Wednesday 30 May 2007

Choir Recordings

Fr Tim is a demon on e-bay, and has picked up these recordings of the Cathedral choir; the one above of Sir Richard Terry. We have not yet heard it, but await to do so with interest. As he was the first Master of Music, pre-dating George Malcolm (who introduced the so-called 'continental' tone), Terry's choir will be fascinating to hear.

A recording from 1972, privately financed by the late Lord Anthony Furness - a great benefactor of the choir. Lord Furness used to pay for an orchestra to accompany the choir on Christmas and Easter mornings.
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An interesting recording for several reasons; the sleeve note is written by Cardinal Heenan, speaking of the choir's unique role. Within a few years, financial pressures were to lead him to the conclusion that the choir had to be disbanded - a decision thankfully never put into action.
This is the first recording made by Colin Mawby, successor to George Malcolm, and sales of the record were intended to support the choir.
The first soprano (or treble) listed is Nicholas Keay, who now sings as a tenor lay clerk in the choir. The sleeve also lists Richard Rex as alto; Richard's son at present is a treble in the choir!
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd say I find it rather odd that Cathedral chaplains have to scour e-bay to get a historic recording of the Cathedral Choir.
I understand the Cathedral has a huge archive of written documents. Is there no similar 'sound' archive of historic choir recordings, organ recitals, speeches, sermons, lectures,...?

Mark Langham said...

Sadly Ivo, the archive of written documents has only been properly assembled in recent years, and the sound archive is non-existent. It is something we are actively trying to remedy.