Chance to hear a rare piece

[Guest]

Later today (Sunday 1st April) from 6.30 onwards the BBC Singers are performing several shorter works prior to Stainer's Crucifixion. One of these works is Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley's "Is it nothing to you?" - a piece unlikely to be regularly broadcast.

I only mention it because as trebles we were, perhaps unexpectedly, rather struck by this piece. Indeed, it was up there for us with the usual suspects as being a favourite - yet far from being a loud, dramatic, show-off work it is a simple, unaffected composition, that sort of dies away.

That we'll hear it with wobbly sopranos is a pity, as it needs a boys' choir. But better the BBCS than not at all. I do recommend it for anyone who doesn't know the piece: two minutes of your time spent just after the start of the programme will, I hope, be repaid by the enjoyment you will obtain from a moving and very lovely motet.

bws Simon

[Petrushka]

Later today (Sunday 1st April) from 6.30 onwards the BBC Singers are performing several shorter works prior to Stainer's Crucifixion. One of these works is Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley's "Is it nothing to you?" - a piece unlikely to be regularly broadcast.

I only mention it because as trebles we were, perhaps unexpectedly, rather struck by this piece. Indeed, it was up there for us with the usual suspects as being a favourite - yet far from being a loud, dramatic, show-off work it is a simple, unaffected composition, that sort of dies away.

That we'll hear it with wobbly sopranos is a pity, as it needs a boys' choir. But better the BBCS than not at all. I do recommend it for anyone who doesn't know the piece: two minutes of your time spent just after the start of the programme will, I hope, be repaid by the enjoyment you will obtain from a moving and very lovely motet.

bws Simon

The Ouseley Is it nothing to you? was one of my favourites, too, in my Parish Church choir days as a treble now nearly 50 years ago and I have long searched for a recording in vain. Ditto John Goss's O Saviour of the World which was a particular favourite of mine and also to be heard in this broadcast.

Agree that both of these need the purity of tone that a boys choir gives but I have my recorder at the ready even so

[DracoM]

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?4901-St-Paul-s-Church-Knightsbridge-April-1st-6-30-p-m

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Rare, indeed: not even a performance on YouTube ('tho' there are a couple of Ouseley's other anthems there). Should anyone involved in a choir wish to perform it, the Music of Is it Nothing to You? is freely available from a number of sources including:

http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/images/c/c5/Is_it_nothing_to_you.pdf

[annaliese]

Wish I'd heard it all. I worked out it would start around 7.30 as RT said it would end at 8.30 so only heard a bit. So back to the good old LP.

[Petrushka]

Wish I'd heard it all. I worked out it would start around 7.30 as RT said it would end at 8.30 so only heard a bit. So back to the good old LP.

Hi Annaliese and welcome to the forum.

The R3 schedule does say start time of 6.30 but of course you can listen to the full broadcast on the i-player.

[Simon]

Hmm. I said "better the BBCS than not at all" and I suppose that's still true. But if you missed it you didn't miss much, I'm sorry to say. Operatic sopranos and some overblown tones is what we got. I do have a little bit of influence with an independent recording label and I shall suggest that it goes on a list of "things to consider doing with a proper cathedral choir in 2013".

(Welcome too from us, Annaliese.)

[annaliese]

Thanks Simon. I wasn't too taken with the bit I heard (I'm not keen on the BBCS sound) so will return to the George Guest/St John's College choir/Owen Brannigan recording from 1962!

[DracoM]

Hmm. I said "better the BBCS than not at all" and I suppose that's still true. But if you missed it you didn't miss much, I'm sorry to say. Operatic sopranos and some overblown tones is what we got. I do have a little bit of influence with an independent recording label and I shall suggest that it goes on a list of "things to consider doing with a proper cathedral choir in 2013".

(Welcome too from us, Annaliese.)

- sadly.

I'm sorry, like Simon, I just cannot stand the sound of that group. I daresay they are brilliant musicians, they clearly have their fans, they provide a forum for modern composers etc etc, but that top line...........! No. It is a group pf singers, and not a choir.

[Simon]

Actually, Draco, thinking about it, I don't recall any independent musician I know ever saying that they did really like the sound of the BBC Singers, despite what I'm sure is their individual excellence.

But they are a necessary item within the BBC's resources, of course - it would be almost impossible and certainly expensive to gather ad hoc forces or to use existing choral ensembles ideal for every bit of repertoire that the Beeb wanted to broadcast.

[decantor]

Later today (Sunday 1st April) from 6.30 onwards the BBC Singers are performing several shorter works prior to Stainer's Crucifixion. One of these works is Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley's "Is it nothing to you?" - a piece unlikely to be regularly broadcast.

I only mention it because as trebles we were, perhaps unexpectedly, rather struck by this piece. Indeed, it was up there for us with the usual suspects as being a favourite - yet far from being a loud, dramatic, show-off work it is a simple, unaffected composition, that sort of dies away.

That we'll hear it with wobbly sopranos is a pity, as it needs a boys' choir. But better the BBCS than not at all. I do recommend it for anyone who doesn't know the piece: two minutes of your time spent just after the start of the programme will, I hope, be repaid by the enjoyment you will obtain from a moving and very lovely motet.

When I was directing a school chapel choir, we did a Passion only in alternate years. In between, we offered an RSCM Passiontide compilation of music and readings: these included both Is it nothing to you? and O Saviour of the World. Simon might like to know that the former always appealed to the boys (and therefore to me, since it is important to cash in on what the trebs enjoy). It was good to hear both items again. But I have to fall in with the consensus - any cathedral choir, whether boys or girls on top, would have made the works speak more eloquently than BBCS managed. Children can never be sentimental, but adults are ever aware of the possibility. It makes a difference.

I tried to listen to the Stainer. It brought no joy, and I switched off. But I'm only seventy, and may yet grow into it as others have done.

[MrGongGong]

Actually, Draco, thinking about it, I don't recall any independent musician I know ever saying that they did really like the sound of the BBC Singers, despite what I'm sure is their individual excellence.

But they are a necessary item within the BBC's resources, of course - it would be almost impossible and certainly expensive to gather ad hoc forces or to use existing choral ensembles ideal for every bit of repertoire that the Beeb wanted to broadcast.

Have you asked their Associate Composer ?
or is this simply another instance of opinion posing as fact ?
the other answer is that you simply don't know any musicians

[Simon]

Have you asked their Associate Composer ?
or is this simply another instance of opinion posing as fact ?
the other answer is that you simply don't know any musicians

No, I haven't asked their associate composer. That's because, apart from not having his contact details, I wouldn't regard him as independent, which was the point I made in my post. <doh>

[Gabriel Jackson]

No, I haven't asked their associate composer. That's because, apart from not having his contact details, I wouldn't regard him as independent, which was the point I made in my post. <doh>

What this translates as is because I disagree with these negative views of the BBC Singers I cannot be "independent". Which is absurd, and insulting. (ncidentally, I know plenty of musicians who like the sounds - plural, that is important - that the group makes. But I guess they can't possibly be "independent" either...)

[Simon]

What this translates as is because I disagree with these negative views of the BBC Singers I cannot be "independent".

It translates as nothing of the sort, which you may realise if you apply logic to a re-reading of it.

(ncidentally, I know plenty of musicians who like the sounds - plural, that is important - that the group makes. But I guess they can't possibly be "independent" either...)

Of course they can. And whether you know such musicians or not, and/or whether they are "independent" or not, has no relevance to the point I made.