CE Truro Cathedral 9th May 2012

[DracoM]

CE Truro Cathedral


Order of Service:


Responses: Clucas
Office Hymn: Jesus shall reign (Truro)
Psalms: 47, 48, 49 (Barnby, Goss, Camidge)
First Lesson: Hosea 13: 4-14
The Truro Evening Canticles (Philip Stopford)
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15: 50-end
Anthems: Church Music (Julian Philips) (first broadcast - Choirbook for the Queen)
Ave Maris Stella (James MacMillan)
Final Hymn: The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended (St Clement)


Organ Voluntary: Magna voce cane et magno cum jubilo (David Bednall)



Luke Bond (Assistant Director of Music)
Christopher Gray (Director of Music)

[Y Mab Afradlon]

Let's hope that the BBC production team has enough 10p's for the meter this week.

[ardcarp]

Hooray. Even the announcer (after the service) said 'thank goodness' or words to that effect. I wonder if Luke Bond thought he might suffer the cut? He crashed in pretty much on the Amen of the closing prayer! A very enjoyable CE. Psalms measured, diction great. Father Willis doing its stuff in a traditional 'word-painting' accompaniment. Maybe a tad OTT..or better put UTB (Under the Bottom)..as there was a slight surfeit of greowly 16' clog IMO. A verse or two without pedal would have been a relief. But I'm being picky. Being picky, and ducking under slings and arrows, I would personally not have the altos singing in the unison bits of the 1st and 3rd sections of the first chant.

Moving swiftly on to the rest of the service, I felt the canticles....great performance....used the trebles like the solo line-up in a concerto grosso. In fact not only the Stopford, but the MacMillan and the Philips put the trebles very much on their mettle and they acqitted themselves very well indeed, I thought.

Truro, at the SW tip of the UK, never fails to please.

[decantor]

Hooray...... Truro, at the SW tip of the UK, never fails to please.

Quite so. Chorally, our Western Approaches are in very safe hands.

I could not be 'picky' over this service. It was delivered with such assurance, commitment, and musicality - and dignity in its spoken parts - that it deserves only gratitude. Truro must be thrilled with their commissions from Stopford and Macmillan - fine settings all, with equal opportunity for flamboyance and nuance. The Phillips struck me as being a tad episodic (I must listen again) but it sat well in this context, and it gripped my attention. But so did the Lord's Prayer chanted on a single note: a fine cathedral choir can have that effect.

Well, maybe I'll be a tiny bit 'picky'. Does St Clement really need a descant? I enjoyed hearing those magnificent trebles in full cry, but couldn't help wondering if they were whitewashing a lily. Whatever..... my thanks to all at Truro.

[DracoM]

Very fine.

Clean, fresh sound, excellent choice of repertory: loved the Stopford, share other's thoughts on the Phillips anthem, but I couldn't help thinking that it was just a bit naughty to juxta-pose it against the MacMillan!

[Magnificat]

Three slight criticisms:

I would have preferred an introit to two anthems. An introit sets the scene for a choral evensong service in my view - as long as it is not too long when it can become an anthem.

Should have sung the lovely Clucas setting of the Lord's Prayer rather than have it to plainsong.

Just couldn't hear the words of the Philips anthem.

Apart form this excellent.

VCC

[Keraulophone]

Just couldn't hear the words of the Philips anthem.

Apologies M'cat, I'd meant to post them, knowing they might be hard to follow; so to assist LA-ers and those craning their ears on Sunday, here is George Herbert's poem:


Church-musick

Sweetest of sweets, I thank you: when displeasure
Did through my bodie wound my minde,
You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure
A daintie lodging me assign’d.

Now I in you without a bodie move,
Rising and falling with your wings:
We both together sweetly live and love,
Yet say sometimes,God help poore Kings.

Comfort, I’le die; for if you poste from me,
Sure I shall do so,and much more:
But if I travell in your companie,
You know the way to heavens doore.


from The Temple (1633)

[ardcarp]

Incredible. If one did not know the title 'Church-musicke', what would one have supposed the poem to be about? Sensual. erotic...no wonder the Puritans preferred little or no music in their worship. For me, agnostic, if there is a 'way to heavens doore' church music is it. An earlier thread discussed what defines an anthem in the Anglican Church. VW's Mystical Songs were not written as an anthem, but movements are frequently performed as such. I wonder when such metaphor-rich texts became allowable?

[DracoM]

I think proponents might argue that mystical or quasi-mystical texts have always used soi-disant erotic language from the Song of Solomon onwards, and that there has always been a shiver of apprehension about their appropriateness or otherwise. I suppose that if the music is as fine as many settings are, that tends to justify the inclusion, and in a curious way maybe knowing the words is of secondary importance?

Thinking back to choir days, my thought was what were the reactions of the Truro men and boys when they read these words for the first time!! Ahem. But presumably twas ever thus.

[Miles Coverdale]

I think proponents might argue that mystical or quasi-mystical texts have always used soi-disant erotic language from the Song of Solomon onwards

Well, if ancient Persian wedding poetry (which is what the Song of Solomon is) is subsumed into the Bible, then you just have to deal with the sensual nature of it, I suppose. Or not set it to music it all.

[DracoM]

Indeed.

And this is the season in which the church remembers Dame Julian of Norwich too.

[Gabriel Jackson]

Howells set the same poem in 1977 of course, first performed by the Bach Choir.

[Lizzie]

Thank you Truro! What an excellent Evensong CG and all the troops. Wish I could have been there to hear, as you were for ours at Winchester in January.

Loved the Stopford, especially the Nunc. It seemed to float in the air.... Not quite so sure about the Philips, although the organ sounded quite mystical yet dramatic and, the top line in particular was a delight. The MacMillan was stunning, as his music always is for me. That and the Stopford sat so well together for me - what wonderful commissions.

Mr Bond was well and truly on form!

Thank you all very much indeed for an extremely enjoyable LA in the library. All the best. Liz

[DracoM]

Reminder of repeat - today at 4 p.m.

[BBMmk2]

Ah Truro Cathedral. A lovely cathedral, imo. Great choir and organ there as well. I have a cd of theirs entitled 'A Vierne Collection'. Very good recording quality to and the music of Vierne, alwaysa joiy to hear.

Btw, any of you real ale fans out there, Skinners Brewery is just down the road from the cathedral! Well worth a visit!