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Off the Beaten Track in England

May 31, 2003
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Returning to the land of one's birth is a peculiar business for the expatriate. Will things have changed beyond recognition? Will those favorite places still be there? Will one still feel at home? Or uncomfortably out of step with current tastes and fashions?

In my own case, happy to tell, things seem pretty much the same since I left England. The great choirs are still great; the great hotels still serve the most wonderful afternoon tea (although, for my money, the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong tops them all); and the sense of history is ever pervasive.

Yes: business as usual. "Air Conditioned" still means that the management will, if required, open a door or the odd window to provide a little fresh air (not possible in some hotels, of course, where windows are painted shut); "Hot and Cold Food Served" is just as likely to be an exact description of one's entrée as a proclamation of culinary versatility; customer service, as North Americans know it, is as common a commodity as a three-dollar bill; and the coffee, English protestations notwithstanding, is the worst on planet Earth.

This article, penned at the end of a trip to England, seeks to explore some of the paths less travelled by visiting church musicians. Often, North American friends will chide me for seeing only the most popular spots when in such-and-such a city, thus missing a particularly fine choir or a notable instrument. The same might be said about England, too. There is a fascinating world beyond the horizons, however magnificent, of the famous cathedrals, choirs and organs.

 

Highgate: Dead Hens, Karl Marx and an Historic Restoration

 

Highgate lies a couple of miles north of London's city centre, yet retains much of its eighteenth-century village charm. It is a place redolent with history. Here, Sir Francis Bacon died in 1626, attempting to prove his theory that refrigeration was a better means of preserving food than salting (He caught his death of cold in the winter air while stuffing a dead fowl with snow.) The poet Coleridge lies buried in the churchyard of the elegant yet unprepossessing parish church, St. Mary's. And Highgate's famous cemetery is the last resting place for luminaries such as Michael Faraday, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti and Karl Marx. Marx's tomb, while no longer a Mecca for tourists from the former Soviet Union, still attracts a goodly number of Western visitors; his ideology, while no longer common currency in the former Soviet Union, still attracts a goodly number of Western politicians.

The United Reformed Church in Highgate's picturesque Pond Square dates from 1859, and houses an organ of especial interest. It started an eventful life around 1840 as a two-manual of some five speaking stops and, perhaps, an octave of pedals. In the early 1880s, it was enlarged to its present form of 10 speaking stops over two manuals and pedals by J.W. Walker & Sons, who also altered the manual GG compass, taking it from CC to c5.

It is possible that this instrument was built for a private residence, a far cry from its pre-Highgate location: a barn in Tamworth, some 100 miles north of London. The organ was acquired for the Pond Square Chapel by Christopher Driver, a member of the church, through the good offices of Lady Susi Jeans, Guy Oldham and William Waterhouse. Driver and Oldham removed the organ from the barn and erected it at Highgate, where it replaced an earlier instrument (Bishop 1890/Hill, Norman & Beard 1933) which had been dismantled to allow structural work in the church during the 1980s. This latter was never replaced, presumably on grounds of cost; part of the 16' Open Wood was used to fashion the large and intriguing cross which now stands at the east end of the chapel.

As may be expected after such peregrinations, the organ was in far from perfect condition when installed at Highgate. Although makeshift repairs to rectify action breakages were made at this time, an overeager heating system in the chapel did little to improve matters.

The firm of B.C. Shepherd & Son was asked to restore the organ in 1992. This company, established by B.C. Shepherd in 1927, is now operated by the late founder's two sons, John and Eric. Familiar figures on the London organ scene, they have an extensive portfolio of tuning contracts and a clutch of fine rebuilds/restorations to their credit. To these may be added the Highgate organ.

The instrument was dismantled in 1992, and the action thoroughly re-stored. The pipework was repaired and the keyboards overhauled. This latter work necessitated the making of new keys for the Great, since the old ones were severely warped and damaged. The bellows were releathered, and the organ cleaned throughout. The scrupulous tonal regulation was carried out by John and Eric Shepherd.

The mahogany casework had suffered considerable mutilation in the past, particularly on the left side. Panels from the right side were fitted on the left, thus replacing the unsightly plywood that had been screwed on to fill in the missing panels. This aspect of the work involved extensive remaking of caseframes and expert woodworking; Nick Hillman, who worked with the Shepherd brothers on this project, deserves much credit for his achievements.

The dummy front pipes are wooden, and have been painted gold by the church administrator, Donald Spencer. Unfortunately, funds to replace the case front's missing carvings were not available.

The end result? An exceptionally musical instrument which acquits itself with grace and distinction in many roles. The unforced quality of its tone is a delight, as are the various ensembles and exquisite voices. I was lucky to hear it in solo and accompanimental roles during part of a Sunday afternoon concert for voice and organ. Dr. Robert Manning, a Purcell scholar and Professor at London's Royal College of Music, is the church's Director of Music. Together with soprano Adele Stevenson, he demonstrated the organ's versatility and integrity in an eclectic yet artistically satisfying program of music from Monteverdi to Copland. An immensely civilized and pleasurable way of spending a spring afternoon!

GREAT

                        8'                Open Diapason

                        8'                Stop'd  Treble

                        8'                Stop'd Bass

                        8'                Dulciana

                        4'                Principal

                        2'                Fifteenth

SWELL

                        8'                Keraulophon

                        8'                Wald  Flute  Treb.

                        8'                Stop'd Bass

                        4'                Flute

                        8'                Oboe

PEDAL

                        16'            Bourdon

Swell to Great; Swell to Pedal; Great to Pedal

3 composition pedals to Great

Balanced Swell Pedal

Wind pressure: 23/4"

Compass: Manuals 61 notes; Pedals  29 notes (pedalboard is 30 note)

542 speaking pipes

 

Fleet Street: Newspapers, Bones & Wedding Cakes

 

Fleet Street owes its renown (or ignominy, some would aver--the noted British satirical magazine Private Eye dubbed it the "Street of Shame") to its former position as the epicentre of Britain's newspaper industry. No longer does it hum with daily press activity, since many papers have relocated eastwards to the Docklands area of London, where rents are cheaper. Nevertheless, Fleet Street still is to newspapers what Wall Street is to high finance; and that association is likely to remain for many a year to come.

On the south side of Fleet Street is one of London's great churches, St. Bride's. The present building is, in fact, the eighth to occupy this spot since the sixth century. Vestiges of the previous seven buildings, together with a Roman pavement, can be visited in the church crypts.

Samuel Pepys was baptized in the medieval (sixth) church, and his brother was interred in the crypts. By that time, Pepys recounts, things were a tad crowded down in the burial chambers. Only after bribing the gravedigger to "justle together" some bodies was the famous diarist able to procure a resting place for his late sibling.

That church perished in 1666, a victim of London's Great Fire. Its successor, one of Sir Christopher Wren's most beautiful and costly creations, was capped by the famous steeple that is said to have provided the inspiration for the world's first tiered wedding cake. The church, which witnessed the first performance of Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate in 1692, was ravaged by a wartime bomb in 1940. The lengthy restoration that followed enabled archaeologists to examine the history of the church, back to its Roman origins. In 1957, seventeen years after that fateful 1940 evening, Wren's church, now restored, was rededicated. Fleet Street once again had its parish church.

Music plays an important part in the life of St. Bride's. In addition to the regular weekday concerts that draw appreciative audiences of tourists, local workers and musical aficionados, the church is blessed with a Director of Music, an Assistant Director of Music, an Organ Scholar and a professional choir. Besides the weekly Sunday Choral Matins and Eucharist (11:00 a.m.), the choir sings Evensong at 6:30 p.m. Twice per month, Choral Evensong features a Sermon in Music. Could not this concept of a "choral Sermon" be popularized in North America, one wonders? In places where a good choir exists (and it has to be good!), it would add an extra dimension to the service.

The Director of Music at St. Bride's is Robert Jones, the noted countertenor. When I attended Evensong, he was away; the choir was directed by his Assistant, Matthew Morley, and accompanied by the Organ Scholar, David Terry.

The mixed choir (twelve singers) provided some of the very best singing I've ever heard in a church, British or otherwise. Repertoire from Pelham Humfrey's Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in F Minor to John Ireland's "Greater Love" and Matthew Morley's superb set of Responses (difficult, but as good as any other contemporary set in circulation) emphasised the choir's skill. The contrapuntal intricacies and harmonic twists of the Humphrey were delightfully handled, as were the various elements of the Ireland. A better performance of the latter one could not wish to hear, particularly given the occasion: D-Day Sunday. 

The conducting deserves special mention. Observe many conductors of church choirs: judging by their frenetic movements and ferocious expenditure of energy, one might easily believe the task at hand to be Mahler's Eighth, or Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, rather than a simple four-part anthem performed by a smallish  choir. Often, the director does nothing more than beat time, the choir receiving no assistance with tricky entries or dynamic shading. And, although the conductor's score may be regarded as the route map, it is not the road itself. The conductor who buries his or her eyes in the score will achieve the same results as the driver who scrutinizes the map, not the road.

Economy of gesture, allied to a pair of independent hands--the left should not duplicate the right, or vice-versa for southpaws--and a keen sense of musical shape and direction are the order of the day, together with an ability to use the eyes as an invaluable and essential means of non-verbal communication. Matthew Morley's conducting was exemplary in every way, yielding A1 results every time. Classes and courses in conducting a church choir have their uses and merits, but I am convinced that more beneficial by half is the observation of top-notch practitioners. (Much too can be learned from watching bad conducting and the commensurately inadequate results it produces!)

David Terry's accompaniments, particularly of the psalms, were fine models; decorative, colorful, yet unobtrusive, enhancing the singing rather than detracting from it. Both conductor and organist are still in their early twenties (Terry has recently gone up to Oxford on an organ scholarship), yet evince musicianship of such maturity as to belie their years. Natural talent notwithstanding, it is evident that such polished, creative music-making is the result of many, many hours of hard slog.

The organ at St. Bride's is a large 4-manual Compton, and a very fine one at that. Recent work by Michael Mason and Keith Bance (the latter, one of England's most distinguished voicers) has only added to the instrument's capabilities. It has all the necessary ingredients for doing its job well, from subtle strings and evanescent flutes to meat reed choruses and high pressure solo stops of truly industrial strength. Without hesitation, the music program at this historic church recommends itself in the highest terms. It has always been my experience that visitors, whether attending services or not, receive a warm welcome from all who work at St. Bride's. Put it on your "To Do" list for a future London trip.

 

Mozart: A Musical Thief?

 

Last summer, Alison Robertson, then an eighteen-year-old pupil at Harrogate Ladies' College, one of England's leading private schools, captured the attention of the British  press with an  unusual musical discovery.

As part of her 'A' Level music examinations1, she was compiling a comparative study of the several reconstructions of Mozart's Requiem, while simultaneously preparing for a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. (Alison was Head of Choir at Harrogate Ladies' College.) Having noticed the similarity between the  Mozart's "Amen" theme--Maunder edition2--and the "Amen" theme from Pergolesi's work, she spoke  with her school's Director of Music, David Andrews, who suggested she  write  to the  venerable Musical Times.

As Alison explains,

The "Amen" sketch for Mozart's Requiem was discovered about thirty years ago, and Maunder believes firmly that "the subject is derived by strict inversion from the main Requiem theme." In the recapitulation of his continuation Maunder "re-inverts" the "Amen" theme to stress the affinity.

In my view, this "strict inversion" only involves five bars out of the seven, and the last two bars of the "Amen" theme do not correspond with those of the "Requiem" theme. Could Maunder's assumption be wrong? Could Mozart have deliberately or unconsciously remembered Pergolesi's theme?

Thus the burning question: Did Mozart steal another composer's ideas? Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, like Mozart's Requiem, was written on the composer's deathbed, predating the latter by over half a century. Mozart would undoubtedly have known the Pergolesi, since it was the most frequently printed single work in the eighteenth century. (As a further coincidence, Alison notes, Pergolesi's "Amen' was used in the film Amadeus.)

She believes the most plausible verdict is that Mozart is guilty of unconscious borrowing rather than deliberate plagiarism. The question of copyright and intellectual property was less hotly disputed in the eighteenth century, with many composers feeling at liberty to borrow here and there from the music of others.

It certainly is a refreshing change to see something positive in the newspapers, especially when the person making the news is still in their teens. Furthermore, this story does give the lie to the wacky theories of those pointy-headed "experts" who howl that exposure to classical music (and other such unconscionable, elitist cultural evils) will turn teenagers into wicked, antisocial psychopaths.

By the time you read this, Alison Robertson will have embarked upon her studies towards a music degree. Let's hope she considers the academic life for her career: a good dose of ingenuity, commonsense and sparkling originality would not go amiss in the halls of academe.

(Interested readers should contact Mark Buxton c/o The Diapason; he will be happy to offer further suggestions and advice to those desirous of exploring the highways and byways of England's organ/choral world.)

Notes

                        1.                  Advanced or 'A' Level examinations are taken by English sixth form (Grade 13) pupils. In order to enter university, a certain number of 'A' Levels must be obtained, together with specific grades. The number of 'A' Levels and the grades required vary greatly from university to university, from subject to subject, and from student to student.

                        2.                  Published by Oxford University Press, 1987.

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