Sunday Evensong On Bbc Radio 3

[DHM]

I’ve just noticed that evensong is coming from Rochester this week. I always look forward to services/recordings from there, as the quality of singing is usually outstanding. I wonder what part DHM will sing? The BBC web site makes no mention if it will be the boys, girls or both singing?

Thanks to Phil T for his kind words. To answer some of his questions:

I think I'm singing Dec Alto. I believe there will be 12 in the back rows rather than the usual 6, the alto section consisting of 3 gentlemen and one "honorary gentleman" [memories of those articles by Bernard Levin - a dog-hater - in The Times years ago, when canines were refered to as"honorary cats"!].

Three of the Cathedral's four choirs will be singing (though 2 members of the 4th choir will be in as deps), so the top line will consist of the boys, girls and senior girls.

 

On another, related, topic:

Rumour has it that at a certain cathedral from which Evensong was broadcast earlier this year, the men first saw the canticle setting at the BBC rehearsal on the day (don't know when the boys first saw it). Not that I have any problem with this at all - that's what lay-clerking is all about, after all, isn't it? If you've got a regular team of good men who work well together and know what they're doing, that should be fine.

However, at another cathedral, from which Evensong wil be broadcast later this year, not only will the music have been extensively "dry-run", but there will also be two extra full rehearsals totalling 3½ hours before the day.

 

Which is the better way to go, and which is the more honest representation of what daily Choral Evensong is all about?

 

I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest, just interested to hear the opinions of others who are involved in the same business.

[Phil T]

On another, related, topic:

Rumour has it that at a certain cathedral from which Evensong was broadcast earlier this year, the men first saw the canticle setting at the BBC rehearsal on the day (don't know when the boys first saw it). Not that I have any problem with this at all - that's what lay-clerking is all about, after all, isn't it? If you've got a regular team of good men who work well together and know what they're doing, that should be fine.

However, at another cathedral, from which Evensong wil be broadcast later this year, not only will the music have been extensively "dry-run", but there will also be two extra full rehearsals totalling 3½ hours before the day.

 

Which is the better way to go, and which is the more honest representation of what daily Choral Evensong is all about?

 

I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest, just interested to hear the opinions of others who are involved in the same business.

 

I’ve often thought what sets apart a cathedral choir from others is their ability to turn up and just sing whatever music is set for the day. Unfortunately, not all cathedral choirs are equal.

 

I’ve sung at a couple of cathedrals and always after long rehearsals. The long rehearsals usually iron out mistakes but some how rob some of the sparkle. Tiredness nearly always shows up in the voice.

 

[Vox Humana]

Rumour has it that at a certain cathedral from which Evensong was broadcast earlier this year, the men first saw the canticle setting at the BBC rehearsal on the day (don't know when the boys first saw it). Not that I have any problem with this at all - that's what lay-clerking is all about, after all, isn't it? If you've got a regular team of good men who work well together and know what they're doing, that should be fine.

That may be, but is it as it should be? I put it to you that what matters - the only thing that matters - is the quality of the musical performance. How much or how little rehearsal goes into getting the result cuts no ice with me whatsoever. The job of a cathedral choir is surely to offer God the very best that man can devise in a manner that transports the hearer closer to him and gives some sort of insight into his essence. That is the ideal. Granted, it is often an unattainable ideal, but that should be the goal.

 

Does a choir that can pick up a piece of music, sight-read it and turn in a performance that manages to get from beginning to end without actually falling apart deserve more respect than a carefully rehearsed, thoroughly moving performance with all the nuances, speeds, dynamics, tuning etc carefully prepared? Not in my book. Whilst it is true that many professional musicians dislike overmuch rehearsal and are good enough not to need it, more often than not the lack of rehearsal time is due more to economics than anything else (most unreasonably of them, professional musicians expect to be paid!) Many, I believe, would prefer more rehearsal than they get. I have it on good authority that a well-known concert choir went into a recording studio and sight-read their way through a series of CDs. The result is immaculate, but bland in the extreme. Should we applaud this?

 

I would suggest that the number of cathedral choirs that have professional singers of sufficient calibre to turn in first class performances with minimal rehearsal are very few. I may be quite wrong, but from what I understand most have to make do with lay clerks that, however competent, are not in this class of professional and to play at being anything more may be to do them a gross misservice. It is the quality of the musical performance that counts.

 

Sorry for the diatribe, but I think you may have guessed it was coming! For my part I'm happy to take the flak too if my views are too decidedly amateur.

[Phil T]

The job of a cathedral choir is surely to offer God the very best that man can devise in a manner that transports the hearer closer to him and gives some sort of insight into his essence. That is the ideal. Granted, it is often an unattainable ideal, but that should be the goal.

 

Does a choir that can pick up a piece of music, sight-read it and turn in a performance that manages to get from beginning to end without actually falling apart deserve more respect than a carefully rehearsed, thoroughly moving performance with all the nuances, speeds, dynamics, tuning etc carefully prepared? Not in my book.

 

You’re right; bringing the scriptures alive is the point of any church/cathedral choir. How they achieve it is, I guess, completely irrelevant. I can’t help but have a touch of respect for those who can sight read to such a high level. How long does the average cathedral choir (not the top line) rehearse for? The rehearsals that I’ve seen (granted not a huge amount) amount to not much more than a balance check with one or two key entries.

 

[pcnd5584]

You’re right; bringing the scriptures alive is the point of any church/cathedral choir. How they achieve it is, I guess, completely irrelevant. I can’t help but have a touch of respect for those who can sight read to such a high level. How long does the average cathedral choir (not the top line) rehearse for? The rehearsals that I’ve seen (granted not a huge amount) amount to not much more than a balance check with one or two key entries.

 

 

Given that most lay clerks will need to supplement their small honorariums with other work (often, but not exclusively, teaching) this is probably all that many will have time for.

 

Whilst I appreciate some of the points which Vox makes, I doubt that it is a question of some cathedral choirs rehearsing for twenty or so minutes prior to each service purely because they can. It is far more likely to be because this is the only time which is available to them.

 

When it is also considered that, in addition to preparing the music for as many as eight services each week (in some cases), they will also have to rehearse music for concerts, recordings and, occasionally, tours, it is perhaps easier to realise the amount of pressure under which some choirs operate.

[Vox Humana]

to play at being anything more

Apologies. That phrase was not well chosen. What I meant was that a choirmaster should work within the capabilities of the singers (s)he has available, with the quality of the resulting performance as the top priority. I agree entirely with the points M. Cochereau makes. I would imagine that most, probably all, cathedral DOMs are likely to feel that the ideal amount of rehearsal time is simply not available and it is a question of getting the best performances one can under the circumstances. That they manage to achieve the standards they do is a never-ending source of wonderment to me. On the occasions when I hear less than wonderful performances on a broadcast Choral Evensong I am likely to be given more to sympathy more than to criticism.

[pcnd5584]

Apologies. That phrase was not well chosen. What I meant was that a choirmaster should work within the capabilities of the singers (s)he has available, with the quality of the resulting performance as the top priority. I agree entirely with the points M. Cochereau makes. I would imagine that most, probably all, cathedral DOMs are likely to feel that the ideal amount of rehearsal time is simply not available and it is a question of getting the best performances one can under the circumstances. That they manage to achieve the standards they do is a never-ending source of wonderment to me. On the occasions when I hear less than wonderful performances on a broadcast Choral Evensong I am likely to be given more to sympathy more than to criticism.

 

Merci beaucoup, m'sieur.

 

Incidentally, Sunday next is the closest Sunday to the twenty-third anniversary of the death of Pierre Cochereau*. On that Sunday evening in 1984, he had played for the readings from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, turned pages for that evening's recitalist, went home, then suffered a fatal brain anyeurism on Monday night or Tuesday morning - I forget the exact time.

 

It is my intention to dedicate Sunday evening's sortie to his memory. However, I will not be having my photograph taken whilst tending his grave in Belleville (BLEAH!). Apologies to DJB, but this was ever-so-slightly too tacky - even for me.

 

 

* The night of 5th-6th March, 1984.