Lichfield Cathedral's Choral Foundation: broadcasting to the nation since 1934

While I was trying to check the (fairly obscure) details of a piece of music that Lichfield Cathedral Choir has broadcast on BBC radio in the distant past, as is sometimes the way with the Internet, I serendipitously stumbled across an online archive of all the copies of the RadioTimes from 1923 to 2009 that the BBC has made available which I had not previously encountered. Having been scanned and optical character recognised (the processes whereby the computer turns a scanned image into searchable text, rather than just a picture), the data is not perfect. However, it provides a remarkable resource to explore all sorts of things.

From a broadcasting perspective, seeing how the BBC's radio stations developed from just a National and Regional service to the genre-based stations to the more recognisable Radios 1 to 5 we have today is interesting. But coupling this with the geekily written historical detail of the stations on Wikipedia and being able to see how their output changed in response to moments of historical significance is fascinating.

In the musical world, it is possible to track the career of individuals: one particular example I found was seeing a cathedral organist move from Oxbridge organ scholar to organist of one of the country's more notable cathedrals via various other abbeys and cathedrals through their appearances on broadcast choral evensongs. Alongside this, it also showed their involvement with other groups over the course of their career.

Having clarified the tiny detail for which I was originally looking, I ended up searching for 'Lichfield Cathedral', and this resulted in a whole range of programmes - on both radio and television - over the past ninety years. Because of this, I felt it was worth updating the details of broadcasts which I maintain on Lichfield Cathedral Choir's website.

Firstly, I was able to fill in a couple of blanks and add details about original broadcast times and stations to the existing list of broadcast choral evensongs. Gratifyingly, there were no additional broadcasts to add to this list (wading through past music lists 15 years ago clearly paid off), but I did remove some as the BBC's listings showed that the broadcasts were not always of the Cathedral Choir singing on them. In this list, it is interesting to see that in days gone by, the BBC seemed to install themselves in the Cathedral for a stretch at a time, as between the 1940s and 1960s there are runs of two or three weeks in a row when the service was broadcast from Lichfield, but then there are years between such runs.

Secondly, the list of other radio broadcasts was significantly fleshed out. This had not been something I had been collecting details for, but odd editions of Sunday Worship had crept into the audio archive, so I had included them. Thanks to the RadioTimes archive, I think the listing in now complete. From this, it is clear that the broadcasting of a matins-based service antedate the broadcasts of evensong (1937 as opposed to 1939), but acts of worship from Lichfield are trumped by a broadcast of an organ recital from 1934 (and a documentary style programme gloriously described as a 'microphone impression' of the Cathedral from the same year).

Thirdly, because of the amount of data involved in keeping copies of television broadcasts, these had never featured highly in the archives. However, having this information to hand, means this listing has also been completed. This list is not so extensive, and the majority of entries are from the past twenty years; nevertheless, it is nice to know there was a broadcast of Songs of Praise from Lichfield in November 1972.

Finally, the wealth of details that I discovered meant that I did not want to miss anything out, or be left confused when people offered a broadcast of choral evensong from Lichfield from the 1940s, as someone did some years ago, subsequently telling me it was an RSCM course. I have therefore created the supplementary broadcasts page which is where everything which has a musical connection broadcast from Lichfield is detailed. This includes broadcasts made by the Cathedral's chamber choir, recitals by organists visiting the Cathedral (and therefore not a part of the Foundation), the broadcasts of evensongs sung by other choirs, including an Eton Choral Course, the RSCM Festivals, and the BBC Singers directed by George Thalben Ball. The evensongs with the BBC Singers seem to be in addition to those broadcast as part of the 'standard' choral evensongs as they are on Sundays, not Tuesdays or Wednesdays: maybe there was a greater appetite for broadcast religion in the post-war years.

Overall, this is fortuitous timing as the choir's #LentQuiz which is currently running is based on recordings made of the Cathedral Choir over the past fifty years (the extent of the audio archive), and it is nice to have the records as complete as possible as the Foundation's 700th anniversary celebrations start on Easter Monday. However, there is still scope for development: ultimately, it would be nice to link all of the entries back to the RadioTimes original data so the complete records can be seen (I have necessarily cut some repeated details to save space). Also, as the OCR process is not entirely accurate, if 'Lichfield Cathedral' has not be recognised, my searches would not have found the records, so there could be some other programmes which may need adding at some point.

As with all such research, it is inevitably ongoing, there will be more to add, and there will doubtless be corrections. However, more excitingly, as this information is now available, it is my hope that we might find some of the recordings still exist and that the audio (and visual) archives can be expanded.

Tweeted BCP Evening Prayer

As promised yesterday, the tweeted Evensong – or TwEvensong – happened. As a result of having a very public first attempt at something like this, there are things which need refining both for the producers and consumers (or ‘foundation’ and congregation) of the event (or service). I have compiled and sorted all the feedback that I received both personally and via the choir's Twitter feed to provide a record of the event and to help me - and others - in such an endeavour in future.

The way in which Twitter handles multiple connected tweets needs to be considered. I had found that two or three replies to one’s self without the @ name at the start got linked, but beyond three verses of the psalm this got confusing. As someone tweeted

@AliDebsP
sorry but you lost me at Isaiah.

and what appeared on people’s timelines seemed confusing (I also glanced some instances of this on a separate computer and account I set up just to watch the event while tweeting)

@mariantone
....and repetition of out-of-order verses ( tho' not in 2nd lesson?)

As @davidbartonmus commented

Yes, very entertaining (!) - could work well with a hashtag

and this is something that I did explore but felt tagging each tweet ate into the available characters too much which would have meant more verses of psalms and readings needed splitting. However, I do accept this would be necessary next time; indeed, there is a competition in the making with @AnnetteRubery suggesting

@LichfieldChoir Ah yes, bit of a challenge; you need to crowdsource a short hashtag via a Twitter competition ;) 

A private message on Facebook also got as far as the first reading but ‘then it seemed to stop’. I guess it is possible that Twitter though so many posts were spam and therefore blocked some of them. This needs investigating.

From a production perspective, it was difficult to try and keep tabs on the whole thing and know when to tweet your portion. As the Dean of Birmingham and Bishop of Cork tweeted at the end

@CatherineOgle
Of course Evensong is always exciting, but rarely that nerve-wracking

@b2dac
nerve-wracking indeed!

This could probably be resolved with practice, as things did seem to calm down after the initial flurry of activity. However, this hectic beginning was apparently obvious to the consumers too:

@moirabluehands
Bravo! Team Evensong!  (just a tiny bit stressful at the start)@WealandsBell @LichfieldChoir @RevRichardColes @CatherineOgle @b2dac

As the Cathedral Choir’s Twitter account is linked to Facebook (to save having to create posts for each manually on a day to day basis), all of our contributions were also sent to Facebook without any of the other participants' tweets appearing. It would have been sensible to disconnect them for the duration of the event as highlighted:

Les Robertson
Actually it was bloody irritating and just clogged up the facebook timeline! Keep it to twitter if you must but somewhat loses its impact some hours later on fb for those of us who have been at work all day. You clearly have too much time on your hands!

@rogbi200
Only downside of #Evensong via Twitter- it dominates my FB stream, surreally jumbled!

In order to keep things tidy, the Facebook posts have duly been deleted manually.

Whether Twitter is the best medium for such an event is something that needs further consideration, but what an alternative which is so widely used and easily accessible would be, I don’t know. Nevertheless, from the three hours following the TwEvensong, this is a compilation of the rest of the feedback received with the most recent first:

@blair_radford
Very well done everyone ! Thank you

@charlottepochin
Kudos to @LichfieldChoir @WealandsBell @b2dac @CatherineOgle @RevRichardColes for the TwEvensong earlier. Loved it! When's the next one?

@jones_swka
thank you, such a good idea, I normally avoid Evensong but found that lovely.

@DerekL03
much enjoyed. Thank you

@clinacre
What a great idea! Please do it again and I'll have fresh coffee ready to remind me of Evensong at York.

@sherbetlemon1
How lovely.

@Kate_NW11
...and I translated the bits common to our liturgies into Hebrew. Thanks again

@KatieEthers
I liked that it came from multiple accounts, and found other juxtaposing mid-office tweets rather amusing!

@benphillips88
thank you for an enjoyable evensong! Made my day!

@rachywakey
God-botherers...read the tweets of @WealandsBell @RevRichardColes @LichfieldChoir @CatherineOgle @b2dac since 5.30. Ace Twitter evensong #fb

@revdchris
it was stunning thank you

@rachywakey
should add that my chorister daughter enjoyed her own private game of "guess the next tweet". Great service!

@rachywakey
really wonderful idea. Brilliant. Thank you. Well done

@Kate_NW11
Thank you. The traditional Anglican liturgy is profoundly beautiful.

@sherbetlemon1
So, what time is Morning Prayer?

@rachywakey
 *shakes hand* wonderful service, thank you :-)

@susancox1955
pretty good for a first go, bravo

@andrewnlhill
thank you for this evenings worship, nicely done, God bless

@sarahdlarkin
Thank you!

@davidbartonmus
 *shakes your hands on the way out* Nice not to have to walk a mile home

@sarahdlarkin
Thank you, that was lovely. Well done all.

@sherbetlemon1
Many thanks to you all. That was very lovely. Xxx

@janetlangan2
Thank you to everyone I enjoyed it

@rogbi200
*Shakes hands of clergy* Thank you all for a very different #Evensong.

@CatherineOgle
a little bow of the head to you all, acknowledging & appreciating your ministry.

@brileetaylor
thanks all, was interesting!

@susancox1955
that was fun. Fast typing fingers needed. Bit more practice for @RevRichardColes tho 

@petetomo01
Thanks Guys !

Louise Stewart
I found it purposeful, prayerful and innovative; thank you, Lichfield Cathedral Choir!

and during the event, @GeorgeDay27 tweeted a photo of someone on their mobile phone standing in the snow outside a chalet with the caption: 'catching Evensong on twitter in Switzerland'.

When I wrote my blog post 24 hours ago, my hope was that it was appreciated by someone somewhere. This collection of tweets suggests that my hope was met. Yes, the whole thing needs a little refinement and some people were disappointed and saw it as a waste of time, but for it to come together so quickly and to be so well received was beyond my expectations. People are already asking about the next event, and I look forward to the next one being even more successful and building on what was learnt to day. Indeed, sorting through the feedback, the question of music – something I had wondered about but decided to leave on a back burner this time – was raised:

@rogbi200
Next time a tweeted Choral Evensong? Music via Soundcloud/YouTube?

@StEverild
Didn't recognise the setting?

while @rogbi200 fully entered into the spirit of things and transported themselves to their own Evensong with their music list

@LichfieldChoir I went with Psalms from St Pauls (incl Willcocks Ps148), Howells Coll Reg, Radcliffe Resp, & your most appropriate anthem!

this is another logical step and one to consider for the future.

Watch this space.

Tweeting BCP Evening Prayer

For a while, I have been musing on the nature of the daily Evensong in which I sing being an enforced (but not in any bad sense) sacred space in my life. Apart from being a part of a centuries’ old tradition and therefore being made to feel somewhat insignificant in the grand scheme of things, part of this is inevitably down to the fact that technology – and its concomitant connectivity – are banished to pockets for the duration of the service.

This led me to think about the extent to which our connectedness through social media is preventing us from having that quiet personal time and space for religion, reflection or relaxation, as even when simply watching television or listening to the radio, we are being told to email or tweet with comments and feedback meaning that, without a great deal of self-discipline, our escape is never possible

If our connectedness is inescapable – my thinking went – I wondered how such a space could be created in our online connected world. The inevitable answer is ironic and I duly contacted a priest fried of mine and asked if he would like to lead an online Evensong with me tweeting as I do regularly on behalf of Lichfield Cathedral Choir. His enthusiasm for the idea led me to think that it was not quite as foolish as it felt.

Although this creates a lot of work for those taking part, one of the beauties of Evensong is knowing that it is happening in cathedrals up and down the country on a daily basis and while there are some people who attend regularly, there are plenty of others who just drop in for a single service or are there for just some of a single service. Another beauty of Evensong, from the congregation’s point of view, is that the majority of it is said (or sung) on their behalf by the priest and the choir, so they are able to partake as passively as they wish.

My idea of an online service is an attempt to create exactly the same thing. It will happen tomorrow – 30^th December – at 5.30pm GMT whether or not people are reading the tweets. People can choose to follow us for as much or as little as they like. The text will all be delivered in tweet-size chunks: there will be the full psalms and readings for the day, along with prayers and an anthem text to read.

The Twitter accounts to follow will be @WealandsBell, @LichfieldChoir, and @RevRichardColes.

To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a tweeted act of worship before. There are online churches and religious communities but, as far as I can tell, they do not – or have not – offered something like this before.

It is an experiment. It will happen. I am sure there will be some people who see it as a waste of time and a foolish endeavour; however, I do hope that people will find the time to take out of their day to drop in on the event, and I do hope our efforts will be appreciated by someone somewhere in the world.

If details change, I will update this post and I welcome any comments, suggestions and feedback, but I look forward to my next post being a reflection of how the first tweeted service went.

UPDATE 16:27: Having enlisted a Dean and a Bishop to help us, please also follow @CatherineOgle, and @b2dac

UPDATE 31/12: After the event I compiled all the feedback I received and it can be read, with comments, at http://richardshakeshaft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/tweeted-bcp-evening-prayer.html

Ancient and Modern

In what is an era of rapid change in so many areas of our lives, I am a great believer in respecting tradition and upholding customs (even if they are, at times, outmoded) as I feel it is important that identities and histories are not lost in the name of progress. Nevertheless, when people do make changes, as long as they are justified, explained and attempt to retain the spirit of the original concept, I endeavour to accept them without complaint and view them as the next stage of development in what are often long established practices. I like to think I am not so arrogant as to insist that people, societies and nations remain static.

However, in the course of this week I was faced with a tradition being up-held which frustrated me. The Lichfield Conduit Lands Trust is inviting applications for two new trustees as a result of two retirements. According to the publicity, the Trust makes charitable grants to individuals aged under 25 to further their education and to local organisations for more general purposes and, having been resident in Lichfield for more than five years and thereby fulfilling the stated requirements of the post, feeling that this might be a good opportunity to get more involved in the local community I decided to apply.

I already knew that the Trust had been founded in January 1545 to provide water for Lichfield and it was an organisation I had encountered while researching the history of the Cathedral’s Choral Foundation as records of Chapter’s nineteenth century meetings discussing the management of all aspects of Cathedral life include the provision of water for individual houses in The Close.

The fact that it is such a historical organisation had an inherent appeal, and the four meetings a year seemed manageable; the only question to which I did not know the answer was when the meetings were held.

I contacted a representative of the Trust to answer this question and was given the dates. Apparently, the meetings in March, June and September are always held on Wednesdays and December’s meeting is held on a Tuesday in keeping with an ancient tradition. Quaint, but not unmanageable. However, the meetings are always held at 3.30pm and, having been that way throughout living memory, I was brightly and confidently told ‘that’s not likely to change any time soon’.

Suddenly, a tradition was being upheld but for what purpose? By implication, the applicants and trustees must, most likely, either be retired or unemployed. The trustees of a charity making donations to help young people are to be distanced from their beneficiaries: I had felt that, as a teacher, one of the strengths of my application would be my work with young people.

I bit my tongue merely saying that, being a teacher, there was clearly no point in applying – which was duly agreed with – and I hung up. I struggled mentally for a few minutes with the question of tradition and rationality and decided that if people are going to be so protective of traditions which, when considered in the larger scheme of things, appear risible there would be no point in questioning it.

As I sighed to myself, I was left with my penchant for tradition tarnished and a sense of disappointment that, even in our era of rapid change, there are still some people who seem too stubborn to acknowledge it.

‘I am wiser than the aged’

I have spent what feels like much of the weekend as part of Lichfield Cathedral’s fund-raising ‘Psalmathon’ which involved the five choirs associated with the Cathedral singing all 150 psalms between Friday and Saturday evenings.

Apart from confirming that any event with the suffix ‘-athon’ is nothing but exhausting, it has introduced me to something new in a familiar setting. Even as a cathedral musician for the past 26 years, I only know about half of the book of psalms: the psalms assigned to each day’s evening worship are old friends, but the morning psalms are the newcomer that everyone regards warily. Discovering the unfamiliar in a familiar context has, for the second time in the past year, caused me to reflect on the impact of psalms on my life.

As a boy chorister, the daily round of psalm singing was part of the job and the strange language and ideas were simply accepted. While the gamut of emotions and events portrayed in the psalms is difficult for a pre-teen to grasp, details did stick out: who were Oreb, Zeb, Zeba and Salmana that princes should aspire to be like? What did God do to the Madianites, Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kison? Why did the Philistines join Gebal, Ammon, Amalek and Assur at Tyre to help the children of Lot? And all these are just from psalm 83. Many of the names of the people and places are fantastical and would not sound out of place in the worlds of JRR Tolkien or JK Rowling; indeed, the same psalm also includes the Edomites, Ismaelites, Moabites and Hagarenes.

 

As well as providing a rich seam of people and places there is also the inevitable poetry of the psalms. As an adult this is more apparent, but there are images I remember from childhood readings and psalm 55 is one of my clearest memories:

The words of his mouth were softer than butter, having war in his heart:
His words were smoother than oil, and yet be they very swords. 

Even as a youngster, the dichotomy between what one says and does was familiar to me and the simple metaphors make a clear image. Although I can now identify and comment on the poetic devices in the texts, I was certainly aware of some of the meanings and imagery when I was younger.

Having sung psalms on a daily basis, I have never shirked away from attempting to read English texts. My students shy away from Shakespeare because the language is ‘difficult’ – some even object to the ‘thee’s, ‘thou’s and words ending in ‘-eth’ – but, having been brought up with the words of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, these have always sat comfortably with me.

There is an absolute maximum of seven hundred child choristers in England in any academic year. Through their singing of the psalms they are – unwittingly, like me – having worlds opened up to them to which many children just do not have access. The regular repetition of poetry, some dating back three thousand years, must influence the linguistic development (and possibly even subconscious ability to appreciate poetry) positively and the psalms could, perhaps, in their own small way be admired as a rare, but precious, gem in the crown of children’s literature.