Despite being a soprano, I’m not totally in favour of these. The best ones complement the melody they sit on top of, and are interesting and melodic in themselves. But if you are unlucky they are made up by stringing notes from the harmony together and you get something which would be awkward to sing at any pitch and which confines itself to the same high register without any break. Either that, or from the listener’s perspective the descant does nothing for the tune it is supposed to enhance apart from obscuring it. There has been more than one of this latter type on evensong broadcasts this year. Fortunately most of the home-grown ones I get to sing are well written. Now, why do so many of them have a flattened seventh towards the end?
It was good to meet Don Temples (an occasional poster here) when he came to sing at Bristol Cathedral. I didn’t hear all of the service I went to (unaware of the Harbour Festival, I made the error of trying to drive over for Sunday evensong) but they sounded good in the anthem I heard.
Virginia — thanks for coming to hear us. And for all your kindness. It was great to see you and your son.