CE Choir of Clare College, Cambridge Wed, 30th Jan 2013

[DracoM]

CE Choir of Clare College, Cambridge
Live from Aldeburgh Parish Church, Suffolk




Order of Service:



Introit: A boy was born (Britten)
Responses: Smith
Psalm 148 (Longhurst)
First Lesson: Nehemiah 2: 1-10
Deutsches Magnificat - SWV 494 (Schütz)
Second Lesson: Romans 12: 1-8
Nunc dimittis (Holst)
Anthems: Te Deum in C (Britten)
O Magnum Mysterium (Poulenc)
Hymn: Angel voices, ever singing (Angel voices)



Organ Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in G minor - BuxWV 150 (Buxtehude)




Organ scholars: Peter Harrison & Matthew Jorysz
Director of Music: Graham Ross

[ardcarp]

Great music list. Looking forward to it.

[Keraulophone]

Not the sort of introit one could attempt with kids... good luck even with the bright young things of Cantab!

[mopsus]

Not the sort of introit one could attempt with kids... good luck even with the bright young things of Cantab!

Is it just the opening theme of the Britten? That appears in Carols for Choirs 1.

[Keraulophone]

Thanks, mopsus: yes, of course...the whole of Op 3 lasts half an hour!

[DracoM]

Reminder: 3.30 p.m. today.

[ardcarp]

Not the sort of introit one could attempt with kids

The whole work (A Boy was Born) is a big, tricky sing, but IMHO one of Britten's choral masterpieces. It included a part for boys' choir. There are good recordings by The Holst and the Corydon Singers.

However as mopsus points out, we are just hearing the opening part (as printed in CC1) which (being a statement of the theme that the whole set of choral variations is based on) is straightforward. It's a bit like playing the opening of the Goldbergs and not the rest!

[DracoM]

Erm......well.....competent enough, not entirely unblemished, Poulenc the best thing there for me.
Not entirely convinced the Schutz was the right piece in that context, but I'm not a great Schutz fan anyway, so what do I know?

[ardcarp]

Well, I got home frazzled at about 10pm and LA-ed to CE from Aldeburgh, courtesy of Clare. I thought it a lovely straightforward service, sung without any pretensions or affectations. The choice of music was right up my street too. What a splendid piece the Britten Te Deum in C is, and what a deligjhtfully natural soprano soloist. I thought the choir coped extremely well away from Classical Clare College Chapel and in a rather ordinary Anglican parish church acoustic.

Lots of nice links too. Britten and Aldeburgh, obviously, but also that the Te Deum was written for St Mark's North Audley St, and so was the treble part (which we didn't hear of course) in the Choral Variations A Boy was Born...AND Poulenc died exactly 50 years ago today. Themed or what.

[Simon]

What is the big deal with Clare and the BCC, I wonder? They're always popping up. Some links come to mind, but no time to investigate, and don't care enough anyway. Let people do their cosy little deals.

They are competent enough, and they weren't all that warbly, though of course they are not a patch on the great boys/men choirs that one would have hoped to have been able to hear singing some good music featuring TREBLES. Especially given that BB was good at writing top line stuff for boys.

[paul duggan2]

What is the big deal with Clare and the BCC, I wonder? They're always popping up. Some links come to mind, but no time to investigate, and don't care enough anyway. Let people do their cosy little deals.

They are competent enough, and they weren't all that warbly, though of course they are not a patch on the great boys/men choirs that one would have hoped to have been able to hear singing some good music featuring TREBLES. Especially given that BB was good at writing top line stuff for boys.

Have you been drinking again?

[ardcarp]

Simon. I'm quite surprised Trinity CC doesn'r 'pop up' more often, given the Layton connection. Can you investigate that too when the spirit moves?

[SimonToo]

What is the big deal with Clare and the BCC, I wonder? They're always popping up. Some links come to mind, but no time to investigate, and don't care enough anyway. Let people do their cosy little deals.

They are competent enough, and they weren't all that warbly, though of course they are not a patch on the great boys/men choirs that one would have hoped to have been able to hear singing some good music featuring TREBLES. Especially given that BB was good at writing top line stuff for boys.

Oh dear. Some evidence please for your unpleasant innuendo re Clare's inside track at the Beeb. Otherwise it should be withdrawn. I suspect your lack of time betrays a lack of reasoning. Please confirm.

I think you mean that Britten had an attachment (not necessarily sexual, before anyone jumps on that bandwagon) to boys, not that his b.v. music is necessarily great or best sung by boys.

Not a patch? Really? Some backing for this opinion would be nice. One might prefer the sound of boys, for whatever reason, but to put ANY boys' choir against *the rest* would suggest to me either insufficient aural faculties to distinguish objectively or an entrenched view such that no one actually involved in church/collegiate/cathedral music is in the slightest bit interested in your views. I'd suggest a suitable new location for your chip, but it might have the wrong effect. Still, at least you have your forum on which to vent your spleen.

[Simon]

Absolutely. Far be it for me to make any comment. I know nothing at all. Shouldn't muse on these boards. Apologies all round. Great to hear mixed voices singing treble stuff. BB perhaps anyway didn't write particularly well for boys and b.v. music probably not best sung by boys. Quite sure that the choirs featured by the Beeb have nothing top do with any influence anywhere. Purely random, obviously. The great boy/men choirs probably wouldn't have been up to it anyway, perhaps. Sorry to have upset anybody's sacred wotsits or whatever. Shouldn't tread on the toes of the great and the good of British choral music. Grovel.

[Edit: away again after today, so no more rubbish from me for a while.]

[Alison]

You always did have a tendency to plant an explosive device and run off.