CE St George's Chapel, Windsor Nov 28th 2012

[EnzoElgar]

As a tribute to Sir Philip Ledger who died earlier this month, the Harris introit has been replaced by Ledger's setting of words from Psalm 121: I will lift up mine eyes.

[DracoM]

Many thanks for update.

[Keraulophone]

As a tribute to Sir Philip Ledger who died earlier this month, the Harris introit has been replaced by Ledger's setting of words from Psalm 121: I will lift up mine eyes.

Excellent.

Elgar would love to have driven a Ferrari.

[ardcarp]

I've just heard CE and very much enjoyed it. Starting off the Tippett Nunc is a scary moment and I thought the solo treble did it brilliantly. Enjoyed the Pott too...the sort of piece you can appreciate at first hearing. I regret that I missed the Ledger introit, so will have to wait for LA. `

[DracoM]

Well, I hope that astonishingly brave treble gets a medal for that murderous series of solos in the Nunc. WHY would you want to go out of your way to make it near impossible to pitch from almost nothing with almost nothing going on round you to help? And LIVE?? Talk about nerve-wracking.

Ledger introit possibly the best thing in it? Nice blend of voices, pure top, not too much sturm und drang in the lower parts made for a very pleasant sound. The odd uncertainty here and there, but pretty seriously competent live service. Found the Pott anthem a tad dreary, nicely sung and a very decent accompaniment to Jumbo take off, but just not terribly memorable. After the Tippett, I imagine that will have come as a relief for some members of the choir.,

Organ in the voluntary seemd

[ardcarp]

Fascinated to know what it seemed, Draco! I love that piece. I first heard it on Guernsey (of all places) played by Marie Claire Alain. This must have been in the late 60s.

[french frank]

By request, I've moved all succeeding posts to a separate thread on this same board. A discussion on what makes for difficult choral music could be continued there so that this one can be kept for the current Choral Evensong programme.

NB I mean the posts that were the succeeding posts but aren't now (because I've moved them). Not the posts that are now the succeeding posts.

[decantor]

With FF having kindly cleared the path for comment, it would be churlish not to take advantage. I was much taken by this CE, not least because so much of its music came from the last fifty years: I regard it as a great strength of the CoE - amid its many weaknesses! - that its cathedrals have consistently attracted and presented the music of living composers without ever breaking faith with the long-term tradition. So far, so obvious perhaps - but the constant renewal is what keeps the whole organism so gloriously alive.

The Ledger was touching beyond its worthy In memoriam aspect; the Potts' intense serenity and undulating climaxes make it, IMO, another winner for the Choirbook; and Moore's Responses resonate with me. But the Tippett is surely a pivotal work of its type - I heard its second performance live in St John's chapel fifty years ago, and am not at all surprised that it has held its place in the repertoire ever since. St G's did it justice today. I always find myself rooting for the Cantoris trebs in the Mag, but I am never surprised that the treb soloist copes with the Nunc - children with a good ear, unsullied by too much theory and solfege, readily grasp the logic of the line (unless you foolishly tell them it might be difficult!). But yes, do give today's soloist a medal - he nailed it unfussily, live on air. The final voluntary also suited me well: 35 years ago it was one of my and many others' party-pieces, but it seems to have fallen out of the repertoire of late.

This was the first live CE that I have missed in six years - an unmissable funeral kept me away. On return, I was grateful for iPlayer, but even more so to St George's: their CE captured my mood exactly, and was - if I may be personal - immensely cathartic. A well-delivered CE can have that effect, whatever the cynics may say.

[ardcarp]

Glad to hear your thoughts on the broadcast, Decantor. We have parallel experiences of Litanies!

I have just heard the Ledger introit on LA, and it was both a fitting start to the service and a fitting tribute to the composer.

I have diverted the slightly technical discussion of the Tippett canticles to the 'Difficult choral music' thread. Yes, I know they were part of CE, and I'm not making any judgments on their difficulty or otherwise. I just felt the jousting over chords and notes not to bear particularly on what we heard from St George's.

[Flosshilde]

Francis Pott's O Lord, grant the Queen a long life was sung by the choir of New College, Oxford in the ill-fated live relay of Wednesday 30 May when a thunderstorm caused a power failure during transmission. The service was broadcast in its entirety on Sunday 3 June. The anthem was commissioned for St George's Chapel ten years ago, and - to my ears - Pott's distinctive harmonic language and use of eight-part texture work well.

Goodness, even ten years ago she had had a pretty long life!

[DracoM]

But at its core, flosshilde, this thread is praising the St George's Windsor choir for their singing. That is what seems to be getting lost in the ....ahem....diversions.

[Flosshilde]

Oh yes, I do appreciate that. I just sometimes skim through the choir threads, & the subject of that particular piece caught my eye.

As for the singing, whenever I've listened to CE because of a particular piece I've never thought much of the performance - difficult to explain why, but there seems to be a rather 'bloodless' characteristic to English church choirs which makes everything from Spannish rennaisance to English victorian sound the same. I do realise that they are not 'professional' & are also mostly not adult, & they have a difficult job in learning pieces every week, with limited rehearsal time, and they sing as part of a religious service not as a concert.

[Simon]

... there seems to be a rather 'bloodless' characteristic to English church choirs which makes everything from Spannish rennaisance to English victorian sound the same. I do realise that they are not 'professional' & are also mostly not adult, & they have a difficult job in learning pieces every week, with limited rehearsal time, and they sing as part of a religious service not as a concert.

I started to answer this seriously, Flossie, and then realised that there was no point. Nor have I enough time.

Congrats, though, on spelling "professional" correctly. Even though you haven't quite managed "Spanish" and "renaissance".

[ardcarp]

but there seems to be a rather 'bloodless' characteristic to English church choirs which makes everything from Spannish rennaisance to English victorian sound the same.

I think this could be said of some, Floss, and maybe of most 70 years ago. But if ever you're in Oxford in term time, nip into New College for CE and see if you feel the same afterwards. Ironically it may have been the Oxford Reform Movement with its robed choirs and a very fixed view of what was 'holy' which led to a slightly sanitised or at least genteel sound in Victorian and Edwardian times. Love it or hate it, it has been a great tradition in the UK, just as blood-and-guts and raw emotion have characterised Russian Orthodox church music.

[DracoM]

GG's St John's Choir singing Victoria? And until about 5 yrs ago, the West Cath Choir singing ditto - maybe got a bit thin of late.

I know this is a hobby-horse, but if you think blood and guts choral singing is beyond the reach of the trad cathedral choir mix of boys and men, then catch any of the four or five live webcasts a week from St Thomas Fifth Avenue NYC conducted by the estimable John Scott and have your ears opened.
Or Truro Cathedral at their best, or Hereford, and as ardcarp wisely says, New Coll Ox. Nothing anaemic about any of them!