Views from the Choir Loft

Free Recordings • British Boys’ Choir

Andrew Leung · July 28, 2016 ·

AST NIGHT, I went to a concert featuring the famous boys’ choir of the King’s College, Cambridge. The music was just splendid and beautiful! I have always love the traditional choirs formed by men and boy choristers! Their blending, energy and color is amazing. The concert reminded me of the YouTube channel, Collegium Regale. On this channel, you can find free recordings of the most famous British boys’ choirs, mostly from the choral evensongs and vespers that they performed.

Due to the recent tragedy in France, I thought it would be appropriate to share the following recording, Victoria’s Requiem sung by the Westminster Cathedral Choir at the All Souls’ Day Mass.

There are many more recordings of British Cathedral Choirs and College Choirs. I like to play them as background music as I am working and praying. I hope you would enjoy them. Here are a few recordings of the two famous Catholic boys’ choir in London, the Westminster Cathedral Choir and the London Oratory Choir:

– Choral Vespers from the London Oratory, 30th November 2011

– Choral Vespers from the London Oratory, 11th June 2014

– Choral Vespers from the London Oratory, 20th January 2016

– Choral Vespers from the Westminster Cathedral, 7th November 2012

– Choral Vespers from the Westminster Cathedral, 8th October 2014

– Choral Vespers from the Westminster Cathedral, 1st July 2015

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers and music director at Our Lady of China Church. He is also an artist and vocal coach at the Paul Phoenix Academy.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski