CE St Matthew's Church, Northampton 21st Sept 2011

[DracoM]

CE St Matthew's Church, Northampton
Feast of St Matthew
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge


Order of Service:


Introit: Let all the world in every corner sing (Leighton)
Responses: Kenneth Leighton
Psalms: 119: 33-40, 89-96 (Jones, Crotch)
First Lesson: Ecclesiastes 5: 4-12
Canticles: Walton Chichester Service
Second Lesson: Matthew 19: 16-end
Anthem: Rejoice in the Lamb (Britten)
Hymn: Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old (St Matthew)


Organ Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue on a theme of Victoria (Britten)



Peter Harrison (Junior Organ Scholar)
Nicolas Haigh (Senior Organ Scholar)


Graham Ross ( Director of Music}



NB: Wed 3.30 p.m. Rpt Sunday, 25th 4 p.m.

I am assuming Graham Ross is i/c for this service since the BBC website does not indicate a Director.
Maybe the Senior Organist is conducting the service? Information please?

[gainasbass]

According to the Clare College website Graham Ross is the DoM (presumably replacing Tim Brown from the beginning of this term?). It is therefore assumed that GR will be conducting the service.

I understand that GR graduated form Clare in 2006 and has since been studying inter alia conducting at the Academy.

It should be an interesting service.

[mercia]

what a marvellous man Walter Hussey must have been

[gainasbass]

Agreed, mercia. Without Walter Hussey we wouldn't have the Britten (rejoice in the Lamb), not to mention the Chichester Psalms.

[ardcarp]

WH. A bit about him here:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Jan10/hussey.htm

[gainasbass]

Thanks for the WH link, ardcarp. Very interesting, and the best write-up I've seen on him.

[mercia]

Rejoice in the Lamb for £25 - a bargain!
I'm guessing the Walton canticles were commissioned by Hussey when he was at Chichester

[ardcarp]

..and for the organ buffs:

http://www.jwaller.co.uk/stmatthews/organ.asp

[Wolsey]

According to the Clare College website Graham Ross is the DoM (presumably replacing Tim Brown from the beginning of this term?).

Graham Ross succeeded Tim Brown on the latter's retirement in September 2010.

[gainasbass]

Thanks Wolsey. I had no idea that GR had been in charge for the last year. The link with St Matthews should be memorable!

[DracoM]

Just a reminder - 3.30 p.m. Wednesday, 21st.

[ardcarp]

Some good, well-directed singing from St Walt...sorry, I mean St Matthews's today. I expect there are a few of us who could have wished for a slightly 'cleaner' top line, but the female Cambridge sound seems to be going that way. At times, in fact, they did manage a purer sound in some quieter bits. The T & B made a lovely sound ...particularly good in the Britten...and there had obviously been some attention to blend. I love the Walton canticles. Pity they're so short.

I DON'T LIKE HALF PAST THREE !!!!

[DracoM]

What struck me in passing was what a production they made out of the responses, almost as if they were a sort of unexploded bomb. Most cathedral choirs just sing them without anxious shaping and breathing and moulding them like this. Still.

Walton not really my cup of tea, I fear.

Britten: weird. I so much associate it with boys on top line, particularly the Cat Jeffrey solo, that having weighty sops doing it with almost operatic vibrato was a bit of a shock. I am totally with ardcarp about the men - Ts and Bs particularly good. Slightly crazy alto solo, but the lines can stand it. They are extraordinary! I always wonder why on earth Britten set so many of them. I imagine because he thought that a boys choir would fall over laughing as they tried to be serious about them?

Actually, very nearly the star of the service was the terrific organ playing in the Britten - really crisp, witty and illuminating. Good organ to do it on, of course!

With ardcarp too on the new timing. HORRIBLE. Particularly if you want to catch the service genuinely live. Possibly the right time for many choirs the length and breadth of the UK - Oxbridge more likely to do 5.30 p.m. - but in the middle of a working afternoon...............grrrrr!

Anyway, next week a Winchester recording.

BTW, did anyone notice the fantastic difference between the volume level from the studio introducing and the live volume from Northampton? Had to seriously crank up the level at home to get even a whisper!

[ardcarp]

Britten: weird. I so much associate it with boys on top line, particularly the Cat Jeffrey solo, that having weighty sops doing it with almost operatic vibrato was a bit of a shock. I am totally with ardcarp about the men - Ts and Bs particularly good. Slightly crazy alto solo, but the lines can stand it. They are extraordinary! I always wonder why on earth Britten set so many of them. I imagine because he thought that a boys choir would fall over laughing as they tried to be serious about them?

It sets one wondering what an 'anthem' really is. How 'liturgical' do the words need to be? I think the Anglican church allows almost any text that can loosely be called 'religious' to qualify for anthem status. Didn't Derek Bourgeois set "The Plum and Wasp is Boiling in the Kitchen" or some such thing?

[Miles Coverdale]

It sets one wondering what an 'anthem' really is. How 'liturgical' do the words need to be? I think the Anglican church allows almost any text that can loosely be called 'religious' to qualify for anthem status. Didn't Derek Bourgeois set "The Plum and Wasp is Boiling in the Kitchen" or some such thing?

He did indeed, we used to do it at Guildford. Dreadful nonsense, really. I think a number of places no longer do Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia because of the 'risqué' nature of the words.