"IN QUIRES AND PLACES"
Dear Sir,-Sunday afternoons are the only times that I can regularly listen to the wireless programmes. I am truly grateful for the excellent music that I can hear then. But I have a complaint to make about one feature that sounds so promising, but which proves so very disappointing. Before hearing the 3 o’clock feature from 3YA, which is always worthwhile, I have lately been tuning in to "In. Quires and Places." Everybody who knows that phrase knows that it comes from the Book of Common Prayer-"In Quires and Places where they sing, here followeth the anthem," A listener then might well expect to be treated to a programme of English Church music, like the wonderful ones that I used to hear a few years ago in England under the leadership of the late Sir Walford Davies. But while the BBC knows the meaning of such a phrase as "In Quires and Places," I am wondering if the NBS do. This afternoon, for instance, we had a programme of Bach. We know the unique position Bach holds in the world of music, but he does not belong to "In Quires
and Places." We had part of the B Minor Mass, which is, of course, oratorio; we had an organ performance of "Come Gentle Death," which the American organist chose to play with an amazing solo stop with an even more amazing wobble added gratis. Whatever American organists do with Bach, selfrespecting English organists of the "In Quires and Places" tradition would not risk their reputation with such a Wurlitzer performance as that of "Come Gentle Death" which we had to-day. Not only did we have the wrong composer, played in the wrong way, but as if that were not enough, we heard the American gentleman talking to us with a background of music (in the Travel Talk style), and with a sob in his voice about "time casting a halo!" Perhaps the American gentleman himself chose the title for his recordings. If so he should have invented another. But if the title was chosen by the NBS, will they not consider changing it if they continue with the same kind of programme? Or, much better still, will they not give us a regular programme of real-English Church music from the time of Tallis and Byrd down to, let us say, Walford Davies and Sydney Nicholson? Such a programme would not only be a joy to many, but it would justify the use
of an excellent title. —
R. P.
TAYLOR
(Christchurch).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410410.2.9.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 94, 10 April 1941, Page 4
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424"IN QUIRES AND PLACES" New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 94, 10 April 1941, Page 4
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