CE Hereford Cathedral 22nd Feb 2012

[Magnificat]

A very, very pleasing CE indeed. The treble line is just wonderful. Oh that more choirs that could produce homogeneity and phrasing like that. They even brought musicality and phrasing to the simple Tallis canticles which were, for me, the most perfect part of the service. In fact they took the Allegri quite fast, but it worked well. (Guest's very last one was incredibly slow... sustained singing almost beyond belief with appropriately long spaces between the verses). In the final Byrd, maybe the inner parts were a little over-prominent at times. But, hey, I'm nit-picking here! It was singing of a high order from a cathedral well away from the centre of the musical universe. Congrats to all.

I agree with you about the Canticles ardcarp I thought they were the best sung part of the service.

The Precentor had a lovely speaking voice but I wasn't too keen on his intoning. In fact, it spoilt the service a bit for me. From a purely musical point of view, it would be better if one of the lay clerks had sung the versicles in my opinion although obviously it would not have been an accurate reflection of Evensong at Hereford on a daily basis.

I know it is a solemn season but I did have chuckle when the lady who read the first lesson said SoDOM making it just a little too clear that she was determined not to say Sod'em.


VCC

[Wolsey]

The Precentor had a lovely speaking voice but I wasn't too keen on his intoning.

The speaking voice heard was that of the Dean. I stand to be corrected, but the voice of the person intoning did not sound like his; Deans do not usually intone.

[Miles Coverdale]

Interestingly the introit, Byrd's Memento, homo very probably began life as an instrumental work, and had its words added later. This helps to explain the incongruity of a rather sombre text set in a major mode. The piece also exists in an English contrafactum, O Lord, give ear to the prayers of thy servants, which is equally sombre in tone.

[Bullock in D]

Errrrr... a contrafactactum? Whassat?

[Miles Coverdale]

Essentially, a contrafactum is a re-working of a piece of vocal music with a different text with leaves the substance of the music itself unchanged. It usually, but by no means always, involves substituting a vernacular text for a Latin original.

[Wolsey]

... like Tallis's Salvator Mundi/With all our hearts.

[Miles Coverdale]

Indeed. Contrafacta were particularly popular around the time of the Reformation, as they provided a ready source of works in English, as demanded by the new vernacular liturgy, without the need of actually composing new pieces.

[ardcarp]

There is one really annoying example of what I suppose you could call a contrafactum dating from the early 20th century. Weelkes 'O Mortal Man' (which I love) and which of course, being a post-Reformation piece, is in English, had its text 'modernised' by someone called Canon Eperson [? this is from memory] for a performance in the 3 Choirs Festival before WW1. It is this form which usually gets performed these days, but the original text is not only the one which ought to be used, but is IMO, greatly to be preferred.

[DracoM]

Just a reminder of the repeat today @ 4 p.m. And it really is worth hearing.

[Chris Newman]

I was catching up with Mark Elder's Berlioz Romeo et Juliette and left the iPlayer on. Blissful trebles. Good to hear the Allegri done without general emotional sloppiness. It cut out part way through so I sought out the whole programme. Glad I did.

[Magnificat]

Essentially, a contrafactum is a re-working of a piece of vocal music with a different text with leaves the substance of the music itself unchanged. It usually, but by no means always, involves substituting a vernacular text for a Latin original.

MC

Would a contrafactum be the right term to use then when hymn words are substituted for better known vernacular texts eg ' While Shepherds Watched ' for 'On Ilkley Moor' or ' I cannot Tell' for 'Danny Boy' ( Londonderry Air ). It seems so.

VCC.

[David Underdown]

Umm, the tune, and its use for "While shepherds" predates "Ilkley Moor"...

[Finzi4ever]

The speaking voice heard was that of the Dean. I stand to be corrected, but the voice of the person intoning did not sound like his; Deans do not usually intone.

In this case, Michael Tavinor the Dean does normally like to c(h)ant; he certainly did at Tewkesbury and he was formerly Precentor at Ely. His final consonants are particularly clear, but not as over-accentuated as his Tewkesbury predecessor, Michael Moxon (late of St George's, W) whose articulated air brakes on " Open Thou are li.....PPSSSS" were legendary.

[Wolsey]

In this case, Michael Tavinor the Dean does normally like to c(h)ant; he certainly did at Tewkesbury and he was formerly Precentor at Ely. His final consonants are particularly clear, but not as over-accentuated as his Tewkesbury predecessor, Michael Moxon (late of St George's, W) whose articulated air brakes on " Open Thou are li.....PPSSSS" were legendary.

I do not doubt that Michael Tavinor (whom I first met when he was at Ely) likes to chant, and have heard him do so. The question remains, however: are there foundations where the dean will sing the Office when there are other canons/minor canons present on whom the duty may fall?

[Keraulophone]

Michael Moxon (late of St George's, W [and Dean Emeritus of Truro]) whose articulated air brakes on " Open Thou are li.....PPSSSS" were legendary.

The Mellifluous Michael Moxon was thus dubbed by Dr Roy Massey (late of Hereford) in an appreciative post-R3 CE letter, further acknowledging him as the finest cantoring priest then in the C of E. His extension of the first syllable of the word C[SSSSS]entury, would challenge sermon-weary Lay Vicars to add up the total number of Centuries declaimed per service. There would usually be a couple in the preamble to the anthem, plus another three or four during the sermon. His intense, effortful but sincere singing has been much missed since he 'ran off' with, and later married, a youngish female verger.