Ship of Fools: Merton College Chapel, Oxford, England
The Mystery Worshipper
Shipmate
Ship of Fools: Merton College Chapel, Oxford, England
Heavenly Mozart, hellish Elgar, very good wine
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Comments
My Old Mum used (in her late teens) to sing in a choir occasionally conducted by Elgar himself...I can't recall if she made any comment about his music, if indeed they sang any of it, but she described him as a rather peppery, and demanding, old gentleman.
This would have been around 1928-1930, a few years before Elgar's death.
It was brilliant. I was only looking for something to quibble about.
Don't feel obliged to find something hellish about a service if there really wasn't anything. The threat not to publish unless the question is answered has never been enforced, so far as I know. Besides, the editor may be able to find something. Surely there was at least one gentleman in the congregation who thought it correct to wear brown shoes with a blue suit.
Seriously, though, a wonderful selection of music, and yes, I suspect Miss Amanda may be right about the offertory hymn.
Here's Sospiri, by Elgar, played by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=7uqgv2xsw2o
Res ipsa loquitur - the thing (in this case, the wearing of brown shoes with dark blue trousers) speaks for itself.
It goes to prove that we all have preferences. I have been to services like that and did not like them at all.
Besides which you refer to Oxford as a University. I think not .....
But if there's going to be a classic choral work sung at a Requiem, I'd prefer the Mozart to, say, Verdi. Or the Durufle to Mozart. Or the Rutter to Durufle.
Better still, the Victoria ..... no instruments, you see.
At 40-45 minutes, the Mozart Requiem, sits right on the edge of being a bit overwhelming for liturgical use, or at least that is what I think. Very difficult to make it look as though the music has not taken over unless one uses the chant propers for the bits Mozart did not set, and deliberately paces the liturgy so it does not become "Mozart with liturgical interludes." All Saints Margaret Street was usually a paragon of liturgical virtue, but there were times when the recipe did not work, and it came out that way.
"We rest on thee, our shield and our defender" is the hymn I grew up singing to Finlandia, only encountering "Be still, my soul" much later. The perils of a childhood and adolescence with Mission Praise as the primary hymnbook.
Another excellent hymn, to an inspired, and inspiring, tune, but Sibelius is one of my favourite composers, anyway.
(One of Our Place's neighbouring parishes still uses Mission Praise, AIUI).
It's not awful in terms of variety. As a singer it didn't bother me at all. I understand that it makes organists twitch somewhat.