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wolsey

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Posts posted by wolsey

  1. Piet Kee's Fantasia on Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers, wake) is a possibility. It was originally published as one of Two Pieces by Hinrichsen (H810b), now Edition Peters.  It's long been out of print, but it looks as if it can be purchased again from abroad. In addition, libraries may have it on their shelves.  If you can get hold of Volume 1 of Choralvorspiele für Orgel zum Gotteslob (Carus catalogue no. 18.202), Kai Schreiber's bluesy chorale prelude Herr, send herab uns deinen Sohn is effective. A redacted preview is viewable on page 19 of the document here.

  2. 5 hours ago, contraviolone said:

    [..]

    2) Make the space and depth considerably bigger in the Quire screen as they have done with King's College Cambridge, where by digging down forming a pit they've housed the bottom notes of the 32' reed, the bottom notes of the 32' Double Open Wood, [..]

    While there are some pipes of the 32' Double Open Wood in the south screen, are not the longest of them lying horizontally behind the west side of the screen?

  3. On 24/01/2023 at 13:04, Martin Cooke said:

    [...]The other 'habit' that seems to have set in fairly recently, is for the DoM to leave the choir to 'get on with it' during the Psalms whilst not playing themselves. [...]

    It's far from recent, and appears to be a return to what was the case decades ago; I've now gone back to doing it myself. During my younger years, I remember noting that Philip Ledger at King's, George Guest at Johns (including Peter Hurford during GHG's sabbatical), and both Sidney Campbell and Christopher Robinson at Windsor being absent from the quire at the start of service (often in the organ-loft), and coming down either during or after the first lesson to conduct the Magnificat etc. The reason for this? The choir (especially the top line) needs to concentrate totally on accuracy of pointing and ensemble in the psalms, and the skill of listening along and across the stalls is heightened. The skill is demonstrated by a number of a cappella choirs without a conductor (e.g. King's Singers) - and, of course, chamber music ensembles and others.  Incidentally, I know of one foundation where until 2001, the then DoM often accompanied the psalms.

  4. It's probably earlier - December 1924 - and another sleuth on social media has posted a scan (too large to upload here) of a review of the LNER Musical Society's Christmas concert which states that the conductor is William Johnson Galloway. A highlight was the cantata Christmas Eve, specially written for the occasion and dedicated to the society by Stanley Marchant, then Sub-Organist of St Paul's Cathedral - whom I believe to be at the organ console. The soloists were Lillian Stiles-Allen and Dorothy Clark.

  5. 16 hours ago, Robert Bowles said:

    [...] Harry got an LVO when he eventually retired from the Chapel Royal some years later.

    Harry was appointed MVO (fourth class) - now known as LVO - in the 1961 Birthday Honours and promoted to CVO in the 1974 New Year Honours on his retirement. 

    16 hours ago, Robert Bowles said:

    [...] Richard succeeded Harry at the Chapel Royal, and got his LVO when he retired from that post. 

     

    Richard was promoted to LVO on his retirement having been appointed MVO in the 1990 Birthday Honours.

  6. 20 hours ago, Rowland Wateridge said:

    Sir William McKie was an MVO as well as his Knighthood, awarded respectively for the music at our late Queen’s wedding in 1947 and Coronation in 1953.  Christopher Robinson is CVO and Sidney Campbell was MVO, both, I assume, for their service at St George’s Chapel Windsor.  So there are some variations among these.

    Until 1985, the post-nominal 'MVO' was used for both MVO (fourth class) and MVO (fifth class). Both McKie and Campbell were appointed MVO (fourth class) - in other words, what is today an LVO. Christopher Robinson was appointed LVO in 1986 before being promoted to CVO on his move from Windsor to Cambridge. For a church musician at the royal peculiars/St Paul's/W Abbey, such a promotion within the Order as Dr Robinson's is rare.

  7. On 28/07/2022 at 09:29, Tony Newnham said:

    Hi

    Martin's is a name I'd heard but know little about him, not having had much to do with the RSCM, having worked mainly in free churches with no choirs.

    However, I'm playing at my local Parish Church the next couple of Sundays (St Mark, Bilton, RUGBY).  I had an e-mail from the choir co-ordinator last night suggesting we sing Martin How's "Day by Day" as an anthem in his memory, and could I accompany it?  A fitting memorial.

    Looks reasonably straightforward, so hopefully that will go ahead.  I gather that the service is live streamed starting around 9:50 (and I'm told the live stream includes both voluntaries!

     

    The RSCM Millennium Youth Choir sang it as an introit at evensong on Wednesday at Winchester Cathedral as a tribute to Martin. The RSCM has posted their practice of it earlier that day as the organisation's tribute to him.

  8. 7 hours ago, Vox Humana said:

    Again, if I'm not mistaken, a royal grant rather than a political one. He must be credited for putting both Renaissance/Tudor polyphony and the Westminster choir firmly on the musical map and he is remembered for that better than for being an organist.  I imagine these are what earned him his knighthood, but I've always thought it a slightly strange decision, considering that Percy Buck had to sack him from the editorship of the Carnigie Trust Tudor Church Music series because of his slapdash—or, rather, lack of— scholarship (getting emanuenses to do the work and submitting their error-ridden efforts unchecked and uncorrected—one of the Taverner volumes was specifically cited) and he is said to have lost his Westminster job for other chaotic unreliability. [...]

    Having read this article (subscription access), I wonder if Terry's knighthood was a calculated means of applying balm after the unhappy episode of his being sacked from the editorship. Both events happened in 1922, and the citation ("For research work in early English manuscripts in music") becomes even more telling. Other aspects about him are revealed here.

  9. 29 minutes ago, DaveHarries said:

    I believe that Andrew Carwood's MBE was for services to choral (and religious?) music - or something to that effect - but if anyone ever deserved something for services to choral and religious music it would take just two letters to convey who I am thinking about: FJ.

    Dave

    The citation is "Founder Director, The Cardinall’s Musick and Director of Music, St Paul’s Cathedral. For services to Choral Music". I suspect that the honour is more related to his work over more than thirty years with the Cardinall's Musick because with the exception of Charles Macpherson who suffered an untimely death and Malcolm Archer who was in post for three years, five of his predecessors have been honoured within the Royal Victorian Order.

  10. 1 hour ago, Denis O'Connor said:

    May I suggest the name of Sir Richard Terry, keen discoverer and editor  of Tudor music, who was Organist at Antigua cathedral for a short time and went on to be Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral ?

    Terry certainly achieved sufficient distinction "For research work in early English manuscripts in music" to earn a knighthood in the 1922 Dissolution Honours after being appointed by Cardinal Vaughan as the Cathedral's first Master of Music (sic), but what with unsatisfactory performance of his duties, by 1924 he was forced to resign (according to the late Colin Mawby) for swearing at the choir.

  11. On 03/01/2022 at 07:24, Martin Cooke said:

    [...]

    I think most of JDB's predecessors were knighted - Stanley Marchant, George Martin, John Stainer, John Goss... but not Charles Macpherson

    WIlliam McKie and Ernest Bullock were both knighted.

    Douglas Guest only reached CVO despite being at the Abbey for nearly 20 years.

    Simon Preston is CBE but his career has encompassed much more than just the Abbey.

    Adding to what has been said above, Charles Macpherson died suddenly aged 57. Marchant and Bullock were knighted for their work as conservatoire heads.

  12. On 20/06/2021 at 18:28, S_L said:

    That reminds me of the Gordon Reynolds story, I've told it here before but it's worth telling again, of the tenor, I think it was at Halifax Parish Church, who was having trouble with his line!! Some cocky organ scholar decided to help him out - on the Tuba! After the hymn, or whatever it was, the tenor leant over towards the organ and said, in a loud voice that everyone heard  "If tha' does that a'gin, I'll break thi' bloody neck!!!!"

    As it happens, the centenary of Gordon Reynolds' birth was last Wednesday (30 June).

  13. On 01/07/2021 at 09:26, S_L said:

    One could go further and ask how many Cathedral's have a DoM who isn't  product of a Public School - or Oxbridge - or from an 'Ethnic Minority' but, perhaps I better not go there!!!!

    I think you will find that in 2021, the number of DoMs not from a public school or Oxbridge is certainly higher than it was, say, thirty years ago. As for ethnic diversity, we saw the sad death in February of one former cathedral organist from what was then Ceylon; his son now directs the choir of a Cambridge college. By a happy coincidence, the DoMs of two discrete choirs of HM Chapels Royal should not be overlooked. The assistant of Portsmouth Cathedral, the organ scholar of Leeds Minster (formerly in that role at Guildford Cathedral) and the Asst at St George's, Hanover Square (formerly ADoM at Birmingham Cathedral) are quietly forging successful careers.

  14. On 08/04/2021 at 19:30, Martin Cooke said:

    So, Wolsey, ought I to play this in the same key or will they expect to hear me move to C major (from G) for that?

    'So mote it be' should be in the same key as Laus Deo/Redhead No 46. The problem with St Oswald being so widely used for the closing ode is that it's in D, and it ends (for men's voices) on tenor D; 'So mote it be' is sung in F or G. As far as tonality is concerned, St Oswald is a poor choice of tune, and that's why Laus Deo/Redhead No 46 is a better musical fit, and arguably a better tune.  

  15. 4 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:

    Thanks, everyone, for your contributions. I have heard a couple of melodies for 'so mote it be' and I think I am aiming for John Morris's version as quoted. But I am still waiting to hear what tune the local masons are familiar with for the hymn. In a youTube version of all of this, they sing the hymn /ode to St Oswald and then wrench themselves into a different key for the 'mote it be' which sounds most odd. I shan't be doing that. So, if we're going for St Oswald in D major, I shall be going for D, B, C sharp, D. and if 'Laus Deo'... G, E. F sharp, G... which shouldn't be too far from the mark! Not, of course, that anyone can sing this!

    While a few Lodges will have local variations, St Oswald is by far the most commonly used tune for the closing ode. It is true that the juxtaposition of 'So mote it be' in G major after the last verse of the closing ode in D major (St Oswald) jars the sensibilities of many masonic musicians, but it would be unwise to attempt to change something (i.e. leaving 'So mote...' in D major) to which many are accustomed. Moreover, it has become so ingrained that in the occasional situation where musically untrained masons sing the ode unaccompanied, they will jump the upward perfect 4th from the end of the ode to the 'So mote...' without any difficulty.

  16. 46 minutes ago, Dr Nigel H Day said:

    Many institutions - King’s included - have supporting ‘vocal coaches’.  These can be a valuable addition where the DoM is perhaps a stronger organist than a choir trainer.

    I don't think that the engagement of a vocal coach/tutor has any bearing on the choir-training strengths of the DoM. I can think of plenty of foundations with fine choirs under excellent directors where a vocal specialist is also part of the music team.

  17. 28 minutes ago, S_L said:

    I hope this isn't too oblique but, with a possible change 'at the top' in the offing, (a certain person has just passed his 75th birthday) [...]

    It is a matter of public record that “He wants me to stay in post, so I will stay because that’s where my orders come from, that’s where my mandate comes from. I’m going to stay and continue to work wholeheartedly at these matters.”

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