Brett Dean, the composer of last year's commissioned carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge has just been awarded the Grawemeyer Music Prize.
The order of service for this year's service is expected to be published online in the next two weeks.
Labels: Brett Dean, King's College (Cambridge)
Many astute organists (Stephen Cleobury and his minions at King's College, Cambridge, England; John Scott and his assistants at St. Thomas, New York; and Rob Lehman at St. Michael and St. George, St. Louis . . . surely there are others . . .) have remembered to play Howells's marvelous "Sarabande for the Twelfth of any October" today.
Howells included this movement in his Partita for organ as a tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was born on this day.
Alas, alack, I do not play this piece as of yet, though it is my life's goal to perform all of the organ music of Howells.
Sunday, October 12, 2014 here I come.
Update 14 Oct 2008: Osbert Parsley does the math and finds that 2183 is the next Vaughan Williams anniversary year where the Twelfth of October falls on a Sunday
Labels: Howells, King's College (Cambridge), St Thomas (New York)
Ord -- no, not the airport in Chicago -- was born on this day in 1897.
His one published composition is Adam lay ybounden
In the last decade, it has been performed at 60% of the Festivals of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge), Ord
This afternoon is the eve of the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. John is the man who heralded Jesus' coming.
Today is also just about as far away as we can get from Christmas. The festivities of Christmas 2007 seem a distant memory, while Christmas 2008 is surely a long way off.
So what better day to announce a bit of Nativitytide fun in spreadsheet form:
The King's College Festival of Lessons and Carols (1997-2007)
YELLOW - hymns
PINK - In Dulci Jubilo settings (because there's at least one a year, right? but they move around)
asterisk (*) - denotes a commissioned carol
Labels: King's College (Cambridge)
The Choir of King's College Cambridge stopped in Cincinnati, Ohio last week to sing a concert at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral. Interestingly, this Roman Catholic edifice stands across the street from the Isaac M. Wise temple, which Sinden.org visited and photographed in March 2006.
Web site tangent: The cathedral website looks pretty nice on first blush but contains some pretty glaring errors. Spelling-wise "Calender" and "alter" come to mind. More to the point, I couldn't order my ticket to the concert online, because the order form was not secure
Being the most famous choir of men and boys in the world, it is not surprising that the 1,000-seat cathedral was filled to capacity. What was surprising is that the front half of the cathedral was militantly reserved for cathedral music "patrons". While this was mildly offensive at first, I soon realized that the strict ushers guarding white ribbons dividing the cabin into first-class and coach sections were simply reminding us of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.
So, listening from about halfway down the nave in a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Midwestern United States, I heard one of my favorite choirs in person for the first time.
The concert began with Tudor works by Gibbons, Weelkes and Tompkins which were ably, but not memorably sung.
The choir then processed back out leaving Tom Kimber, the junior Organ Scholar to perform Verset pour la Fête de la Dédicace (1960). The audience, however, would have none of it -- at least not during the performance. The atmosphere during this first organ piece was one of excited chit-chat before Sunday morning church, and not that of an audience enjoying a performance at $45 a pop. I found this kind of disrespect for the organ performance reprehensible, and I hope that this kind of behavior did not manifest itself on the rest of the choir's tour.
a spoonful of Tudor makes the Messiaen go down
That being said, the Verset is perhaps not the most well known of Messiaen's music (is any of Messiaen's music really well known?), but in a centennial year (noted in the program notes) I think concert goers, especially those moving in ecclesiastical circles could expect to encounter a bit more of his music this year. Even if King's programming of this work skews toward the more "academic" approach, well, why shouldn't it? After all, a spoonful of Tudor makes the Messiaen go down, or it least it should have. Shame on the duplicitous Cincinnati audience, who essentially ignored the performance, and then applauded it heartily.
The choir returned in a Lenten mood to sing a sumptuously evocative "O vos omnes" of Pablo Casals. The peneitential motets of Poulenc, aside from fleeting uncertainties in the opening "Timor et tremor", were remarkable for their powerful dynamic range.
Intermission provided ample opportunity to gawk at another choir in the audience: the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Terrace Park, Ohio. The trebles of that choir were clearly star-struck.
From the opening notes of Bach's motet "Lobet den Herrn", one Terrace Park treble in particular, exhibited what can only be described as a sympathetic bounciness. While he must have felt that the energy of that performance was palpable, the King's trebles at the front of the room were having a harder time feeling the beat. The culprit in this case being the organ, which was consistently behind the beat in this work. At one point toward the end of the first section the trebles, a particularly young looking group, were so confounded by the conflicting beats that they dropped all of their notes for about a bar before being able to recover.
A much more refreshing Bach was then heard from the organ alone: the hearty E-flat Major Prelude performed by Peter Stevens, the senior Organ Scholar. I can only infer that Stevens's elegant performance is a testament to the rigors of his training and daily performance at King's Chapel. The prelude was decidedly accurate and musical, a model of British refinement.
The choir redeemed their unfortunate Bach motet with powerfully resonant renditions of works by British composers. The dense harmonies of the Michael Tippet's Plebs angelica and modern rhetoric of the Britten "Antiphon" proved no match for this truly Anglican choral ensemble. The crowning achievement of this set, and the evening, was Vaughan Williams's visceral "Lord, though hast been our refuge", which sufficiently brought the house down so as to reveal Walton's intimate "Set me as a seal" as an encore.
Throughout the evening, the audience craned their necks en masse at every treble solo, endeavoring to see what innocent, angelic soul had been chosen to produce such sweet sound. It seemed that the neck-craners were, to a man, the same people who couldn't keep their mouths shut for the Messiaen, with one exception.
Remember that bouncy Terrace Park treble? He returned from intermission cradling his new, shrink-wrapped compact disc of Purcell and literally stood up on his pew to see the first treble soloist.
His wide-eyed awe and enthusiasm reminded me that he wasn't just listening to a concert, he was also listening to a tradition, one in which he does his best to take part.
As it turns out, I almost had the best seat in the house.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge), review
For the last few years about this time (two weeks before Christmas), King's College in Cambridge, England, quietly posts the leaflet for their Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
The 2007 leaflet [PDF - 247 KB] was posted today.
The bidding carol, "Glory, alleluia to the Christ Child!", is by Alan Bullard (b. 1947). You can view the first page of this carol [PDF - 50 KB] from Oxford University Press. An MP3 sample [785 KB] reveals a little more.
The first carol after the Second Lesson is accompanied by a note indicating that it was transcribed by Emma Disley while the choir was on tour.
The College's commissioned carol follows the Third Lesson. It is "Stardust and vaporous light" composed by Australian composer Brett Dean. The carol probably will not be available from Boosey & Hawkes until some time next year.
An Arvo Part commission from 1990 surfaces after the Fifth Lesson.
After the Sixth Lesson is Elgar's "I sing the birth was born tonight". We'll have to check past leaflets, but we think it has been some time since this carol has been part of the service. Perhaps its inclusion has to do with the sesquicentennial of Elgar's birth?
The new material doesn't stop with choral music. The second concluding voluntary is a "Sortie on 'In dulci jubilo'" composed for the service by David Briggs.
Labels: church music, King's College (Cambridge)
William Crotch has a funny name. I know this because choristers laugh when you say it. Also, on a few copies of the choristers' music, his last name is circled.
So, ha ha. Very funny. But who is this William Crotch exactly? Well, turns out his name may be funny, but Crotch was a serious musician.
The son of a carpenter (like Jesus?), Crotch was a musical child prodigy. At 18 months, he was already picking out tunes on the family house organ (also like Jesus?)
Now, back in the time of Crotch (is that a good name for a band, or what?), the circus was a popular form of entertainment. Unlike today, however, circuses (pronounced: SIR-cuh-sees) consisted not of animal entertainment, but mostly child entertainment. It is for this reason that persons with Dwarfism were often employed by later circuses: they were the new "children" in an era of oppressive child-labor laws.
HIDDEN (a Crotch size clarification): There's nothing small about our Crotch. He eventually reaches full size.
In the circus, William Crotch resided in a tent that contained an organ, whereupon he would bedazzle his listeners with his improvisations. These were probably not great musical feats, but for a two year old to improvise chords to a melody learned by ear is certainly something. Also, he got free cotton candy.
HIDDEN (inappropriate remark): One wonders if this tent had a fly, and whether it was open or closed.
Today's "soccer moms" descend from a league of overbearing "circus moms" who enlisted their young children in these precocious presentations of prodigy. Crotch's mother, Isabella, accompanied Crotch and the circus on a grand world tour.
HIDDEN (another one): It was in this way that her young Crotch gained much exposure.
Anyway, long story short. Crotch the freak-show boy-wonder grew up to be Crotch the mildly adequate composer. Though he did play the organ at Kings College, Cambridge, which is pretty cool.
Incidentally, when I program my own concerts, I want to end up with a poster that looks like this:
Crotch
selections from Palestine
also, music by Bach, including his
Air on the G String
Crotch also may have provided the basis for Louis Vierne's Carillon de Westminster if he did indeed design the Westminster Chime.
Crotch the painter: Crotch's talent didn't limit itself to music. He was also a painter.
Alma mater tangent: It is with not a small amount of pride and a tinge of nostalgia that I note that an image search for crotch brings up a number of unflattering pictures of Paris Hilton and photo taken in an Oberlin music theory classroom.
Labels: Advertising, funny names, King's College (Cambridge), Oberlin, organ, William Crotch
Early!
Kings College, Cambridge, England, has just posted the order for this year's Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. You can get it in PDF format on the Nine Lessons and Carols page.
My initial reactions:
Evacuation Routes and Procedures on Page 2. Very hot.
Flor Peeters makes an appearance in the Prelude. That seems new.
Who's R. Jaques? Has King's done that In Dulci Jublio before?
O. Goldschmidt? That's not familiar either. The lack of first names is getting annoying already.
The medieval carol, "Edi beo thu" looks like fun.
Ahh! Warlock I don't know! That should be fun.
The author's last name is Ballet? Weird. And who is D. Blackford?
I love the Gardiner. It will be nice to hear King's sing it. I think perhaps a chart of recent services should be prepared so that we can see if they have sung any of these pieces before.
WOW! A Tavener setting of "Away in a manger." An unusual text for him. The commissioned carol this year. This should be very interesting.
And new Cleobury, "Be merry, be merry . . ."
The Bach setting interests me. I don't know about the pairing of the Magnificat BWV 243 with this text. Heck, there's a lot I don't know. Maybe I should move to England.
Postlude: Francis Pott?
Okay. Lots of names I don't know, and some things I am really excited about hearing. This service represents the best of liturgy, I think. Something that is grounded in history and tradition and yet always adapted to the time at hand.
This is really poorly written, I know. But at least you know the document is available, and maybe you're wondering about the same things I am.
Labels: King's College (Cambridge)
©MMVII sinden.org: a site for fun and prophet
