CE St David's Cathedral 6th June 2012

[DracoM]

CE St David's Cathedral
The 2012 Cathedral Festival



Order of Service:



Introit: Corpus Christi Carol (Judith Bingham) (Choirbook for the Queen)
Responses: Clucas
Psalms: 110, 111 (Stanford, Lloyd)
First Lesson: Exodus 16: 2-15
Canticles: Jesus College Service (William Mathias)
Second Lesson: John 6: 22-35
Anthem: In the year that King Uzziah died (Matthew Martin) (first performance)/ Festival Commission
Final Hymn: Alleluia, sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Festival Te Deum (William Mathias)


Organ Voluntary: Paean (Kenneth Leighton)


Simon Pearce (Assistant Organist)
Daniel Cook (Organist and Master of the Choristers)

[DracoM]

Reminder: Wednesday @ 3.30 p.m.

Shouldering its way out of the bunting.................

I see the weather forecast for Pembrokeshire is looking pretty iffy for tomorrow, so.....................?

[Magnificat]

Reminder: Wednesday @ 3.30 p.m.

Shouldering its way out of the bunting.................

I see the weather forecast for Pembrokeshire is looking pretty iffy for tomorrow, so.....................?

and let's hope we get the full Te Deum unlike yesterday at St Paul's. I've never heard three quarters of a Te Deum sung as an introit before. What a shame not to hear all of Vaughan Williams's wonderful setting.

VCC

[DracoM]

BUT we did get almost all of the mind-dulling Will Todd thing. GCSE level music for a Jubilee? Hmm.
Yes, delighted that choir of children got on camera and they sang well, but, golly, gosh, if they can sing that well, why give them that piece to sing?

[Chris Watson]

I've not got a copy in front of me so I might be making this up, but didn't the RVW Te Deum originally end at that point? And Draco, I'm sorry you didn't like Will's piece but he is an intelligent and thoughtful composer and I think he got it just right for the occasion and text. You can listen to it again on Tenebrae's forthcoming disc of his music
I thought the singing in the service was excellent all round (I love the Central Orb!) and the sound on my car radio as I zoomed between gigs was a cut above the usual evensong broadcast quality.

[DracoM]

I made no claim as to the excellence of Will Todd's other writings, just the one that was centre stage in St Paul's. Those kids were good, and something a bit more inventive might have shown them, their musicianship and Will Todd's musicianship off to better effect. Thassorl.

[weston752]

and let's hope we get the full Te Deum unlike yesterday at St Paul's. I've never heard three quarters of a Te Deum sung as an introit before.

VCC

We certainly don't do it as an introit, but we do regularly sing no more than St Paul's did yesterday - where they ended is certainly a 'recognised stopping place'.

[DracoM]

I agree. We sang this last Friday and stopped as above.

[Magnificat]

I agree. We sang this last Friday and stopped as above.

I have certainly never heard it stop at 'in glory everlasting' before.

Why would this be as it is not then really a setting of the Te Deum and the remaining part seems just as relevant to to Her Majesty and indeed to all of us who are believers as the part that was sung. How very strange. Any one know the reasoning?

VCC

[subcontrabass]

I have certainly never heard it stop at 'in glory everlasting' before.

Why would this be as it is not then really a setting of the Te Deum and the remaining part seems just as relevant to to Her Majesty and indeed to all of us who are believers as the part that was sung. How very strange. Any one know the reasoning?

VCC

Scholars regard that as the end of the original version. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Deum

[DracoM]

Back to biz:

Judith Bingham carol was a treasure, delicate, eminently singable and lightly, airily delivered. For me, the best thing in the service.

Didn't sound a big choir and in a pretty ungenerous acoustic, so hardish work all round for everyone, but some alert singing throughout. The Mathias canticles are not a favourite pf mine, but they were forcefully sung and convincing.

Simon Pearce will certainly have earned his crust in this service, and nowhere more so than in the Matthew Martin anthem. Drama, subtlety, an ear for balance all needed to support some declamatory stuff alternating with quiet material. I just wish I had had the words in front of me: there was evident word painting going on, setting of moods etc, but it was almost impossible to catch what was actually being enunciated - not a criticism of the choir's diction - such can be the nature of first encounters with the unfamiliar. I should imagine it was a bit of a fiend to conduct, but Mr Cook made light of any such. I liked its overall impact, the use it made of all manner of vocal and organ colours. It ought to be sung elsewhere, I thought it deserves more outings.

And the Leighton was as usual exciting and engaging.

Thanks all round. And so good to hear lilting Welsh voices both in English and the native tongue. Do hope that doesn't sound patronising - not meant to - but we seem to hear genuine Welsh or Scots so rarely on CE.

[decantor]

I endorse all Draco says in #11 - and especially with regard to Judith Bingham's gem of an introit: as a Choirbook entry, it will hopefully join the Corpus Christi canon forthwith.

I am luckier than Draco in that Mathias speaks to me very directly. I am perhaps influenced by the fact that my own choristers always relished his work for its rhythmical interest, its quirky modal scales, and its entirely logical dissonances. As for the new work by Matthew Martin, I blame myself for not researching his text in advance: the music was engaging, but could so easily have been more so.

There was a lot of music in the service, and I found myself cheering the choir in that they made it all appealing and uplifting - exactly as they should. It sounded to be a chamber outfit, but that may just be a tribute to their ensemble; there was much drive and commitment, a communicated energy; and the top line, propelled by fine leadership, maintained dead-centre tuning even at gymnastic moments. I was impressed - and grateful. It may or may not be a crack choir, but it certainly knows how to deliver Evensong.

[terratogen]

What do you know. I enjoyed Judith Bingham's Corpus Christi Carol much more than I remember enjoying it when we heard it on a CE from Manchester earlier this year. Couldn't quite put my finger on why that should be; I don't think it was necessarily a preference for one choral sound over the other, so I'm going to have to put it down to an acquired taste for a new piece for now.

Considering my track record with some of the new music—primarily Choirbook for the Queen commissions—on show this year, I was prepared to be ambivalent about the Matthew Martin anthem; but I loved it from the very first notes. I love a good sturm und drangy anthem (and why not, when it's 'Woe is me!' and 'the temple filled with smoke'?), and this one hit just the right balance of subdued and slightly apocalyptic. Though, as Draco's said, the choir did sound a bit smallish and the space a bit dry, I thought they handled the anthem remarkably well. Certainly it's one that I hope to hear again. The sustained treble note during fpf the at the end of the phrase 'And they cried one to another and said' (or something along those lines; about 2:40 in) might have made the entire piece.

[orbis factor]

Back to biz:

Judith Bingham carol was a treasure, delicate, eminently singable and lightly, airily delivered. For me, the best thing in the service.

Didn't sound a big choir and in a pretty ungenerous acoustic, so hardish work all round for everyone, but some alert singing throughout. The Mathias canticles are not a favourite pf mine, but they were forcefully sung and convincing.

Simon Pearce will certainly have earned his crust in this service, and nowhere more so than in the Matthew Martin anthem. Drama, subtlety, an ear for balance all needed to support some declamatory stuff alternating with quiet material. I just wish I had had the words in front of me: there was evident word painting going on, setting of moods etc, but it was almost impossible to catch what was actually being enunciated - not a criticism of the choir's diction - such can be the nature of first encounters with the unfamiliar. I should imagine it was a bit of a fiend to conduct, but Mr Cook made light of any such. I liked its overall impact, the use it made of all manner of vocal and organ colours. It ought to be sung elsewhere, I thought it deserves more outings.

And the Leighton was as usual exciting and engaging.

Thanks all round. And so good to hear lilting Welsh voices both in English and the native tongue. Do hope that doesn't sound patronising - not meant to - but we seem to hear genuine Welsh or Scots so rarely on CE.

Here's the text for the anthem:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,
High and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
i
Above him stood the seraphim:
each one had six wings;
With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
And with twain he did fly.
i
And one cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts:
The whole earth is full of his glory.
i
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried,
And the house was filled with smoke.
i
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone;
Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
i
Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
Which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said,
Lo this hath touched thy lips;
i
And thine iniquity is taken away,
And thy sin purged.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will do for us?
Then said I, Here am I; send me.
i
Isaiah VI vv 1 - 8

[DracoM]

Thanks.