CE St John's Cambridge 9.3.11

[DracoM]

CE St John's College, Cambridge 9.3.11
Ash Wednesday

Order of Service:

Responses: Radcliffe
Psalm: 51 (Allegri)
First Lesson: Isaiah 1: 10-18
Canticles: The Short Service (Hooper)
Second Lesson: Luke 15: 11-32
Anthem: Domine non secundum peccata nostra (James MacMillan) (first performance)
Hymn: Lord Jesus, think on me (Southwell)


Organ Voluntary: Aus tiefer Not BWV 686 (Bach)

Freddie James (Junior Organ Student)
Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music)

[mercia]

The Allegri gets wheeled out yet again. One hears it so often.

[DracoM]

Tradition? Probably. Not always a good guide, of course!

What would worry me just a tiny bit is that, fine enough though it is as a piece to express some Ash Wednesday aspirations, this is possibly how over years KCC got painted into a corner with the Nine Lessons brand.

Once the BBC saw that service format as 'A Good Thing', they would want it kept pretty well as it is with little room for manoeuvre for Chapel / Choir authorities. Over the years, IMO, it has ossified.

It would be good if an Ash Wednesday setting could be developed that did not press the Allegri into service, much as I like it.

[jean]

There are any number of settings they could do instead.

I'd like to hear the Josquin a lot more often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsX-T2gEM7g

[yorks_bass]

I'd like to hear someone do something approximating to the piece sung in the Sistine Chapel for best part of 300 years, rather than the Atkins abomination. There are a few decent editions, and one or two recordings. The punters (most of whom couldn't tell the difference) would still get their top Cs, and those who are bored of the usual concoction would get a new piece. Everyone's a winner.

[bach736]

Ben Byram-Wigfield provides an interesting analysis and history of the Allegri performance here :

http://www.ancientgroove.co.uk/essays/allegri.html

[ardcarp]

the Atkins abomination

...a much-loved abomination, nevertheless. But if you want something different, have you tried Miserere by The Byrd Ensemble on Audivis/Naive? Fantastic.

[yorks_bass]

...a much-loved abomination, nevertheless. But if you want something different, have you tried Miserere by The Byrd Ensemble on Audivis/Naive? Fantastic.

Yes, a CD I own, and one of the versions to which I was referring. Along with Ben Byram-Wigfield's. I wish these editions got more exposure - altogether more convincing as (a) work(s).

[ardcarp]

I distinctly remember George Guest's final Allegri. It was sung very slowly with a huge sense of breadth and mind-boggling breath-comtrol. Not to everyone's taste, maybe, but very typical of late-Guest St Johns.

[DracoM]

And those plangent GG trebles and sepulchral bassi! Oh, yes. I think I still have it on cassette tape somewhere.

Well, for me the undoubted highlight was that stunning MacMillan anthem. Made the memory of even a rather good Ps 51 recede into the distance, and certainly shaded the pretty anonymous Hooper canticles. Beautifully condiucted, beautifully sung.

JM does seem to write exceptionally well for that mix of a cappella voices, particularly good at finding the right register for boys to express and register the sadness of the text. And the lone fiddle, almost Orcadian, threading through the lament. Dramatic and worth every second.

Fine stuff.

[ardcarp]

Enjoyed the service, but couldn't that fiddler find somewhere else to practise during evensong?
Sorry! That sounds flippant. I just can't share Draco's enthusiasm for MacMillan. It always sounds to me like lots of quite nice-sounding bits shoved together at random with some inappropriate Scotch snaps thrown in. I just have a blind spot for it, I'm afraid.

Mrs A and I sat down and enjoyed the Lenten atmosphere up to that point however, and, going back to an earlier post, I'm glad the BBC preserves the tradition of a visit to St Johns on Ash Wednesday with all the trappings including Ps51.

[DracoM]

I fear on second hearing that it wasn't an entirely mistake-free service. But hey, what live service is?

Still like the MacMillian - pace ardcarp! - the Allegri was maybe just a tad untidy in places? And I just began to have a lurking wonder if the 'top' boy was separately miked? Can anyone who was there reveal? Good lusty singing elsewhere, boys maybe a little overwhelmed by the back rows until the anthem when IMO they really stepped up to be counted pretty impressively.

[decantor]

Just occasionally, Macmillan is a bit too demanding of the listener for a liturgical context. This piece (can we just call it Non secundum?) was well judged, and did the job for me......apart from the fiddle. Once established, the fiddle worked well enough, and its solo interlude was fine, but its opening moments left me mystified - it added nothing to the choral passages where it first hinted at its presence. (Incidentally, I read somewhere that John's have also commissioned works by Giles Swayne, John McCabe, Gabriel Jackson, Judith Weir and Jonathan Harvey for their quincentenary: that's quite a galaxy if it's true.)

I've been listening to the Allegri for nearly 60 years: how I pine for just some tiny variation on Atkins - even some naff chromaticism would do. Still, no doubt one youngster will sleep better tonight than last, and he did all that was asked, though I usually found myself listening to the Treble 2. The choral scholars at John's are bravura singers, and have tended to swamp the top line over the last five years, but I thought the timbre of today's trebles was excellent - tightly focused, both steely and sweet - and was heard to best effect in the Macmillan. I enjoyed the service.

On the technical point: I'll swear that, in the Allegri, there was a difference in ambience (the background 'buzz') between the 4-part solo unit and the full chorus. Perhaps they were separated in the chapel, and so individual miking was a necessity.

[ardcarp]

though I usually found myself listening to the Treble 2

.

Yes indeed! It's the hardest part to tune, and yesterday's No. 2 did very well. He had a different timbre from No 1 (less of a head voice...more reedy) which was interesting. The men of the choir sounded very fine (perhaps one slightly edgy tenor) and agreed they were at times on the verge of outsinging the trebles. But hey, we're being picky. It was a great CE, MacMillan and all.

[switchedon]

Incidentally, I read somewhere that John's have also commissioned works by Giles Swayne, John McCabe, Gabriel Jackson, Judith Weir and Jonathan Harvey for their quincentenary: that's quite a galaxy if it's true

According to their website, the Choir have commissioned five works for the College's Quincentenary by MacMillan, Harvey, Rutter, Weir and James Long (who wrote a piece for them last year through their Choir and Organ partnership). But you're right in the last couple of years they've had McCabe, Gabriel Jackson, Swayne and Panufnik also. Quite an impressive list and all of the anniversary composers' names begin with J!