CE Chapel of Bramdean School, Exeter 14th March 1990

[DracoM]

CE Chapel of Bramdean School, Exeter
Archive: first transmitted 14.iii.90



Order of Service:


Introit: O Lord God (Buck)
Responses: Darke
Psalm 73 (Plainsong with Fauxbourdons)
First Lesson: Exodus 8: 1-9
Office Hymn: Father of Heaven, whose love profound (Rievaulx)
Canticles: Harris in D
Second Lesson: Colossians 4: 2-18
Anthem: Ex Ore innocentium (Ireland)
Hymn: The day Thou gavest (St.Clement. Desc. Barry Rose)



Voluntary: Harmonies du Soir (Karg-Elert)



Organist: Christopher Meech
Master of the Choir: D. George Hanson

[Magnificat]

Wonder why we have an archive recording this early in the new term? ( a good one though and one that has been mentioned quite often on this and previous boards ) Boys only - the only one I can remember.

Was this broadcast always scheduled or has a choir dropped out for some reason?

VCC

[DracoM]

Reminder @ 3.30 p.m. today

[Chris Watson]

Lovely to hear. I sang there occasionally around that time when I was a choral scholar at Exeter. And what a splendid story about Frogs. Nothing a bit of butter and garlic wouldn't have sorted out.

[jean]

Wonder why we have an archive recording this early in the new term?

Because there was to be a live concert immediately before it?

[mw963]

Wonder why we have an archive recording this early in the new term? ( a good one though and one that has been mentioned quite often on this and previous boards ) Boys only - the only one I can remember.

Was this broadcast always scheduled or has a choir dropped out for some reason?

VCC

I can't give you a definite answer but the BBC are kind enough to send me a quarterly list of forthcoming CE broadcasts and that does indeed list Bramdean School (Archive) for today. The list comes out a couple of months in advance of the period that it actually covers so I would assume that this broadcast has been planned for a long while....

I was expecting the "other" Bramdean broadcast which went out in the early 1990s..... and which I think I still have (at least parts of) on digital tape. There was obviously a love of Karg Elert's music as the other broadcast featured him for the voluntary too.

I do wish that the announcer wouldn't patronise me by saying I have another "chance" to hear the broadcast when it's repeated on Sunday. I would prefer to have "another opportunity". Probably just me, but it annoys me week after week after week.

Oh well, switched off now that "you know who" is on. Won't be back until next Wednesday.

(Whinge whine groan moan etc)

[chitreb]

A quality CE. I thought the BBC must have mixed up the tapes and played a cathedral choir. Assuming entry to this school is not by "voice trial" it just shows what a good DoM can do with young voices. The lower parts who joined in the hymns were pretty decent too (in light of CW's comments above were the local Lay Clerks lending a hand?). Only slight concern for me was what seemed to be a timing issue between the upper and lower voices in the last hymn.

[ardcarp]

I was expecting the "other" Bramdean broadcast which went out in the early 1990s..... and which I think I still have (at least parts of) on digital tape.

So was I. And I'm actually rather disappointed they chose this one. The next broadcast by them (largely the same kids but with far more oomph, confidence and sheer volume) was IMO miles better. They did a more exciting psalm (104) Long's Canticles and Harris's King of Glory, a splendid piece. I did enjoy Ex Ore Innocentium today which was sweetly and quite poignantly sung.

As you say, lets have that one for an archive CE one day. It has proper ATB in the hymns too.

The choir used to sing services in the RC rite (mainly Vespers) and did a lot of 'Vienna Boys' Choir' type repertory. In many ways they were more at home in that genre. Pity they never broadcast it.

Any organ buff care to take a punt at the organ builder?

[mw963]

Allen. (We (local organ assoc) had a visit there in about 1994).

Like you I thought the other broadcast was better. I've got the anthem and voluntary on tape but not the rest. I believe they did a "Sunday Worship" (probably called something more conventional back then) on Radio 4 in the early 90s as well as the two Evensongs. Certainly *something* on Radio 4.

[ardcarp]

Correct. It is a large Allen, sounding fairly convincing in that big acoustic. I was hoping someone who didn't know might disgrace themselves by thinking it was the real thing! The school does (or did) possess a small 2 manual pipe organ which was sort of portable. I think they shoved that up in the gallery and put the electronic speakers behind/inside it.

[mw963]

I've made a mental note not to answer questions of the type ardcarp has just posed in future. Seems a shame that one must be on the look out for "traps" on this forum.

[DracoM]

Organ buffs ENJOY asking and answering such questions and debating the answers - it's what they do! Get over it! Happens all the time on these threads.

[mw963]

If you say so....

[Keraulophone]

The (Un)expected Sound

Ardcarp,

While the Truro Father Willis was having a £300,000 wash & brush-up around twenty years ago, a Copeman Hart digital monster did stand-in duty. It included a harpsichord stop, a Harmonic Flute especially 'voiced' for David Briggs, and a hefty bombarde section whose four massive 'speakers were located at the back of the west gallery, where they invariably frightened the life out of audience members who ventured up there for concerts.

A broadcast CE from that period brought the usual large number of appreciative hand-written letters, including one from Dr Stanley Vann (centurian legend of Peterborough), who concluded by remarking that it had been wonderful to hear the Father Willis sound so magnificent on the wireless. He wasn't the only one to be mistaken, however, though perhaps the biggest name.

It may be a relief to know that parts of Dr Vann's letter did not creep into Copeman Hart's (at the time) extensive advertising using testimonials from the famous!

I much enjoyed listening to (the specialised) Bramdean School Chapel choir from a similar vintage. (The broadcast was originally produced by Barry Rose, then the BBC's music adviser to religious broadcasting, now 'choral advisor/workshops' for the school.) I'd welcome more broadcasts from the archives, particularly from Christ Church, Oxford back in the late 1970s, when one would roll up to evensong and happen upon the whole of 'Jesu, meine Freude' as a weekday anthem.

Bws.

[mopsus]

.... particularly from Christ Church, Oxford back in the late 1970s, when one would roll up to evensong and happen upon the whole of 'Jesu, meine Freude' as a weekday anthem.

Wasn't there some College politics behind the choice of anthem on that occasion, so that Evensong would be certain to overrun? (I believe it may have been the 15th evening too!) The story of that particular evensong was still doing the rounds at Oxford when I was there a few years later, but I can't remember the details.