CATHEDRAL MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 380, 4 October 1946, Page 14

CATHEDRAL MUSIC

C, FOSTER BROWNE, organist and choirmaster at the Christ- , church Cathedral, recently contributed to the 3Y A Winter Course talk series, "The Changing World," a talk on cathedral music. He reviewed the history of western religious music and entertained his listeners with some amusing anecdotes of vestry and otgan-loft. Here is the text of his talk.

long and honourable tradition. As far as England is concerned, we know that one of the first acts of St. Augustine, when he arrived in 597, was to establish a Choir School which is now King’s School at Canterbury, the oldest Public School in England. So, Jong before the Norman Conquest, and long before England had a unified monarchy, the English Cathedral Tradition in musical matChoirs have a

ters was being established, a tradition which has.come down unbroken to the present day. Cathedral music is written in a manner that is governed by its conditions of performance. That is to say, it is written for a small choir of boys and men and is meant to be performed in large and resonant buildings... Music written for a large chorus would naturally not be so effectively sung by a Cathedral Choir, but, to greater degree, music written for a Cathedral Choir would lose a lot of its grace and beauty sung by a large mixed choral society. It is only reasonable to expect, therefore, that the great changes which have come about in secular music and even in oratorio style, are not likely to have had any marked effect on Church music. Music for All Men Let us consider the purpose of Church music and Cathedral music in particular. Its main function is to render in music the Sacred Liturgy, whose words are set for every day of the year and which have not varied for many centuries either in time or place. To some minds this may seem a weakness or even an absurdity, but let us remember that the Liturgy is concerned with eternal -truths and eternal truths do not alter. If a thing is eternally true it is true in the time of King Alfred and in our own day, it is true in Hong Kong and Valparaiso,

in Birmingham and Timbuktu. Furthermore, as the Liturgy is designed for all men everywhere, modern music (which is. so often essentially the personal expression of its particular composers) would be rather out of place in the liturgical services of the Church. Sir Richard Terry, in speaking of this matter, tells the story of his visiting a church where the stained-glass windows were representations of the Hebrew Prophets, but the artist had used members of the family who had given the windows as models for the prophets. When Sir Richard expressed some surprise at a prophet wearing mutton-chop whiskers, his companion said, "Oh yes, that is Uncle Henry. He is an excellent barrister, but he is not a success as Ezekiel." Tradition Maintained Changes, of course, have come, but when we look back on them we can see that throughout them all one broad tradition has been preserved, and that compositions which are within that tradition have lived and those which have departed too far from it have enjoyed only a transitory fame. The first great change was the use of harmony instead of the single melody of the ancient plain-chant. This started about the 9th Century and teached its finest flowering with the great Polyphonic School of the 16th Century. Another change came about then, when a new style of harmony was evolved and instrumental accompaniment was introduced. The older polyphony was always sung a capella, or unaccompanied. The 18th Century was not a grand one in Church history in England and except for a few great writers it was a period of decline musically. In the latter part of the 19th Century, Sir Charles Stanford’s compositions, together with his great personal influence, once more put church music on a better footing, in the field of composition, and there are many composers of the present day who are ably carrying us through a period of reconstruction, looking to the great strength of the past and using what is fitting in the modern style. Ancient Customs The life of a Cathedral throughout the ages has not been subject to much change. The boy choristers have a long and honourable history of hard work faithfully performed, and the present day chorister is like his predecessors, He is a normal healthy youngster who is proud of doing a good job. Many interesting old customs are associated with the Choristers. In early times there was the ceremony of the Boy Bishop. This took place on the Feast of St. Nicholas, who is the Patron Saint of choirboys, as well as of sailors, thieves, vagabonds and scholars-a motley collection. Starting on this day and continuing until the Feast of the Holy Inno-cents-and in some places for a longer

period--the Head Chorister assumed all the powers of the Bishop of the Diocese and récéived all the honours and respect and obedience due to the Bishop himself, and carried out all episcopal rites in the Cathedral. It is further stated that he was entitled to all the Bishop’s revenues for this period, but history does not relate whether any boy was ever successful in collecting them. I have certain doubts on that subject, but I would back some choristers I have had to have given a medieval bishop a jolly good go for it. "Spur Money" A further privilege of choristers was collecting "spur monay" from any knight or officef who entered a Cathedral or

Royal Chapei wearing spurs. The original fee was 6/8, but in Queen Victoria’s day it was raised to five guineas. The boys were told by a verger if anyone entered wearing spurs and he would be challenged by the boys afterwards. By the way, there is one old and lasting Cathedral tradition and that is the friendly feud between vergers and choristets. However, if any outsider should interfere with the liberties of either party, they form a solid and enduring alliance against the intruder. The unfortunate knight, once challenged, had to pay up unless he knew two ways out of it. One was to challenge the youngest chorister to repeat his gamut, that is, to go through his scale. If the chorister could not do this correctly, then the fine was remitted. Again I can say from my knowledge of them, the seniors would see to it that the junior did not let them down. However, it is recorded that the Duke of Wellington once escaped the fine’ by this means. The other way of escape was to surrender the spurs. This old custom came to an end only about 40 years ago when some miserable creature made such a fuss that the whole thing was discontinued. . Certain local customs in various Cathedrals have their peculiar interest. In one Cathedral, in a university town in England a bequest was made a long time ago which provides for each boy to be given the wing of a chicken and a glass of port’ wine after the morning service each day. The terms of the bequest have been slightly altered so that a piece of chicken is substituted for a wing, as it was felt that to slaughter 12 birds each day to provide 24 wings was altogether too much of a good thing. Cathedral Humour There is a definite type of humour and wit that is characteristic of Cathedral life. I like the story ‘of two clergymén, one @ plain-chant enthusiast and the other violently opposed to it. The

enthusiast said to the other, "My aear fellow, surely you realise that in singing the Psalms to the ancient tunes we may be singing the same melodies that David sang before Saul." | "In that. case," said the other, "I don’t blame Saul for throwing a spear at him." ‘ Another story concerns a bishop in whose Cathedral the great S. S. Wesley was organist. Wesley wrote some very long anthems which were not appreciated by his bishop. After Wesley’s death the bishop remarked, ""I don’t know where Dr. Wesley has gone, but if he continues to write such long anthems, he won’t be welcome in either place." One great change in Cathedrals has come about by the superseding of the eld hand-blowing of the organ by mechanical means. The old men who used to blow the organs were a race apart and were great characters. It is related of the incomparable W. T. Best who Was about to begin a recital that he announced to the congregation, "I will start the recital by playing Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor." The old blower put his head round the curtain and said, "Say we will play it, sir." And he would not blow until Best complied with his request, The late Bishop of Nelson told me of a famous London organist who was staying in a village and was asked to play for the evening service), He said that he would be delighted to do so. The old blower was so excited at blowing for such a famous man that he blew with might and main, and the organ hissed, and creaked, and. groangd and shook. When the sermon started the organist called a choirboy and told him to take a note to the blower, but the child had his own idéas about who was the blower in that chutch and he took the note to the preacher. The preacher took the note from the boy and opened it, continuing his serrnon as he did so.

However, the sermon came to an abrupt end for the note read, "Here, cut it out! The people have come to hear me play, not to hear you blow." These things lighten the way and a Cathedtal staff can usually get quite a lot of fun out of life as well as attending to their more solemn and serious duties. In this changing world, life in a Cathedral is thought by some to be a backwater. It is nothing of the kind. It is a flowing stream, which may not be the broad and turbulent river of commerce, but whose headwaters are far back in the highest mountain; it flows through a pleasant and gracious countryside, and its waters are the waters of life.