CE Chester Cathedral 11th July 2012

[ardcarp]

Discussion too easily turns sour, and mention of certain aspects of cathedral singing can bring down on one's head a shed-load of disapprobation from fellow-boarders.

It certainly has very often; but so far Chester has elicited nothing but sweetness and light...an endless morn of light in fact.

[RAC]

I loved it and have no criticisms to make! I thought they produced a splendidly full sound and I've always adored that H&H, especialy the rich flues. Great, fruity psalms (singing and playing). From where is that 'through-composed' rich accomp. of Engelberg available, anyone? The Bridge is an underplayed tour de force and taken at the perfect pace here. I'm buzzing from the whole show - apols, service!

The Engelberg accompaniments were by its composer - Stanford. The fullest version I have is in RSCM Festival Service Book 6 (1971) where it is set to the 8 verses of "For all the saints" with 7 different accompaniments (vv. 2 & 3 the same) ending with 6 bars of organ then a plagal Amen, the setting is Copyright Stainer & Bell 1908.

In the early 1950s as a young treble I remember we used to sing "For all the saints" to Engelberg one year and Sine Nomine the next, I wonder whether (m)any places use Engelberg for it now.

Happily Engelberg is now commonly sung, to "All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine" by F Bland Tucker (1895-1984) as on Wednesday, and also to "When in our music God is glorified" by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000). Sing Praise (2010) sets it to "Go to the world! Go into all the earth" by Sylvia Dunstan (1955-93) and also to "Let us rejoice: God's gift to us is peace!" by Martin Leckebusch (b.1962).

The accompaniments to the 5 verses of Wednesday's hymn are 5 of the 7 mentioned above, they can be seen in the settings of "For all the saints" in BBC Songs of Praise (199 ii) and Ancient & Modern Revised (527 i).

According to the short history of the organ on the Cathedral web site Gray & Davison built a new organ in 1844 and since then Whiteley Bros. of Chester (1876), William Hill & Son (1910), and Rushworth & Dreaper (1969) have done work on it. Since 1991 it has been in the care of David Wells of Liverpool, so no input from H & H!

RAC

[Pegasus]

I thought Chester gave us a fine service this week: the music was interesting, and the choir did well with it. But I hesitate these days to comment on CE in detail. Discussion too easily turns sour, and mention of certain aspects of cathedral singing can bring down on one's head a shed-load of disapprobation from fellow-boarders.

I quite agree. With both sentences.

This, I did feel, was a glimpse afforded to us of a sincere act of worship. The music was positive and imaginative in performance. The RRB introit (whose writing for voice I do enjoy, despite the often challenging tessitura) showed careful attention to ensemble singing, especially to the balance of parts when textures changed, something I felt to be reinforced by the magical opening choral homophony of the Parry.

Dare I say how much I enjoyed the organ opening of the anthem, which led me to recall some great recordings of orchestral transcriptions/realisations made on that organ from RF's vintage ...

[Finzi4ever]

Apols, I meant Hill

[mw963]

Apropos of nothing other than Chester, I was reminded by this thread of a fantastic (I'm sounding like La Dereham there) broadcast evensong they did in 1998. It was all top notch, superb psalm singing amongst others, but the highlight was Richard Shephard's setting of "Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem" as the anthem. Sadly Optimod FM did its best to undo the very skillful dynamic range that Messrs Poulter and Eccles and the choir had envisaged, but a few years ago I remastered it (sounds rather grand) back to how I imagine it should have sounded. Moody, playful, and also a good fine blast, particularly the contrasting Alleluias at the end! Salisbury did it a few years later and in comparison their version fell flat on its face.

That broadcast stands out for me as one of the highlights of the last 20 odd years - bet no one else remembers it.

[Double Diapason]

No one has mentioned if it was boys or girls!!! Is the "cat" on holiday???

Girls to my ears BTW and they were stunning too.

[gainasbass]

....and what about the female alto(s)??!

[oliviahunt]

Hello sorry this is so let but in answer to your questions , the girl choristers sang the introit and then it was both boy and girl choristers together for the rest.the secret has been revealed. I was singing in it.

[french frank]

Hello sorry this is so let but in answer to your questions , the girl choristers sang the introit and then it was both boy and girl choristers together for the rest.the secret has been revealed. I was singing in it.

As the adage has it: Better late ...

Welcome to the forum, too!

[DracoM]

...........and the alto?