CE Hereford Cathedral 25th July 2012

[Miles Coverdale]

Mmm....I was expecting better TBH - particularly after the reviews above (are you all deaf?).
Was it very warm & humid in Hereford yesterday? Certainly sounds it! The tuning wasn't what it should be at this level and distracted my ears from what might have been good about this service. Sorry Hereford, Worcester & Gloucester but I skipped through the singing after the mag and enjoyed a wonderful Widor VI! The introit was fine but the tuning went in the psalm and didnt seem to be a temporary problem.

Perhaps you, using your obviously wonderful ears, could point out exactly where the tuning 'went' in the psalm. I've just listened to it for a second time and it seemed pretty good to me. And no, I'm not deaf.

[Pegasus]

but the tuning went in the psalm and didnt seem to be a temporary problem

Agreed.

And since it has provoked enquiry, consider the following:

(a) descending melodic lines, especially at line ends (both chants)
(b) the mediant in the C major chord (both chants)
(c) the Bb major 1st inversion chord (mediant at the top) (second chant)

[Double Diapason]

Perhaps you, using your obviously wonderful ears, could point out exactly where the tuning 'went' in the psalm. I've just listened to it for a second time and it seemed pretty good to me. And no, I'm not deaf.

Pegasus beat me to it! Tone deaf?!

[Magnificat]

How on earth can you have a Three Choirs in term time?? Have you any idea what goes on behind the scenes to get everything going? The whole event relies on singers, both great and small, who give up their holidays to sing in this marvellous festival. And where WASN'T humid on Wednesday this week? Stornoway?

Bullock in D

It most certainly should be in term time like the other similar Festivals viz SCF and St Albans IOF (although this is biennial ). How can the organizers honestly expect to get good performances from the three choirs if they have to come back well into their holidays. The fact is there is not much thought for the choirs here at all. The whole thing is hidebound by tradition and quite ridiculous.

VCC

[Chris Watson]

Bullock in D

It most certainly should be in term time like the other similar Festivals viz SCF and St Albans IOF (although this is biennial ). How can the organizers honestly expect to get good performances from the three choirs if they have to come back well into their holidays. The fact is there is not much thought for the choirs here at all. The whole thing is hidebound by tradition and quite ridiculous.



VCC

Magnificat. There has been a worrying number of almost positive posts from you recently, so it is refreshing to see that you're back to your speaking from your posterior ways.

[paul duggan2]

Magnificat. There has been a worrying number of almost positive posts from you recently, so it is refreshing to see that you're back to your speaking from your posterior ways.

I think he must be joking..

[ardcarp]

My my. I didn't hear this so I really must LA. What contrasting views! In the old days (and I mean probably 1970s) the Edington Festival used to have senior choristers from various places..and men obviously...and happened in the early Summer Hols. I can remember Richard Seal getting a 'scratch' choir up to a fine standard in just a few days. Obviously term time is a non-starter for any such event..........unless 3 deans, chapters and headmasters are magnanimous enough to bin their routines a week early.

[paul duggan2]

My my. I didn't hear this so I really must LA. What contrasting views! In the old days (and I mean probably 1970s) the Edington Festival used to have senior choristers from various places..and men obviously...and happened in the early Summer Hols. I can remember Richard Seal getting a 'scratch' choir up to a fine standard in just a few days. Obviously term time is a non-starter for any such event..........unless 3 deans, chapters and headmasters are magnanimous enough to bin their routines a week early.

Indeed so. Of course, Edders will be on the Radio in a few weeks..

[Magnificat]

Magnificat. There has been a worrying number of almost positive posts from you recently, so it is refreshing to see that you're back to your speaking from your posterior ways.

Chris

You really must explain to me then why it is not possible to have the Festival in July during term time like the others I mentioned and not in August? Come on. Really to have the cathedral choirs go off on holiday and then come back and expect them to perform to a high standard in the middle of it is stupid and it shows in these CE broadcasts. The other Festival performers should be able to perform at any time since they are mostly professionals.

VCC

[Magnificat]

My my. I didn't hear this so I really must LA. What contrasting views! In the old days (and I mean probably 1970s) the Edington Festival used to have senior choristers from various places..and men obviously...and happened in the early Summer Hols. I can remember Richard Seal getting a 'scratch' choir up to a fine standard in just a few days. Obviously term time is a non-starter for any such event..........unless 3 deans, chapters and headmasters are magnanimous enough to bin their routines a week early.

ardcarp,

Why on earth can't the cathedrals fit the Festival in before the end of term? There really is no good reason you know apart, as I say, from tradition. Why can they do it for the SCF and not the Three Choirs? The choirs could then go off for their well deserved holidays without interruption.

Edington is entirely different as it is purely voluntary for the choristers.

If the DoMs at the Three Choirs are content to forgo their reputations and broadcast sub - standard CEs that's up to them but I am surprised they are prepared to do so. They should make a stand against the authorities if necessary.

VCC

[Roger Judd]

I have been in the happy position this past week of being able to enjoy an absolutely wonderful festival of music at the Three Choirs Festival in my adopted home city. If members of this forum were privy to the scheduling of rehearsals and concerts, not to mention the hospitality that is provided for performers and concert-goers, they would realise very quickly that it would be a logistical and musical impossibilty to have the festival during term-time.

The excellent SCF is on a vastly smaller scale - though musically no-less splendid - comparison is not really very sensible.

The combined cathedral choirs sang a glorious Bach St John Passion the night before the broadcast, as well as daily evensongs, and combined with the Festival chorus in the major evening concerts during the week of the TCF. I didn't think the broadcast evensong was in any way sub-standard, and the tuning didn't sound suspect to me, but maybe I'm losing my critical faculties in old age! Hereford is very fortunate to have the musical partnership of Geraint Bowen and Peter Dyke, and having a choir of such quality on my door-step is something I hope I'll never take for granted.
RJ

[Mr Stoat]

I have been in the happy position this past week of being able to enjoy an absolutely wonderful festival of music at the Three Choirs Festival in my adopted home city. If members of this forum were privy to the scheduling of rehearsals and concerts, not to mention the hospitality that is provided for performers and concert-goers, they would realise very quickly that it would be a logistical and musical impossibilty to have the festival during term-time.

The excellent SCF is on a vastly smaller scale - though musically no-less splendid - comparison is not really very sensible.

The combined cathedral choirs sang a glorious Bach St John Passion the night before the broadcast, as well as daily evensongs, and combined with the Festival chorus in the major evening concerts during the week of the TCF. I didn't think the broadcast evensong was in any way sub-standard, and the tuning didn't sound suspect to me, but maybe I'm losing my critical faculties in old age! Hereford is very fortunate to have the musical partnership of Geraint Bowen and Peter Dyke, and having a choir of such quality on my door-step is something I hope I'll never take for granted.
RJ

I'm glad to have RJ on my side regarding the tuning.

If that broadcast was "sub standard" I need to re-think my understanding of the English language.

[Wolsey]

Some here need to remember that the Three Choirs' Festival - unlike the Southern Cathedrals' and Edington Festivals - does not revolve solely around church music.

[Magnificat]

Wolsey,

Even more reason then for the organizers to have a lot more thought for the burden placed on the cathedral choristers who, as Roger Judd has said above, play such a large part in the Festival.

To have the choristers wind down their busy years at the cathedrals and schools and then to wind themselves up again to take part in the Three Choirs Festival is not reasonable. It must affect performance standards whatever Roger says. I really am surprised that the DoMs don't object to it. It is certainly asking far too much of the boys if not so much of the men.

In Cathedral Music magazine the headmaster at Pilgrims Winchester states that foreign tours are not undertaken at the end of choir terms by cathedral choirs as much as they used to be because parents do not want family life and holidays to be interrupted after all the commitments of the normal cathedral year. I can't imagine that the Three Choirs families are at all happy about this extra imposition. I wonder how much it affects recruitment.

VCC.

[Mr Stoat]

Would I be correct in thinking that when the 3CF started, cathedral choirs did not have such long holidays as now? I can remember at least one cathedral in the '60s where 9LC with choir was always on the Sunday after Christmas............