CE St John's College, Cambridge May 2nd 2012

[Magnificat]

The college's web servers are down. Presumably they are on-site and without power.

Was the service abandoned? Or did it go ahead in the gloom?

VC

There's a lot to be said for having a supply of candles in your house/chapel in such situations and I am surprised the BBC don't have their own generator with them in case of power cuts?

VCC

[orbis factor]

VC

There's a lot to be said for having a supply of candles in your house/chapel in such situations and I am surprised the BBC don't have their own generator with them in case of power cuts?

VCC

Suspect it's not as simple as that..

[Vile Consort]

Suspect it's not as simple as that..

Definitely isn't as simple as that - what about the organ blower, for example?

[DracoM]

Might be OK if a service entirely a cappella from start to finish had been scheduled, but ................outside Holy Week, how likely is that, I wonder?
I feel sorry for Radio 3 and their engineers - they had been at the college since Sunday apparently...........and for Revd Stephen Shipley [ i/c BBC Religious Broadcasts] two weeks of disasters.

He must be dreading Truro.

[Double Diapason]

From Gentlemen of St Johns facebook page (seems the service was able to continue):
"So a fire in the College kitchen caused a power cut halfway through our radio broadcast and the transmission broke off- we carried on, but if you were listening on the radio, you'll have to imagine the Bach!"

[DracoM]

I would presume too that as a result there is NO recording for the repeat on Sunday?
I DO hope they trawl the archive and repeat a John's CE from way back - maybe GG's final broadcast Evensong - "Lo! The full final sacrifice" /Finzi was the anthem as I recall.

[Double Diapason]

I would presume too that as a result there is NO recording for the repeat on Sunday?
I DO hope they trawl the archive and repeat a John's CE from way back - maybe GG's final broadcast Evensong - "Lo! The full final sacrifice" /Finzi was the anthem as I recall.

Now that would be worth hearing!!

[Keraulophone]

The performance of the larger-scale works of Bach by cathedral choirs is not so ground-breaking. At a cathedral not a million miles away from me (Hereford) they have been singing (in even-numbered years) both the Christmas Oratorio (all six cantatas) and the St John Passion, and (in odd-numbered years) the St Matthew Passion for quite a few years now.

Quite so; though I was making the observation that the performance of Bach cantatas (in particular), within the liturgy, has become less of a novelty over the past few decades, therefore the cantatas at SJC can hardly be regarded as groundbreaking.

On a point of fact, St Mary-at-Hill was not blown up by the IRA, but badly damaged in a fire in 1988.

St Mary-at-Hill was grievously damaged by a fire in 1988. Restoration work returned the church to its original appearance, but an IRA bomb ouside the Baltic Exchange in St Mary Axe on the morning of 10 April 1992 caused further damage. Thank you, MC, for clarifying this point.

[Keraulophone]

He must be dreading Truro.

Balderdash! SS always looks forward to Truro!

...though a gale once bent the satellite dish that he'd hoped would relay the Tx, as the 'line' from Cornwall to London was notoriously unreliable, scuppering the broadcast after just four minutes of Byrd's Ave Verum; conductor - Andrew Nethsingha. Repeats of CE were then at 1 am, a bit of a test for those determined to hear it.

[Gabriel Jackson]

(Note to Gabriel - Grayston Burgess and Peter Giles were in yesterday for SS Pip & Jim, with your Mass on the menu; I am sure they appreciated the Tye-like Sanctus & Byrd-like Agnus!)

Ah...Peter Giles! He stood behind me at Canterbury all those years ago

[jean]

St Mary-at-Hill was grievously damaged by a fire in 1988. Restoration work returned the church to its original appearance, but an IRA bomb ouside the Baltic Exchange in St Mary Axe on the morning of 10 April 1992 caused further damage. Thank you, MC, for clarifying this point.

There's an account of the sadly incomplete restoration in Nooks and Corners in the new Private Eye.

[DracoM]

Balderdash! SS always looks forward to Truro!

...though a gale once bent the satellite dish that he'd hoped would relay the Tx, as the 'line' from Cornwall to London was notoriously unreliable, scuppering the broadcast after just four minutes of Byrd's Ave Verum; conductor - Andrew Nethsingha. Repeats of CE were then at 1 am, a bit of a test for those determined to hear it.

Oh. FGS, it was a JOKE.

Sigh.

[Keraulophone]

Sigh.

Sigh no more, Draco, for my response was merely a friendly reposte, in like manner, to your obvious joke. Usual thing re tone of voice not travelling through cyberspace. That B-word plus two exclamation marks were supposed to be the clue: language beloved of Sir Lancelot Spratt and his ilk, but not in common usage today, I think.

Anyhow, I hope the Revd Shipley is indeed looking forward to his visit next week, as by now, nothing (else) could possibly go wrong .

[french frank]

Anyhow, I hope the Revd Shipley is indeed looking forward to his visit next week, as by now, nothing (else) could possibly go wrong .

The London bus analogy not in anyone's mind!

[Magnificat]

From Gentlemen of St Johns facebook page (seems the service was able to continue):
"So a fire in the College kitchen caused a power cut halfway through our radio broadcast and the transmission broke off- we carried on, but if you were listening on the radio, you'll have to imagine the Bach!"

DD, Orbis, Vile Consort,

So it seems that the problem was more with restoring the power to keep the transmission going. Wouldn't a generator have enabled this. Don't know anything about the technical side - just a thought really. Seems too obvious I agree.

VCC