CE Wells Cathedral Wed, 24th April 2013

[DracoM]

CE Wells Cathedral


Order of Service:


Introit: How beautiful upon the mountains (Stainer)
Responses: Clucas
Psalm 119: 1-32 (Gauntlett, Martin, Archer, Elvey)
First Lesson: Isaiah 52: 7-10
Office Hymn: The saint who first found grace to pen (Brockham)
Canticles: Stanford in C
Second Lesson: Mark 1: 1-15
Anthem: The spirit of the Lord (Prologue from 'The Apostles') (Elgar)
Final Hymn: Sing Alleluya forth ye saints on high (Martins)



Organ Voluntary: Imperial March (Elgar arr. Martin)



Jonathan Vaughn (Assistant Organist)
Matthew Owens (Organist and Master of the Choristers)

[Simon]

CE Wells Cathedral


Order of Service:


Introit: How beautiful upon the mountains (Stainer)
Responses: Clucas
Psalm 119: 1-32 (Gauntlett, Martin, Archer, Elvey)
First Lesson: Isaiah 52: 7-10
Office Hymn: The saint who first found grace to pen (Brockham)
Canticles: Stanford in C
Second Lesson: Mark 1: 1-15
Anthem: The spirit of the Lord (Prologue from 'The Apostles') (Elgar)
Final Hymn: Sing Alleluya forth ye saints on high (Martins)



Organ Voluntary: Imperial March (Elgar arr. Martin)



Jonathan Vaughn (Assistant Organist)
Matthew Owens (Organist and Master of the Choristers)

Looks very good to me! If it's the same Mr Archer, I trust his chant is more, er, "accessible" than his responses...

[DracoM]

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

[utterrutter]

Thoughts?

Reminder: today @ 3.30 p.m.

So, what did everyone think?

[Op. XXXIX]

So, what did everyone think?

Just listened. Like last week's broadcast from Truro, I'll certainly want to check it out again.

What a musical feast! Two Elgarian favourites of mine, the evergreen Stanford, and the delectable Martins.

Well done and many thanks!

[chitreb]

utterrutter wants someone else to be brave and go first, so here goes:

I listened on iPlayer and unlike last week's Truro CE I didn't think the sound did justice to the efforts of the choir and organist. I will try and listen again on the radio broadcast on Sunday when perhaps the FF sections will actually sound FF. I did find the (to me) overemphasis of some final consonants rather curious, most notably in the Gloria (and/end sounded like and-uh / end-uh); Truro is still available on iPlayer and whilst their final consonants are clearly audible they are much more restrained. The quiet start to the Nunc Dimittis was to my ears (admittedly getting a bit old and creaky) just a shade short of the pitch of the organ. Enough nit-picking, overall another splendid CE.

[DracoM]

Q: is that nearly the slowest Stanford in C you've ever heard? Pretty four square tempi and it just drifted along. Surprising. Not what I associate with Wells at all.
Choir sounded big - 'senior choristers and Vicars Choral' according the website. Sound a bit muddy.

Hmm. Must listen again.

[Miles Coverdale]

Q: is that nearly the slowest Stanford in C you've ever heard?

The metronome marking in the Mag is crotchet = 100, which is slower than most people do it. Wells did it at 92, give or take.

[DracoM]

Well, I'm neither a big Stainer nor Elgar fan, and there was quite a lot of both sandwiched round IMO pretty slow Stanford.
The whole service sounded sort of 'foggy' - sorry, can't put it any other way. Big top line, big broken voices, lots of Victorian sounding organ textures.

Sorry, not my cup of tea at all.

[Wolsey]

Bernard Rose who was a chorister at Salisbury under Sir Walter Alcock, remembered Alcock - a friend of Stanford's - telling him of Stanford's puzzlement that organists should think that 'minim=100' was intended rather than what he had written, 'crotchet=100'. Rose had Firm Views about the correct speed of Stanford in C, and if any unfortunate DoM broadcast the setting on Choral Evensong at the incorrect speed i.e. too fast, they would soon be put right - in no uncertain terms - by a curt postcard from Oxford.

Well done, Wells.

[LJB]

Lovely story Wolsey.

I must say, I think the singing is rather excellent. Considering the acoustic could be considerably more flattering (and the micing a micro-tad more distant), can't see how it could really be any better (perhaps the lovely phrasing in the stanford mag and nunc could trespass into the psalms and responses a little more).Astonishing organ playing in the anthem particulalry, perfectly measured phrases and colours.

[Magnificat]

Q: is that nearly the slowest Stanford in C you've ever heard? Pretty four square tempi and it just drifted along. Surprising. Not what I associate with Wells at all.
Choir sounded big - 'senior choristers and Vicars Choral' according the website. Sound a bit muddy.

Hmm. Must listen again.

Draco

Senior boys and senior girls presumably?

Considering Wells's penchant for modern music this very traditional Anglican CE order of service really cried out for a traditional Anglican choir of boys and men in my opinion but there you go

VCC

[DracoM]

Except that I'd guess there's a problem of presence with young boy's voices, even trained ones, against Elgarian textures? Would they not need more mature girls voices to cut it? Stanford is one thing, but Stainer and Elgar?

Advice from an expert, please?

[ardcarp]

Apart from a very slightly un-confident treble start to the Stainer introit, the choir acquitted itself with professionalism. I agree about the somewhat overdone final consonants. In an intimate cathedral such as Wells, it is hardly necessary, and indeed sounds mannered. But the psalms were well prepared. I'm sure the arguments about the speed of Stanford in C have been discussed before. It is a sort of 'fashion' to do it very slowly, and it is to Wells' credit that they were able to sustain it so well. I found myself gasping in sympathy. My preference is for a brisker pace. I thought the atmosphere of the Elgar (the slightly breathless wonder of the opening for instance) was well captured. The organist produced appropriately Edwardian noises throughout the service...and accompanied beautifully, IMO. Only one blemish....the cantor mis-pitching at one point in the second set of responses and doing a trombone-like slide back down to somewhere near the right note. The choir was not deterred, though I'd like to have seen their faces. Otherwise a dignified service.

[Roger Judd]

I'm with Wolsey on this. Taken at Stanford's tempo, there is time to make the quite rapid changes in dynamic sound natural and unhurried, and Matthew Owens and his team showed exactly how effective that can be when done as well as that. The Elgar anthem, too, had all the necessary space around it for a really lovely and loving performance, IMO. As has already been commented upon, the anthem was hugely enhanced by the sensitive and superb accompaniment by Jonathan Vaughn - bravo.
RJ