Tag Archives: Howells

Epiphany 2024

The Epiphany carol service with Bath Abbey Chamber Choir has become a fixture and included a surprising number of pieces I hadn’t sung before, as well as a couple of standard ones for the season. John Bull’s ‘Star Anthem’ was … Continue reading

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a Te Deum for 225 years

I’m not sure what the official name for a 225th anniversary is, if any, but my church reached that landmark this year. Probably not many churches are observing this particular anniversary as the 1790s weren’t I think a very active … Continue reading

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the first time on the road

Bath Abbey Chamber Choir has not sung outside the Abbey until now. An early promise of a visit to Southwark Cathedral when the choir was a few months old had to be withdrawn, and more recently a planned evensong at … Continue reading

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a big sing in Cambridge

The day after my excursion to Ross-on-Wye I made a day trip to Cambridge for a choir reunion at my old College, Corpus. This happen occasionally, and I last went to one five years ago. I thought hard about the … Continue reading

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Coronation pieces

I watched the Coronation ceremony with a keen ear for the music performed. I wonder which of the various new pieces I’ll be asked to sing first? (My money’s on Tarik O’Regan’s.) British coronations have been over recent centuries been … Continue reading

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a dodransbicentennial memory test

Howells Hymnus Paradisi is the major choral work which I had not sung for the longest time. I did it as a student, but never since then, although I have twice sung Howells’ Requiem, which is the source of some … Continue reading

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a meaty interpretation

Preparing for my next concert I was directed to a YouTube recording of one of the pieces. In the ‘if you liked this, you might also like this’ column on the right, alongside two movements from the other piece in … Continue reading

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At last! Tribus Miraculis!

This piece by Marenzio had been on my wishlist for a while, after I’d heard it on numerous broadcasts at Epiphany time. It came round in the Epiphany Carol service at Bath Abbey this year. More florid in style than … Continue reading

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a Remembrance concert

The Chamber Choir was involved in Bath Abbey’s concert for Remembrance for the first time. This concert was logistically quite an undertaking as the various pieces used different combinations of performers. Indeed Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs (the third recent … Continue reading

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a recap of a favourite evensong

I was back in Gloucester towards the end of October, not to rejoin Gloucester Choral Society (that comes later) but for a weekend of services with the Erleigh Cantors. Our programme had been adapted because the main organ was unavailable … Continue reading

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