The Choir - 1 Dec, 4.30 pm: Truro, Benson & the first 'Nine Lessons with Carols' 1880

[Keraulophone]

Straight after the Advent Carol Service from St John's Cambridge, Truro Cathedral's DoM will explain the origins of the famous service of NL&C, as his choir prepares a reconstruction of the NL with C first heard on Christmas Eve 1880, in Truro's wooden pro-cathedral.

The reconstruction will take place in Truro Cathedral on 17 Dec at 7 pm. (Regular NL&Cs will continue on 23/24 Dec as usual.)

The project will also be covered in an article in the December edition of Gramophone magazine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03k0lfv

http://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/day-to-day/news.html#NineLessonsandCarolsService

http://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/special-events/documents/1880NineLessonsposter.pdf

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This sounds fascinating. Like most other people (I suppose) I had thought of this as an institution created by KCC in 1918/19.

[W.Kearns]

No doubt someone will correct me, but I had an idea that KCC offered their celebration of the service, which Benson had devised, as a tribute to the city of Cambridge in the aftermath of the Great War. Was it at the instigation of Eric Milner-White?

[ardcarp]

I'm really annoyed that I shall be missing this and the Advent service from John's. Presumably it will all be on i-player.

[Vox Humana]

It will have to be iPlayer for me too as I have a long rehearsal and concert tomorrow.

The programme should be really interesting. I checked the relevant 1880 issues of The Royal Cornwall Gazette and The Cornishman to see whether they had anything to say and I couldn't find any mention of the service at all. I wasn't really surprised as I don't suppose it was trumpeted as anything special at the time.

I wasn't aware that the original 1880 service had taken place at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but it figures. What, essentially, Benson was doing (I believe) was constructing a service loosely modelled on the plan of Christmas Matins according to the medieval Use of Sarum. At Sarum, unusually, Christmas Matins was sung on the Eve and timed to end before midnight. I wouldn't mind betting that that is why Benson's service started at the late hour of 10 p.m. On all the more important feasts, including Christmas Eve, Sarum Matins had nine lessons, each followed by a respond (or responsory if you must, but I prefer the BCP term). That is why Benson's service has nine lessons and why each one is followed by a piece music - in his version a carol or chorus. The ascending status of the readers, starting with a chorister and working upwards to the most senior person is another Sarum feature.

[ardcarp]

That's fascinating, Vox.

[DracoM]

Yes, excellent stuff, VH, many thanks.


I too will be elsewhere at the time of tx, but I also hope it's on the Truro Cathedral website. It was thought that there would be webcasts at regular intervals but although there are a few - maybe the money ran out? This will be a real coup for a very good choir.

[VodkaDilc]

This sounds fascinating. Like most other people (I suppose) I had thought of this as an institution created by KCC in 1918/19.

Eine Alpen was obviously never bored in Carol Services (all those readings!) like I was as a schoolboy. The introduction to Carols for Choirs Book 1 (yes, I did resort to reading the introduction) clearly states the the service was first drawn up at Truro.

[decantor]

......The ascending status of the readers, starting with a chorister and working upwards to the most senior person is another Sarum feature.

Thank you, VH, for your post, which was actually more informative in detail than the item on The Choir. Even so, it was good to have Truro's and Cornwall's youthful music-making as a substantial part of the programme - my own sojourns in the county confirm the strength and standard of their vocal tradition.

But surely, in accordance with the Christian tradition, the last sentence of VH's post should read: "The descending status of the readers, starting with a chorister and working downwards to the most senior person......"

[Vox Humana]

But surely, in accordance with the Christian tradition, the last sentence of VH's post should read: "The descending status of the readers, starting with a chorister and working downwards to the most senior person......"

Haha! I was taking the medieval view, m'Lud!

I enjoyed the programme very much (what a gem was that opening Bob Chilcott piece!) but I was disappointed that, despite the puff, the programme had so little focus on Benson's 1880 carol service. A nice advert, but a missed opportunity?

[ardcarp]

It will have to be iPlayer for me too as I have a long rehearsal and concert tomorrow.

The programme should be really interesting. I checked the relevant 1880 issues of The Royal Cornwall Gazette and The Cornishman to see whether they had anything to say and I couldn't find any mention of the service at all. I wasn't really surprised as I don't suppose it was trumpeted as anything special at the time.

I wasn't aware that the original 1880 service had taken place at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, but it figures. What, essentially, Benson was doing (I believe) was constructing a service loosely modelled on the plan of Christmas Matins according to the medieval Use of Sarum. At Sarum, unusually, Christmas Matins was sung on the Eve and timed to end before midnight. I wouldn't mind betting that that is why Benson's service started at the late hour of 10 p.m. On all the more important feasts, including Christmas Eve, Sarum Matins had nine lessons, each followed by a respond (or responsory if you must, but I prefer the BCP term). That is why Benson's service has nine lessons and why each one is followed by a piece music - in his version a carol or chorus. The ascending status of the readers, starting with a chorister and working upwards to the most senior person is another Sarum feature.

This took place tonight. It was previewed on Spotlight, our local Southwest BBC TV station:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03lmtdl/Spotlight_17_12_2013/

The item begins about 18'10" into the programme. Thee are some short extracts by the choir and a brief appearance by the DoM and the asst organist (Chris and Luke). A theory is put forward that the service was conceived as a gift to the townsfolk who had had their properties pulled down to make way for the new building.

[Keraulophone]

The webcast of this service can be heard via the link on this page:
http://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/day...s-overview.php

or here:
https://soundcloud.com/truro-cathedr...ns-with-carols

[DracoM]

Singing good - I like the forthright but highly musical Truro sound, but actually, I found the entire package strangely dull.

Rhythm to the service was good - well-managed spaces, sound reading, liturgically loyal to the season - but when listening to it, you realise just how far, how adventurous and even how fresh and cutting edge many of our most ambitious cathedrals are in commissioning new music and paying attention to the best of the past.

BUT as a blueprint into which those developments could be seamlessly fitted, excellent. Incidentally, complemented by the Jeremy Summerly R4 programme. Both the webcast and JS's programme need hearing together.

[Vox Humana]

More of a service, less of a concert perhaps? Or, more charitably, a more even balance between the spoken word and music and less of the celebration of Christmas music that the service has now become. Either way, a most interesting listen and hats off to Truro for resurrecting it - but, my goodness, didn't that first carol go on a bit?

[Wolsey]

No doubt someone will correct me, but I had an idea that KCC offered their celebration of the service, which Benson had devised, as a tribute to the city of Cambridge in the aftermath of the Great War. Was it at the instigation of Eric Milner-White?

Quite right. Jeremy Summerly's superb series A Cause for Caroling on the history of the carol amplifies this point; it has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since 9 December. The first programmes of the series and the first omnibus are now no longer available on BBC iPlayer. The second omnibus, however, is available until 27 December, and like the entire series, should be required listening for everyone on this forum.