Chapel of Merton College, Oxford 26.xii.2018 [R]

[DracoM]

Chapel of Merton College, Oxford 26.xii.2018
The Feast of St Stephen


Order of Service:


Introit: Welcome Yule! (Parry)
Responses: Radcliffe
Office hymn: Jesu, the father’s only Son (Christe Redemptor omnium)
Psalms 57, 86 (Hine, Battishill, Lord Mornington)
First Lesson: Genesis 4 vv.1-10
Canticles: Dyson in D
Second Lesson: Acts 7 vv.51-60
Anthem: And I saw a new heaven (Bainton)
Hymn: It came upon the midnight clear (Noel)

Voluntary: Cantata No 29, BWV.29 (Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir) (Sinfonia) (Bach, arr. Guilmant)


Alex Little & Tom Fetherstonhaugh (Organists)
Benjamin Nicholas (Director of Music)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001rcf

I am assuming this is recorded: AFAICS, the college website does not list such a service

[Keraulophone]

I discovered the other day when cleaning under the piano that my handheld vacuum cleaner was a Dyson in D.

[ahinton]

I discovered the other day when cleaning under the piano that my handheld vacuum cleaner was a Dyson in D.

Not a Miele-haud, then?

[Keraulophone]

Not a Miele-haud, then?

No, I use that for scaring the cows (and, at this time of year, reindeer) off the roof.

[ardcarp]

I discovered the other day when cleaning under the piano that my handheld vacuum cleaner was a Dyson in D.

Hope it had good sumsion....

[jonfan]

This was recorded in September the day after a live CE which was a beautifully sung service, so keenly looking forward to it.

[DracoM]

So actually before term officially began?

[Pulcinella]

So actually before term officially began?

Yes: jonfan mentioned this in the thread on their September broadcast.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?19239-CE-Chapel-of-Merton-College-Oxford-Wed-12th-Sept-L/page2

[jonfan]

The singing of this choir is always beautiful with perfect intonation, balance, and expressivo singing to every phrase. An hour’s pleasure; just what I needed on St Stephen’s Day. The Parry was new to me and quite flirty for him. Clear, communicative psalm singing. The choir can give it heft when needed in the canticles, which generated quite a bit of exciting drama with the sopranos scaling the heights with thrilling singing.
Calm for the soul in the exquisite Bainton, but for me the highlight of the whole service was the unlisted ‘In the bleak’ to Cranham; no fuss, just so beautifully simple, proving again that less is more. Apt prayers delivered with sincerity and reverence. Unnoticed engineering so must be good.
The sound of this choir reminds me of the Trinity choir under Richard Marlow which also had beauty and purity of sound at its heart.
Thank you Merton

[ardcarp]

Just caught up with this today. As jonfan says, excellent singing. The Parry is deceptively simple...in fact quite difficult to pull off, which they did with aplomb.
Listening carefully to the tenors and basses, were they really all choral scholars? At least two sounded very professional and rounded...in a good way!

[mopsus]

I'm a Mertonian and a Friend of the choir. I can't speak for certain about this service, which I didn't go to, but they have used 'bumpers' in the form of past members of the choir in at least one of their previous evensong broadcasts.

I didn't really detect the distinctive acoustic of the chapel, audible on many of the commercial recordings made there.

I did feel a little sorry for Simon Jones, the Chaplain, with that long first collect that did not seem to have even a semicolon's worth of pause in it!