Tag Archives: Tippett

The Evening Canticles and me

Posted on April 16, 2020 by vhk10

Taking part in the ‘World Cup of Evensong Canticles’ has made me think about my personal history of singing them.* I didn’t start to sing evensongs until I was about 16, and for a few years after that I only … Continue reading →

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In the beginning

Posted on July 12, 2019 by vhk10

Bristol Choral Society’s 2018-19 season, themed around ‘War and Peace’, ended with reflection on hope and new beginnings in Bristol Cathedral. I’d never sung (or I think even heard) Copland’s In the Beginning before. It’s a setting of the Genesis … Continue reading →

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when only a spiritual will do

Posted on September 12, 2018 by vhk10

A couple of times recently I’ve sung arrangements of spirituals in church. Firstly, we sang Tippett’s setting of ‘Go down, Moses’ at Matins in Winchester Cathedral. I normally feel that the spirituals from A Child of Our Time (in the … Continue reading →

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music for Royal occasions

Posted on June 9, 2017 by vhk10

This was the theme rather loosely applied to the Erleigh Cantors’ concert (with interspersed readings) in St Peter’s Caversham, where we’ve returned after some years decamping to Earley. We included some pieces from recent Cathedral visits such as Jonathan Dove’s … Continue reading →

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John Tavener RIP

Posted on November 13, 2013 by vhk10

#tavenerrip Some of us heard the Song for Athene playing in the dentist’s surgery yesterday, and this turned out to be because Sir John Tavener had died. I predict an Christmas outbreak of performances of The Lamb and perhaps also … Continue reading →

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an exhibition at the Bodleian

Posted on April 4, 2009 by vhk10

I went today to an interesting little exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. On display are scores of choral music from mediæval times to the present day, from the Bod’s own collections or on loan. They include the Eton … Continue reading →

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more MacMillan in Julian Road

Posted on June 4, 2005 by vhk10

The Bath Festival Chorus has re-formed this year, and on Monday I went to hear them with James MacMillan conducting music by himself and others. Inevitably I found myself comparing the account of the Canticos Sagrados with the Exultate Singers’ … Continue reading →

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Places where I’ve sung: Corpus, Cambridge

Posted on March 10, 2005 by vhk10

For a few years until I moved to Manchester in the early 90’s I was a resident member of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where I did a PhD. degree. Part of the reason for continuing my studies at Cambridge were … Continue reading →

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Composers in the British National Corpus

Posted on October 15, 2004 by vhk10

I have recently come across this intriguing graphical representation of the frequency of words in the British National Corpus, a corpus of spoken and written British English dating from the early 1990’s. As it includes proper names, I tried various … Continue reading →

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more on Mags and Nuncs

Posted on June 25, 2004 by vhk10

A quick calculation shows that the 21-CD Priory Records Mag and Nunc set (see my previous posting) contains some 188 different settings of the canticles (including a few instances of free-standing Mags or Nuncs). A few settings appear more than … Continue reading →

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