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

[Vile Consort]

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

Yes, but how often have broadcasts been interrupted by a power cut that affected only the BBC's supply, leaving the cathedral/chapel unaffected? There would be no point in keeping the broadcast going if the service had to be abandoned or completed without music.

The BBC can hardly be expected to fork out for an expensive generator every week on the off-chance of a very unlikely event happening.

[Double Diapason]

Yes, but how often have broadcasts been interrupted by a power cut that affected only the BBC's supply, leaving the cathedral/chapel unaffected? There would be no point in keeping the broadcast going if the service had to be abandoned or completed without music.

The BBC can hardly be expected to fork out for an expensive generator every week on the off-chance of a very unlikely event happening.

I'm no electrician BUT any building has different circuits for different things and different areas. A fire in a small area will only affect the circuit(s) to that area. The service seems to have been unaffected. Its very unfortunate and I agree that the BBC cant really be expected to supply a generator for an hour long outside radio broadcast. If they did this and covered every other contingency that might be required our license fee would be at least double what it is!
If the Albert Hall had a power cut during Last Night of the Proms the BBC can hardly be expected to have organised and paid for a contingency for this. I don't think this is any different.

[DracoM]

Right, so that's 62 postings and it wasn't even a complete CE, nay a good deal of the main course was still to come. Phew!

[switchedon]

Right, so that's 62 postings and it wasn't even a complete CE, nay a good deal of the main course was still to come. Phew!

Yes quite, and not one of them has mentioned the singing that actually took place!

[mopsus]

In 2005 a Prom was affected by feedback noise coming through the speakers in the hall. They couldn't be turned off because emergency announcements couldn't then be broadcast. It took about an hour to sort out, while the live audience sat in the Albert Hall and the radio audience heard some recordings. Then the billed concert programme went ahead and the programme which should have followed the Prom was dropped. Info from some of my family, who were there!

[DracoM]

Yes quite, and not one of them has mentioned the singing that actually took place!

Yes, I noticed that with some puzzlement. But maybe they want to hear the completed deal.
What I do not know is, given that it was a power cut that affected the BBC's kit, if a complete recording was possible for the repeat on Sunday. I suspect not. So as I said upthread, given also that the BBC must have a massive archive in which John's must feature heavily, I do hope they choose something worthy of that college choir.

[LF]

The service continued by daylight. The orchestra accompanying the Bach didn't need electricity. The hymn was sung without the organ. So this CE could have continued if the BBC had had power. But if the BBC made provision every week for this sort of situation would we not be making suggestions about where the money could be better spent?

[sjcchoir]

Just an official word of clarification from our end: the cut was cause by fire in a power substation which feeds into most of the College including all of our own microphones and the BBC's power on the day, so nothing was recorded after the cut. Sunday's CE is yet to be confirmed but will hopefully be an SJC archive service.

[DracoM]

Just an official word of clarification from our end: the cut was cause by fire in a power substation which feeds into most of the College including all of our own microphones and the BBC's power on the day, so nothing was recorded after the cut. Sunday's CE is yet to be confirmed but will hopefully be an SJC archive service.

My understanding is that a John's archive recording from 2010 is the likeliest substitute for the repeat on Sunday.

[Radegund]

I am reminded by the sad loss of the service from St John’s last week of a Radio 3 broadcast on 2 May 1984, 28 years ago to the day, just down the road at Jesus College, when there was a power cut about 30 seconds into the broadcast. As the introit (Bairstow’s Let all mortal flesh) was unaccompanied and the chapel was candlelit, nobody realised to start with, except the organ scholar, that the power had gone. During the responses it dawned on the director of music what had happened, but he assumed that the broadcast would have been lost as a result. What he didn’t know was that there was an emergency generator which was keeping the transmission going. So when the psalms, for the second evening, were announced, he hummed the opening chord of Psalm 12, fondly imagining that the only people listening were a couple of dozen people in the chapel and the Almighty. He didn’t realise that there were a few more listening on Radio 3 as well. So he was quite relaxed as well when it came to humming the first chord of Psalm 13 and then Psalm 14. The choir got through those unscathed, although one person present learnt the valuable lesson that you should always rehearse psalms unaccompanied, especially changing from one chant to another, rather than experimenting with the idea for the first time live on Radio 3.

Then came the first lesson. If you listen to a tape you can hear a furious banging sound. This is the producer, whose first live broadcast it was, banging on the chapel door, which had been locked against interruption by the over-zealous chapel clerk. Eventually the producer gained admittance, and the director of music, the producer and the organ scholar had a hurried conference about what to do next. By now they had realised that the broadcast was still going out live. The next item was the office hymn, ‘Ye choirs of new Jerusalem’. It was decided to accompany this on the piano in the south transept of the chapel. The canticles which followed the hymn were appropriately enough, William Mathias’ Jesus College Service, and it was agreed that if the power still wasn’t back by then, the service would have to be abandoned, as it wasn’t feasible to accompany the Mathias on the piano, round a corner with a large screen in the way.

The lesson ended, and the organ scholar struck up the hymn on the piano. Half way through verse 4 the power came back on, so the organ scholar’s girlfriend made an unscheduled debut on Radio 3 and completed the hymn on the piano while he ran up the stairs to the organ loft. Again, if you listen to the tape, you can hear the rapid footsteps. Then if you listen really carefully, you can hear a word not often heard on Radio 3, not before the watershed anyway, when he realised that the blower needed to be turned on again. The switch was at the bottom of the organ loft stairs. He got onto the organ bench just in time to play the introduction to the Mathias, and the rest of the service proceeded without incident.

[ardcarp]

Radegund. Wonderful! And brilliantly told, if I may say so.

[DracoM]

< He got onto the organ bench just in time to play the introduction to the Mathias, and the rest of the service proceeded without incident >

Apart from the sound of ambulance sirens ready to assist the succession of heart attacks among the clergy, organist, gf and DoM and BBC producer?
Shiveringly close to real life for anyone who has sung in chapel etc choirs in recordings / broadcasts.

[Extended Play]

My understanding is that a John's archive recording from 2010 is the likeliest substitute for the repeat on Sunday.

That is confirmed by tomorrow's R3 web page, which gives an order of service from April 2010. And as a result, for the second week in a row, we will hear Timothy Ravalde.

[DracoM]

Chapel of St. John's College, Cambridge
April 2010
[ to replace the live CE of May 2nd which a power cut prevented from being transmitted / recorded ]


Order of Service:



Introit: My beloved spake (Hadley)
Responses: Shephard
Psalms: 136, 137, 138 (Lloyd, Ley)
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 10: 12-22
Canticles (Jonathan Harvey)
Second Lesson: Ephesians 5: 1-14
Anthem: My soul, there is a country (Parry)
Hymn: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (St Fulbert)



Organ Voluntary: Rhapsody No. 3 in C sharp minor (Howells)



Senior Organ Student: Timothy Ravalde
Director of Music: Andrew Nethsingha

[Gabriel Jackson]

Chapel of St. John's College, Cambridge
April 2010
[ to replace the live CE of May 2nd which a power cut prevented from being transmitted / recorded ]


Order of Service:



Introit: My beloved spake (Hadley)
Responses: Shephard
Psalms: 136, 137, 138 (Lloyd, Ley)
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 10: 12-22
Canticles (Jonathan Harvey)
Second Lesson: Ephesians 5: 1-14
Anthem: My soul, there is a country (Parry)
Hymn: Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (St Fulbert)



Organ Voluntary: Rhapsody No. 3 in C sharp minor (Howells)



Senior Organ Student: Timothy Ravalde
Director of Music: Andrew Nethsingha

The Jonathan Harvey is a very interesting piece which no-one else does (these days)