whence the word Taudry came." [Dove, 1697]


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[Quilisma]

WW Skeat (Etymological Dictionary) adds : "... first used in the phr. tawdry lace = a rustic necklace; explained in Skinner (following Dr. Hickes) as being a necklace bought at St. Awdry's fair, held in the Isle of Ely (and elsewhere) on St. Awdry's day, Oct. 17. ... Wedgwood doubts the ancient celebrity of this fair (which I do not), and accepts in preference the alternative account in Nares, that St. Audry 'died of a swelling in the throat, which she considered as a particular judgment, for having been in her youth much addicted to wearing fine necklaces;' see Nich. Harpsfield, Hist. Eccl. Anglicana, Saec. Sept. p.86; Brady, Clavis Calendaria, Oct. 17." Skeat goes on to explain the etymology of Etheldreda...

I also like - "She hath given her name to a Causeway in the Isle of Ely, where there is a Fair kept, and much ordinary Lace sold there, which makes the Country Girls seem finer than they are, whence the word Taudry came." [Dove, 1697]


.

This is brilliant! Thank you!

Interesting that that St Audrey's Fair was on 17th October. That is the Feast of the Translation of St Etheldreda, i.e. the date in 695 when her sister and successor as Abbess, Seaxburh/Sexburga (former Queen of Kent), had her body disinterred from the common grave and reburied in the Abbey church in a stone sarcophagus that had been dug up in Grantaceaster. (Grantaceaster is actually NOT today's Grantchester, as commonly misunderstood, but the former Roman camp and town Duroliponte, on the north side of the River Cam, around Castle Street in what is now Cambridge, Anglo-Saxon "Grantabrycge"; the name of the nearby village Grantchester is given as Grantesete in the Domesday Book so was presumably Grantasæte, which would give something like "Grantset" today, but seems to have taken the -chester form by false analogy with Grantaceaster when Grantabrycge came to be known as Cambridge.) She, along with Seaxburh/Sexburga, Wihtburh/Withburga (another sister of Æðelþryð/Etheldreda) and Eormenhild/Ermenilda (her niece), was reburied a second time in 1106, also on 17th October, during the construction of the current edifice, four years before it was designated a Cathedral in its own right. And finally after Bishop Hugh of Northwold's major upgrade of the sanctuary her remains were translated for a third time, on 17th October again, in 1252, to what was then the far side of the High Altar, a spot which was specially illuminated by a subtly ingenious pattern of window arrangements. The shrine was demolished in 1541 and all the saints' relics were removed and dispersed without trace (or perhaps reburied in secret locations). There is now a tablet in the floor to show where the shrine once stood, and the High Altar itself was moved quite some way further east as part of two successive major reorderings of the layout in the latter eighteenth and mid nineteenth centuries.

[Quilisma]

In case anyone is interested, here are links to the livestreams of the other services celebrating St Etheldreda and the 1350th anniversary of the foundation of Ely's first monastery in 673:

Saturday 24th June, 12:00, St Etheldreda 1350 Celebratory Eucharist, featuring the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of Ely and Huntingdon, with the boy and girl choristers, lay clerks, expanded choir singers and sixth-form choral scholars of the Cathedral Choir plus members of the Ely Cathedral Octagon Singers and members of Prime Brass. (Stanford Communion Service in C and F, Bruckner Locus iste and Trepte The Gateway of Heaven, this time with m'learned colleague on the solo rather than yours truly...) https://www.youtube.com/live/_O2HAkzcxZ0?feature=share

Sunday 25th June, 10:30, St Etheldreda 1350 Festal Eucharist and Procession with Admissions to the Foundation, with the boy and girl choristers, lay clerks, expanded choir singers and sixth-form choral scholars of the Cathedral Choir. (Mozart Missa Brevis in F K192, Mozart Ave verum corpus.) https://www.youtube.com/live/BqLS63qySqQ?feature=share

Sunday 25th June, 16:00, St Etheldreda 1350 Festal Evensong and Procession with Installation of Canons, featuring the Bishop of Ely, with the boy and girl choristers, lay clerks, expanded choir choir singers and sixth-form choral scholars of the Cathedral Choir. (Parry I was glad, Rose Responses, Psalm 84, Sequence for St Etheldreda, Stanford in C, Vaughan Williams Te Deum in G.) https://www.youtube.com/live/i80GUykSnQw?feature=share until interrupted by a power cut or tripped fuse (!), recording then resumed about a minute later for retrospective upload here: https://youtu.be/uj6oFTR6H_s

Tuesday 27th June, 17:30, Festal Evensong with Presentations celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust, featuring the Bishop of Ely, with the boy choristers and lay clerks of the Cathedral Choir. (Smith Responses, Psalms 127 and 150, Murrill in E, Shephard And when the builders.) https://www.youtube.com/live/px9Y804T56o?feature=share

[mopsus]

As it's now 23rd June, may I wish you all a very Happy St Etheldreda's Day from all of us at Ely! In fact we always observe it on the nearest Sunday instead...

Your pattern of worship has changed over the years - a former Precentor of Ely was prevented from attending our wedding because St Etheldreda was being observed on that Saturday! I enjoyed the canticles but their length makes them quite an undertaking and maybe not to be programmed with a long anthem except for a special occasion. And I did miss the usual plainchant before the Magnficat.

[Quilisma]

Your pattern of worship has changed over the years - a former Precentor of Ely was prevented from attending our wedding because St Etheldreda was being observed on that Saturday! I enjoyed the canticles but their length makes them quite an undertaking and maybe not to be programmed with a long anthem except for a special occasion. And I did miss the usual plainchant before the Magnficat.

Interesting! St Etheldreda on 23rd June has to cede to more major observations, of which there are several at that time of the year, and at least for the past decade it has been done on the nearest Sunday, plus First Evensong on the Saturday. Translation of St Etheldreda (in October) is still typically done on the day itself (usually midweek) with an evening Eucharist, and Saints of Ely (i.e. Seaxburh/Sexburga, Wihtburh/Withburga and Eormenhild/Ermenilda, Etheldreda's relations) comes the day before, but again this varies a bit according to the year and what more major observations have to take precedence. I'm sorry that Precentor wasn't able to come to your wedding because of it!

You're right about the canticles being a bit long for regular use. This was a special new commission in honour of the 1350th anniversary, so something a little out of the ordinary was called for, but I hope that doesn't mean it gets consigned to the "inappropriate/unsuitable" pile to the extent that we don't bring it out again until there is barely anyone left who remembers it! I imagine we might try to schedule it about once a year on an appropriate special occasion, but it would also be a shame if it became too much of an automatic (and thereby increasingly uninteresting) selection for any particular date. It's also perhaps the case that the tempi might have been a little on the leisurely side (and the composer was erring on the side of recommending more rather than less "urgency"), but there are significant constraints inherent when singing with the maximally expanded choir (both sets of choristers, all the sixth-form choral scholars and the full contingent of six lay clerks plus extra adult singers, a total of approximately fifty bodies) in the Octagon as opposed to our more usual numbers (i.e. either the boys or the girls, plus the six lay clerks, with some contingent of sixth-form choral scholars if they are due in, and a few extra adult singers as necessary on Sundays or other big occasions).

The longer I have been around in liturgical music the less I envy those who have to plan music lists and balance all sorts of considerations: even if I had any of the credentials for being a DoM or ADoM, there are certain reasons why I wouldn't want to be in their shoes!

You're also right about the plainsong element. The Sequence for St Etheldreda (in what is the regular plainsong Office Hymn slot) was planned, and duly rehearsed, but cut just before the service itself because of timings. We also cut the third verse of the final hymn and probably truncated some of the prayers, and omitted some of the narrative which some people on here make such a point of complaining but which the BBC specifically request... You can hear the Sequence for St Etheldreda in one of the livestreamed services from that weekend; I forget which one, but I provided the links above and they are still online for now (although the Tuesday one, including a repeat of And When the Builders with just the boys and six lay clerks, has now been removed).

Talking of "extended" large-scale canticles, tomorrow we have the final Evensong of the year with chorister valedictions, and this year we are doing Howells St Paul's, which was a relentlessly exhausting choice for Easter Festal Evensong this year in the context of the music list for that day and week (and before then it hadn't come round for a few years), plus Blest Pair of Sirens (which seems to be becoming a standard fixture for the last service of the year now that the girls and boys have their final service together). Then on Friday morning the boys and lay clerks are off on tour to Lake Constance, so there's not much chance to recover... Still, we do it because we love it!

[DracoM]

Ian Skelley likes Jean Mouton - that'll do for me!! 😀