Monday 19 May 2008

I See...

Or rather, I don't but he did. Who? Isaiah of course, in the year that King Uzziah died. Being Trinity Sunday yesterday, we had the big guns out so to speak - Sir John Stainer and his magnificent musical rendition of the day's Old Testament Lesson. 'I Saw the Lord' pom - pom -pom 'sitting up-on a throne' pom - pom - pom. Ah, they don't write them like that anymore! What a masterpiece of genius, second in importance only to the great man's beloved Crucifixion. And, of course, the piece ends with the plaintive hymn 'O Trinity, O unity'. For once, the combined efforts of Precentor and the Organista Magistratum succeeded in providing a most worthy and appropriate musical offering as part of the service. And what an offering! Nobody - especially that Austrian automaton Mozart - could have done it better. It was just a pity that the rest of the music at evensong was so unworthy by comparison. Watson in E, I ask you. Well I did, actually. I asked, nay, I demanded that the DoM explain. He waved me away with some drivel about the choir needing to conserve their energies for the anthem, but I caught sight of the oleaginous Precentor looking rather shifty at the pertinence of my enquiry. And we all know that the real reason was to make sure that the clergy were home in front of their tellys in time for Alan Ditchmarsh's programme from the Chelsea Bloody Flower Show. Couldn't do without their Sunday sermons though, could we? Couldn't spare us twenty-minutes incoherent quasi-academic ramblings? Oh no. No. If only we'd done something long, like the Howell's Westminster Service, and maybe sung an introit too. We might have limited the sub-Dean to about five minutes.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Only one cathedral in the UK sang Watson and Stainer at evensong on Sunday. I see that Mozart was on the menu for your morning service.

Oh, the wonders of the world wide web!

Your cover is blown and I claim my £5!

Can Bass 1 said...

Hmm. I'm tempted to congratulate you (I'm afraid I can't afford the fiver) but I feel you may have been mis-led. There was certainly no Mozart on our morning music list on Sunday; if there had been, I'm afraid I might have had to scrape together more than a mere fiver for a deps fee! Atwood was far superior to Mozart.

Anonymous said...

OK, you're going to make me earn my fiver!

To tell the truth; Rochester, Winchester, Wells, Coventry, Derby, Birmingham, Durham, Newcastle, Carlisle, Southwark and Brecon had either not posted a music scheme or had deleted/moved on from Trinity Sunday when I looked. Llandaff was the only cathedral with a list posted that had sung Watson & Stainer at evensong.

So, I would venture that you must sing at one of the above listed establishments and as far as I can see, only one of those cathedrals has a 'sub Dean', combining the role with that of precentor.

Can Bass 1 said...

Dear oh dear Mr Broken Alto - have you nothing better to occupy your time? Merely mentioning both Precentor and sub-Dean in the same post shouldn't lead you to assume that they are one and the same person. This isn't some sort of wierd sub-Trinitarian doctrine. By the way, a great friend of mine in Lincolnshire informs me that his local force is understaffed; have you considered a career in the constabulary? Or perhaps you are already a policeman?

Anonymous said...

Deviation, I'm afraid. Surely the idea of the game is for the reader to guess the identity of the anonymous blogger and not vice versa?

I'm comfortable that I know where you are now, so will cease troubling you and, as they say, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Can Bass 1 said...

Fair enough, although I still think that such powers of detection are a great loss to the law enforcement agencies.