Kelly Te Deum

[parsfan]

I once owned a record by the St Alban's Choir under Darlington. One of the tracks was the Te Deum by Bryan Kelly. A tuneful melodic setting. Why then has it never gained currency in Cathedral music lists? Too tuneful? Below the salt?

[Peter Clark]

I once owned a record by the St Alban's Choir under Darlington. One of the tracks was the Te Deum by Bryan Kelly. A tuneful melodic setting. Why then has it never gained currency in Cathedral music lists? Too tuneful? Below the salt?

 

I don't knwo the Te Deum but dodn't he write a jazzy (rumba or calypso style) Mag and Nunc?

 

Peter

[Vox Humana]

didn't he write a jazzy (rumba or calypso style) Mag and Nunc?

He did. Or at least, as a certain DMus once rather uncharitably said, he wrote one with the first page in Latin-American rhythms.

 

I have several choral items by Kelly in my library and am a little surprised that more of it is not sung. It is not easy stuff, but I imagine our better choirs sing plenty of music that is just as taxing. One problem may be that his vocal writing can be impractical at times. One example that comes to mind is a fortissimo texture with SAT all in their upper registers and the basses having to balance them while grovelling below the staff.

[pcnd5584]

He did. Or at least, as a certain DMus once rather uncharitably said, he wrote one with the first page in Latin-American rhythms.

 

I have several choral items by Kelly in my library and am a little surprised that more of it is not sung. It is not easy stuff, but I imagine our better choirs sing plenty of music that is just as taxing. One problem may be that his vocal writing can be impractical at times. One example that comes to mind is a fortissimo texture with SAT all in their upper registers and the basses having to balance them while grovelling below the staff.

 

I harbour an intense dislike for Kelly's setting of the evening canticles, in C major. I had to play them again at Christ Church, Oxford last summer, and did not find them any more attractive than the first time, which had been at Chichester Cathedral, a few years previously. I just find them to be a rather silly jangly noise.

 

As Vox mentions (aside from a vaguely Latin-American rhythmic feel to the opening section) they suffer from a lack of stylistic integrity.

[MusingMuso]

I harbour an intense dislike for Kelly's setting of the evening canticles, in C major. I had to play them again at Christ Church, Oxford last summer, and did not find them any more attractive than the first time, which had been at Chichester Cathedral, a few years previously. I just find them to be a rather silly jangly noise.

 

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A man after my own heart!

 

I hated them when I first heard them, I hated them when I had to learn them and hated accompanying them.

 

There are so many holes in the writing, and the style is so suspect, it had me wondering at the time if the composer wasn't related to "Ned" Kelly.

 

 

MM

[Guest Nigel ALLCOAT]

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I hated them when I first heard them, I hated them when I had to learn them and hated accompanying them.

 

MM

 

I join the list. When a schoolboy having been tickled all over by the eminent composer in Munchengladbach with a big feather duster whilst instructed to play the organ for him, I have still yet to find much enthusiasm for either his music or in subsequent meetings with feather dusters.

 

N.

[Guest Cynic]

I join the list. When a schoolboy having been tickled all over by the eminent composer in Munchengladbach with a big feather duster whilst instructed to play the organ for him, I have still yet to find much enthusiasm for either his music or in subsequent meetings with feather dusters.

 

N.

 

 

Obviously a man to remember. I remember him well too. He was examining some woodwind candidates for the Associated Board in an upper room at Brattons' Pianos in Shrewsbury the only time I saw him. Actually, to be truthful it was difficult to see him - he was chain smoking in a small room with the windows closed while the candidates attempted to play. This remains the most unpleasant and inconsiderate behaviour I have ever seen in an examiner.

 

Having said that, I remember hearing John Morehen practising some of Bryan Kelly's music when it was absolutely hot off the press (some of the pieces are dedicated to JM) and I thought his music had something new to say. Put it this way, some famous names produce well-written works but without noticeable character of any kind.... I prefer something unusual, quirky even, rather than mundane.

[bombarde32]

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A man after my own heart!

 

I hated them when I first heard them, I hated them when I had to learn them and hated accompanying them.

 

There are so many holes in the writing, and the style is so suspect, it had me wondering at the time if the composer wasn't related to "Ned" Kelly.

 

 

MM

 

 

More like MOTHER Kelly, of doorstep fame!