CE New College, Oxford Feb 5th 2014

[DracoM]

CE New College, Oxford



Order of Service:



Introit: A custodia matutina (Mondonville)
Responses: Smith
Psalms: 27, 28 (Cooper, Hylton Stewart)
First Lesson: Baruch 5
Office Hymn: Jerusalem, my happy home (Southwell)
Canticles: Purcell in G minor
Second Lesson: Mark 1:1-11
Anthem: Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (BWV 230) (Bach)
Hymn: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (Lobe den Herren)



Organ Voluntary: Praeludium in G minor (BuxWV 149) (Buxtehude)




Benjamin Bloor (Organ Scholar)
Edward Higginbottom (Director of Music)

[Keraulophone]

This is probably Prof. Higginbottom's final R3 broadcast CE from New College as College Organist (DoM), appropriately containing outright masterworks and a favourite Buxtehude 149 (first learnt of through an old OU film of G. Hendrie, showing the internal workings of the organ as he played brilliantly).

Will the Mag & Nunc be elevated to Purcell in A flat between the balance test and the broadcast, I wonder? Last time I visited, the unfortunate Organ Scholar was made to transpose The Wilderness by a semitone (forgotten the direction), at short notice. It took me a few moments to realise why all was not well, with both choir and organist. I'm sure Ben Bloor will remain Farr calmer.

[ardcarp]

Will the Mag & Nunc be elevated to Purcell in A flat

Well, if it is, I hope it's A flat minor otherwise we'll have a really interesting CE. Seriously though, can''t wait...and will this really be the last time we get the psalter according to Higginbottom?

[Vox Humana]

Only yesterday I was reading a review of vol.23 of The Purcell Society Edition, which covers his services. Apparently the editors (Margaret Laurie and Bruce Wood) have relegated the Mag and Nunc in G minor to an appendix on the grounds that it is more likely to be by Daniel Purcell. I know not why, however. Still a fun setting, either way, of course.

[DracoM]

Good showcase for all parts of the choir, especially that celebrated NCO treble voice production.

BTW, just found this on the NCO website:

http://www.newcollegechoir.com/1/category/press/1.html

EH on treble singing - well, almost.

[Miles Coverdale]

The edition most people use of Purcell in G minor is printed in A minor, and that of Purcell in B flat is printed in C, yet they routinely appear on music lists as G minor and B flat.

I've never liked the Gloria to the Nunc of the G minor service, which definitely isn't by Purcell, and to me is the musical equivalent of electro-convulsive therapy. As Robert King wrote in his liner notes to his recording of the piece: 'At the end of the Nunc Dimittis Purcell clearly intended the Gloria to the Magnificat to be repeated, as had been the custom in ‘everyday’ settings of the canticles for a hundred years. However, generations of church musicians have sung a splendidly extended (but hopelessly anachronistic) Gloria which the York manuscript states was written by Thomas Roseingrave (1688-1766), more than doubling the length of Purcell’s Nunc Dimittis.'

[Wolsey]

The edition most people use of Purcell in G minor is printed in A minor, and that of Purcell in B flat is printed in C, yet they routinely appear on music lists as G minor and B flat.

Quite so. Chapel Royal pitch then was high: A = c 466Hz, so the G minor and B flat settings in modern editions come 'ready prepared'. That said, transposition has certainly been the most frequently used skill of NCO organ scholars...

[ardcarp]

transposition has certainly been the most frequently used skill of NCO organ scholars...

G minor to Ab flat minor is not on the face of it too hard because you can read the same dots and imagine 5 sharps instead of two flats....making a mental note that F sharp becomes F double sharp. Personally I think I'd find pushing everything up one place to A minor safer...particularly if done under pressure (heaven forbid).

[Miles Coverdale]

Quite so. Chapel Royal pitch then was high: A = c 466Hz, so the G minor and B flat settings in modern editions come 'ready prepared'.

True, although A=466 is only a semitone above A=440, not a tone. Ideally, they should sound in G# minor and B major, relative to A=440.

[Wolsey]

Ideally, they should sound in G# minor and B major, relative to A=440.

We wait to hear, then, if the legendary NCO transposition skill will be exercised once again...

[Roger Judd]

I don't understand all the talk about transposition at NCO; and why on earth would one either want, or need, to perform The Wilderness (presumably SSW's version of the work) in a key other than the one he wrote it in? Forgive a Cambridge man's ignorance!
RJ

[ardcarp]

...something to do with altos maybe?

Incidentally the most thrilling performance of The Wilderness I heard was a live broadcast from a London Chuch (Hamastead, Martindale Sidwell?) when a young James Bowman was singing there. I can hear it in the mind's ear even now.

[light_calibre_baritone]

Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (1711 - 1772), French court composer.

Highly underrated in my honest opinion; we should be in for a treat with the introit. In the mean-time, here's a sublime 'Grand Motet' by him... http://youtu.be/5h-it3qddkU

[Keraulophone]

'...why on earth would one either want, or need, to perform The Wilderness ... in a key other than the one he wrote it in?'
RJ

I've been harbouring similar thoughts for nearly forty years... but would you dare ask the Prof. before he leaves NC?!

I once had the temerity to ask EH why he wanted his senior trebles to use so much vibrato that any choral blend was impossible. His slightly waspish reply: his aim was for every treble to be trained to sing to the natural potential of their individual voices, so that the tutti would be able to balance with an orchestra (HIP or modern), irrespective of the effect on the overall blend of the sound. I don't think Karajan would have agreed with him, but then he wasn't that rare thing, a Professor of Choral Music.

[ardcarp]

NCO trebles are a phenomenon. No doubt the sound will change soon enough. I'm personally thankful to have EH's recorded legacy. Occasionally they're OTT, but so what. How dull life would be if all choirs sounded the same.