Mozart from the Chapel of New College, Oxford 12.i.Xl

[Magnificat]

Ardcarp

Unfortunately I couldn't listen live as I spent most of the afternoon stuck in a country lane in the middle of nowhere with a broken cam belt then being towed by the AA to the garage. I'll have to listen to the repeat to be able to let you know what I thought about the high notes!!

One thing I would like to mention and something I am pleased about, is that NCO and EH seem to have no qualms in naming the solo treble.

King's also named their excellent soloist in Hear My Prayer in a broadcast two years ago.

Solo boys were always named in CE for years until our paranoid and, frankly, poisonous times that are proving so damaging to relations between adults and children.

The kids deserve the recognition if they do such prominent and important pieces of work in a service which is heard far and wide and IMO it was a shame that St Albans didn't name their brilliant soloist in Stanford in G in their last broadcast.

They are not just voices but also human beings with names for goodness sake. So what, if there is a flower lady lurking behind a pillar somewhere!!

VCC

[ardcarp]

Your sentiments coincide with mine exactly! You'll be pretty impressed, I think, when you hear the treble soloist, not just for his voice but for his musicianship too. Just a pity the choir wasn't a bit more prominent. I've just listened to the Westminster Cathedral boys on Hogwood's AofAM recording of The Requiem. Same sort of singing but much more to the fore. Still, that was a recording which probably took a week to make.

[Simon]

Whilst agreeing with you on the stupid PC side of things, I don't think soloists of short excerpts, e.g. Gibbons couple, Greater Love and BB the G&F etc., need to be named. They aren't on the weekly cathedral service sheets. When I was a treble and did the odd solo we just got on with it and didn't expect special recognition - it was after all a team effort in general.

[Magnificat]

Simon,

I did say prominent and important solos.

Hear My Prayer is a defining piece for any fine treble and King's were right to name their soloist certainly

VCC

[Simon]

I did say prominent and important solos.

You did indeed! And I'm in full agreement with you on that. I was just offering a perhaps unimportant little addendum!

[DracoM]

Then again, if you take them sledging.......!! So dangerous.







Not.

[Magnificat]

Draco

Up to very recently the St Albans choristers enjoyed 50 years of incident free camping and hiking in Somerset at the end of Summer term and before their own holidays.

It was stopped it was reported in the Old - Choristers Association annual newsletter, mainly, because of Health and Safety and Child Protection issues.

Needless to say the kids loved it. I remember the mother of one boy some years ago from a more disadvantaged background than most of his fellow choristers telling me how much her son looked forward to it all year. How very sad.

VCC

[DracoM]

Soham has eroded / destroyed trust for ever in volunteer / educational supervisors.

That trust will never return. Kids make endless jokes about it now. And we who have allowed it to be enshrined into, legislated for, created a wild bureaucracy to cement into our culture for good. We have thus become inexttricably complicit in perpetuating and deepening the untrusting, risk-averse culture that pervades schools / voluntary / church organisations etc.

IMO, it has been an almost unmitigated ongoing disaster for opportunities offered to children in UK. What truly riles me is that some quango-like organisation somewhere is making a fortune out of this paranoia.

[Simon]

Yes Draco - agreed, and very sad indeed. There4 seems to be some idea around that you can engineer life so that you remove all risk. But of course you can't.

Nonetheless, I don't think it's quite that black a picture, particularly, perhaps, in rural areas where there are fewer busybodies and a greater sense of community.

Near us, we have a lot of youth groups and a friend of mine runs, I think largely on his own, a youth choir that seems to be enjoyed by everybody involved.

[decantor]

Hmm. Thread has shifted ground a bit since I last looked. I agree that the atmosphere surrounding activities for children is pretty poisonous - and not just through Soham, but through ambulance-chasing lawyers and current perceptions of 'compensation '. But it is possible to circumvent some of the obstacles, though often only by tiresome risk-assessments and the like, while the government seem to be back-pedalling on ludicrously intensive CRB checks. I know of two choirs that still take their boys off for a week for swinging in trees and canoeing and the like. But another sad aspect is that many of a new generation of kids just won't ever appreciate what they've missed as their ancient freedoms are curtailed through adult fear.

Back to the Requiem, if I may. I was pleased to read (#12) that someone else thought that the trebles had peen packed off to a corner in disgrace. The NCO boys are just about the punchiest unit in the land - their 'presence' on the Vespers 1610 CD is almost overwhelming at times - yet they were fighting to make an impression on the BBC mikes. It is something I often notice and regret in CE broadcasts. I am not in favour of treble-led choirs, but it's rare for the top line to get a fair deal from Auntie in a live broadcast.

[DracoM]

Just a reminder that this very worthwhile Mozart Requiem is repeated today [ Sunday, 16th ] at 4 p.m.

[Magnificat]

NCO do make an exciting sound but I find it very fierce and harsh. I couldn't listen to this sort of singing for much more than an hour at a time.

Actually at times I found the sound level quite loud. I thought the choir would wake the dead rather than repose souls!! It may have been because I always use headphones to listen to these broadcasts as I find they generally provide much better ambience from cathedral/chapel venues.

Nevertheless, the choir and soloists sang very well, the men particularly impressed me again.

I thought the liturgy a bit off - putting. As soon as I hear the response "and also with you". I just burst out giggling at the thought of the story about the Vicar giving his sermon at the time when congregations were getting used to the changes to the wording of C of E services. Having trouble with the microphone and after a lot of tapping and testing he said " there is something wrong with this" to which the congregation replied "and also with you"!. I'm an "and with thy spirit" and a thee's thy's and thou's person. I find addressing God as "You" somehow not right.

[ardcarp]

As soon as I hear the response "and also with you". I just burst out giggling

...I did likewise when they asked everyone to exchange 'the peace' with each other. I am of a generation to find this embarrassing in a modern Anglican setting, but in this broadcast, anachronistic or what?

[Miles Coverdale]

I'm an "and with thy spirit" and a thee's thy's and thou's person. I find addressing God as "You" somehow not right.

I blame the King James Bible myself. In the admittedly unlikely eventuality that you were to encounter Jesus tomorrow, would you address him as 'you' or 'thou'?

[Magnificat]

If I meet him in Yorkshire I may well adopt the local dialect and address him as thou ( tha )!!

VCC