CE Ely Cathedral Sept 11th 2013

[DracoM]

CE Ely Cathedral



Order of Service:



Introit: The Gateway of Heaven (Paul Trepte)
Responses: Philip Moore
Psalms 59, 60, 61 (Barnby, Havergal, Martin)
First Lesson: Proverbs 2: 1-15
Office Hymn: Most holy Lord and God of heaven (Mode ii)
Canticles: Windsor Service (Jeremy Filsell)
Second Lesson: Colossians 1: 9-20
Anthem: Prayer (Ben Parry)
Final Hymn: Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise (Magda)



Organ Voluntary: Sounding heaven and earth (Cecilia McDowall)



With trumpeters from Prime Brass


Edmund Aldhouse (Assistant Organist)
Paul Trepte (Director of Music)

[ardcarp]

Well done to Ely for sticking their heads above the parapet so early in he term! Look forward to hearing some new(to me) music.

[DracoM]

They've done music by Cecilia McDowall before. According to my records, they've never been carded quite this early in the term. Blimey, nothing like drawing the short straw!!

Yes indeed, I wish them all the very best. Challenging repertoire - up to a point.

[Quilisma]

For the record, just to pre-empt the inevitable speculation (I know this is of paramount importance to a few people on here), it's the boys tomorrow. But, also for the record, the girls are excellent in their own right and could just as well have sung, additionally or instead, if that had been the plan. The last radio appearance by Ely (in May, as part of the Stephen Layton Fauré pilgrimage using in-house choirs) fielded the combined forces of boys and girls (and, if I remember rightly, a doubled back row of twelve men as is usual on Sundays and other "big" things), but only the boys had been printed in the programme, with the girls as a photocopied insert for some bizarre reason...

[Magnificat]

For the record, just to pre-empt the inevitable speculation (I know this is of paramount importance to a few people on here), it's the boys tomorrow. But, also for the record, the girls are excellent in their own right and could just as well have sung, additionally or instead, if that had been the plan. The last radio appearance by Ely (in May, as part of the Stephen Layton Fauré pilgrimage using in-house choirs) fielded the combined forces of boys and girls (and, if I remember rightly, a doubled back row of twelve men as is usual on Sundays and other "big" things), but only the boys had been printed in the programme, with the girls as a photocopied insert for some bizarre reason...

Q,

It is possible to work out from the Ely music list that it is likely be the cathedral choir of boys and men as it usually specifies otherwise. However, it is nice to know for sure the forces to which we will be listening.

I am sure the girls are excellent as you say and I would be quite happy to listen to them and to give them any credit due.

It is of paramount importance to some of us that the tradition of boys singing in cathedral and college choirs continues and it is good to see that Ely seems to thrive in this respect ( 22 boys in their site photo if up-to-date ) but the situation is not looking promising elsewhere what with voices breaking at 11/12 and with all the changes in society, lifestyles etc affecting recruitment.

Winchester were down to only 11 boys for most of last academic year I believe. At St Albans ( current forces 17, has been 24 ) boys seem to be keeping their voices up to fourteen and later but recruitment is very slow with one or two choristers staying on past the normal leaving age to help out. No doubt most other places are having similar problems.

Mixed sex choirs are looking more and more likely to be the future for most cathedrals which will be very sad if not a disaster.

I'm not sure what it is looking like for the colleges but I have seen recruitment literature for New College Oxford aimed at getting boys interested at three years old. There is no doubt that boys will have to be started earlier if their voices are going earlier. Obviously it will depend on their reading capabilities more than anything.

Anyway I'm looking forward to hearing the Ely boys.

VCC.

[mopsus]

I wonder if in the case of New College's youthful recruitment it might be the need to interest a boy before other choral foundations in the same city do so. Each wants to have the best boys, and so the minimum age for 'chorister for a day' events and the like creeps lower and lower. (It is a similar phenomenon to the way 'new season' clothes and shoes and 'back to school' stationery seem to arrive in the shops earlier each year, until they lose any connection with the season they go with.)

[Quilisma]

So... Did anyone listen? Reactions, etc? Meanwhile, I should of course point out that the difficulties in attracting and recruiting suitable boy choristers are all too familiar in Ely too, but that nobody is complacent: the phrase "no slouch" springs to mind. But it has nothing whatsoever to do with the girls (who are in a different age cohort, by the way). The singing burden on the boys hasn't diminished since their advent, after all...

[Magnificat]

So... Did anyone listen? Reactions, etc? Meanwhile, I should of course point out that the difficulties in attracting and recruiting suitable boy choristers are all too familiar in Ely too, but that nobody is complacent: the phrase "no slouch" springs to mind. But it has nothing whatsoever to do with the girls (who are in a different age cohort, by the way). The singing burden on the boys hasn't diminished since their advent, after all...

Q

I thought the choir gave it their all if perhaps, understandably this early in the new term, the singing was a little rough and ready at times. I liked Paul Trepte's introit. Not overly keen on the canticles. The anthem written recently for the Dean's installation I'd like to hear again. Would have preferred the hymn sung to the tune Ellers.

I knew the new Dean Mark Bonney when he was Precentor at St Albans in BR's days. Very nice chap, brilliant golfer and will be a great supporter of the cathedral's music I'm sure.

VCC.

[Op. XXXIX]

Q

Not overly keen on the canticles. The anthem [...] I'd like to hear again. Would have preferred the hymn sung to the tune Ellers.

Interesting.

I loved the canticles (certainly had never heard them before), but the anthem reminded me a bit of Hovhaness, not a sound world I particularly respond to.

But we agree about Ellers!

[ardcarp]

I thought the choir gave it their all if perhaps, understandably this early in the new term, the singing was a little rough and ready at times. I liked Paul Trepte's introit. Not overly keen on the canticles. The anthem written recently for the Dean's installation I'd like to hear again. Would have preferred the hymn sung to the tune Ellers.

'The choir gave it their all' is often used to describe a rather rough outfit doing their best. I could not disagree more here. Ely gave us a superb evensong (I've heard it twice now) in which we had to make no allowances for its being early in the term. The back desks were well blended and professional, and the trebles (sometimes in two parts) made a lovely, unaffected and confident sound. Tuning good throughout. All given a lovely bloom by being sung under the lantern. Very well done and congratulations to all. The service was accompanied and directed with consummate skill, IMO. Surely this is just the sort of CE by a traditional cathedral choir which many love to hear?

I thought the music chosen was an interesting selection. It was all of the contemporary-but-not-frightening-the-horses ilk. Paul Trepte's introit was a most original piece which I enjoyed very much. Filsell's canticles were really effective, and I'd love them to become part of the 'standard' repertory. They owed something to the French organ masses (of Langlais for instance) but the choral bits were much more integrated and better wrought. And I do like a bit of rhythmic drive. Ben Parry's Prayer fell rather into more recent trends (which one might describe as 'the Macmillan tendency') but was effective for all that. Pity the poor trumpeters having to sit out the service and start cold.

For me, that CE was definitely

Thanks Ely.

[DracoM]

Indeed - no horses frightened, good run out for the choir. Potentially scary start for them in the Trepte introit, but the soloist just about and the choir certainly got heads and voices around it well. Not sure I'd see it as MacMillian, Filsell Canticles were for me a bit so-so, plenty to sing, and there were some bold boys doing good things from the off, but a second hearing would be helpful, so will iPlayer.

Psalms almost declamatory sprach-gesang with a big open percussive sound.

Plenty to be enthusiastic about here.

Why did CA say that Paul Trepte is 'the current DoM' so pointedly? Was that a hint that a transition on the way? Or was that just La Derham doing her usual?

[Alison]

Difficult to imagine Ely without Paul Trepte !

[Finzi4ever]

Difficult to imagine Ely without Paul Trepte !

Yes, but most of us would have thought that about the Arthur era... I admire hugely what Paul has achieved there so consistently over time. Agree with DM about the psalms which work for me and with such great, classic chants and organ colouring.
Intonation can be really tricky in the Octagon stalls with the organ so distant from the choir's POV and so, as said above, this was impressive. Really liked the Filsell setting - very suitable for mainstream repertoire, innovative and fresh - occasional shades of Leighton? Think BP has written a setting for Ely too.
It's been quite a year or two for Ben Parry, but when isn't it? Having been at school with him and David Sawer their talent were unrivalled, at least by me! Powerfully effective piece, but owing to forces required not likely to turn up on service sheet on a wet Tues in February.

Only downpoint the drivel travelogue that so detracts/distracts from the office. If folk are interested in either Etheldreda or the Octagon lantern, they can look it up; it's not appropriate in a service. I was half expecting the Hereward-the-Wake episode or Alan of Walsingham's sailing the 8 great oaks up the Ouse!

[ardcarp]

Potentially scary start for them in the Trepte introit, but the soloist just about and the choir certainly got heads and voices around it well. Not sure I'd see it as MacMillian

My probably ill-advised MacMillan comparison referred to the Ben Parry piece not to PT's introit.

[DracoM]

Woops, sorry! Certainly agree there.

BTW, gather that despite R3's somewhat over-loaded CA intro, PT seems unlikely to be moving from Ely!