the intonations were in tune
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I beg to differ. Went sharp (as well as shrill) at one point, but choir Amen-ed back in pitch. Male cantors sometimes sing out of tune too.
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I think BR used to go into the van and tell the recording engineers how to twiddle their knobs. He certainly did this in a broadcast CE I took part in some years ago when he was on the BBC staff (Head of broadcast religious music???)...in fact he was running backwards and forwards like a headless chicken, but it seemed to produce the goods.in the archive recording of the choir under BR in the 1980's the sound was beautifully clear so it can be doneComment
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#4: did you go in the week or on a Sunday? It's been 12 men during the week since 1981 and 18 on a Sunday; don't know what they had yesterday (probably 18).
Jolly good all round I thought and fitting music for the choir / acoustic (though I would have preferred, say "How lovely are the messengers" as an introit - or something more obviously Pauline than an Oxford service and 3 Choirs anthem...).
Glad to hear the whole choir singing out again with some very ballsy stuff throughout! (Tenors' "We praise thee..." for eg!).
I must say, though, that the BBC AGAIN mucked my enjoyment around with its constant knob twiddling: were the Psalms and Elgars really that much louder than the Leighton..?! I also found the FM live feed in the car (but with good stationary reception and speakers!) far, far better than the digital one I recorded at home (if it's ok for St Barry, it's ok for me ;) ).
Better in that it was 'real': it was so 'live' that I felt I was there - right there and spine tingling stuff to boot - at home it was a little (but honestly so) scrappy here and there, but on both there was a real sense of excitement and energy commitment and 'presence'.
No, VCC, it was not as the 1982 recording for a number of reasons, but I have to say it was certainly the best yet from Mr Carwood and his boys and men and the bst St. Paul's CE I have heard for a long time, possibly since Scott's day. I admit, I prefer the slightly edgier sound - the percieved by some 'roughness' I would have on my CE over a "clinically white" 'CD' performance any day, though as always I'd like to add a smidgeon of yesteryear for obvious reasons!
Bloody well done to all.
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I always listen on FM it's much better than the current digital broadcasts. I hope they don't scrap it in a few years time. There seems to be a mounting lobby from the experts to keep it and I believe there are no currently no buyers in sight for the analogue frequencies. It definitely caught the presence of the place as you say and, unfortunately, the mushiness of the sound.
I wonder; what sort of musical experience is it singing in St Paul's? DA1 on the BBC message board said he enjoyed it but with all that sound coming back at you it must be very difficult to sing there let alone listen to a concert as a member of an audience.
Apart from evensong in BR's day sitting near the choir which could be heard well enough I've only ever been to large scale services such as The Sons of the Clergy and the St Cecelia's Day service for The Musicians Benevolent Fund and found the acoustic difficult.
The introit was obviously chosen for Christian Unity week.
I think AC has found, if he didn't already know when he applied for the job, that boys are a different ball game altogether than the professional adults he has been used to and it has obviously taken him some time to get to grips with the job. I always thought it a big gamble appointing someone with no great experience in the specialism but he seems to be a natural and the choir will no doubt get even better with all the resources available to him at St Paul's and he also has a very able assistant in Simon Johnson to help him and to look after the organ.
VCC.Comment
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If asked, I am sure, VCC, that DAI would reply with something along the lines of singing there was rather like anywhere else really: it was always a horses for courses venue lending itself to larger voices in all parts to fill the building! The sound never 'came back at one': it just echoed really. Afterall, we were singing to the West Doors all the time, however important a member of the Quire congregation there may have been present..
Indeed, "let the smaller voices find a smaller venue", he might say...!
I should add too that in yesteryear - as (ahem!) DAI pointed out on the old board - the 'nave' (okay, 'dome') congregation used to be much nearer the stalls before the lat 80's temporary staging and then the permanent dais shoved them all back to under the centre of the dome at the nearest! No bloody wonder today's congregation cannot hear a thing as the sound has all gone 100ft up in the air by the time it 'reaches' them!
It also meant that those in the quire were no better off that those in the nave and the choir was, actually placed mid-way between an average daily Evensong congregation, but no more...
...And the plaque on the floor marking Churchill's 'lying in state' is now permanently covered up; shame on them!
But I digress..
I too had 'thoughts' over AC's appointment (not necessarily on ability, but more the 'chopping off of the organists' "career pyramid", so to speak) and I have to say that as with all things, perhaps we are too quick to judge wanting immediate 'results' when perhaps slowly, slowly catchy monkey is more effective.
I don't know where he is in his drive to get the front rows full again to 32/40 boys. I could ask, I suppose, but Wednesday's service suggests I have no need to.Comment
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well, one presumes because the need for a 'nave altar' (like everywhere else these days rather than using the perfectly alright East End one...) took precedence over his floor plaque (actually it was quite large - about the size of your average church floor "here lyeth..").
Yes, they now have the Churchill gates in the crypt and all that, and I suppose he is now in good company with Wellington in having a space both down and upstairs, but why, for eg, could they not have had a perspex cover or similar over the original one?
Presumably the Churchill family would have given their 'permission' so to speak (or consulted by way of a "this is what we're going to do..." ), but it is now another memorial that has been taken out of the public view (and there are quite a few in that place both up and downstairs!), though one which, obviously, is to a man in living memory and who won a war; he wasn't just a 18th Century Empire-building general like most of the others!!!
For my two penn'th !Comment
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Just caught up with this 'tour de force' from St Paul's. Marvellous singing indeed but I feel quite drained by it - they certainly engage with the music!
However, I do very much miss the Scott pointing - and why do they not teach speech and singing at theological college? At this level, there should be a standard.Comment
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That's a novel way of putting it....and why do they not teach speech and singing at theological college? At this level, there should be a standard.
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