Music At Ripon Cathedral
657 – 2008
by Malcolm S Beer and Howard M Crawshaw
335pp, 75 illustrations. All proceeds to Ripon Cathedral Music Foundation.
335pp, 75 illustrations. All proceeds to Ripon Cathedral Music Foundation.
This book is very definitely a labour of love. It took the authors two years and the assistance of someone in London with access to the British Library to research and write. Although they modestly say “neither of us are literary scholars” in their foreword, it is, most certainly, a good read and one that I can recommend. It is exhaustive in intent and, although not written as a work of scholarship, is organised as one, with the first 1200 years occupying the first 31 pages. There are numerous lists of broadcasts, music lists, a discography, soloists in the Mendelssohn Hear my Prayer anthem sung annually on Mothering Sunday since 1978, and more.
There is a blow-by-blow account of the sacking of an organist in 1901 and how the Dean and Chapter were taken to court in the 1943 dispute over making the Sunday services more congregational, with support from Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Royal College of Organists. But those wishing to learn more of more recent problems will be disappointed here, where a veil as thick as the “sacred spinnaker” is cast over the facts. (The “sacred spinnaker” was an amazingly stupid and inelegant attempt to keep the cathedral warmer, and consisted of a curtain hung across the tower arch behind the west organ-case, which flapped when the organ was in use. There is a picture of it, which justifies the purchase price alone.) Musicians and clergy really shouldn't have to co-exist!
There is a blow-by-blow account of the sacking of an organist in 1901 and how the Dean and Chapter were taken to court in the 1943 dispute over making the Sunday services more congregational, with support from Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Royal College of Organists. But those wishing to learn more of more recent problems will be disappointed here, where a veil as thick as the “sacred spinnaker” is cast over the facts. (The “sacred spinnaker” was an amazingly stupid and inelegant attempt to keep the cathedral warmer, and consisted of a curtain hung across the tower arch behind the west organ-case, which flapped when the organ was in use. There is a picture of it, which justifies the purchase price alone.) Musicians and clergy really shouldn't have to co-exist!
There are some verbal infelicities but these are mainly caused by overuse of words like “enormity” (as in “The enormity of the task”, instead of “size”), the death of the word “atypical” and its replacement with “untypical”. But this is mere cavilling and not worthy criticism. The voices of the authors come through.
If “names sell papers”, this book, then, should sell out in Yorkshire and, so doing, raise well-deserved funds for the Cathedral and its music. For those outside, it gives an insight into the running and development of provincial cathedral music in the 19th and 20th centuries, and for this it is worth buying. Much has been written about London and its music. Here is a book to start to redress the balance.
If “names sell papers”, this book, then, should sell out in Yorkshire and, so doing, raise well-deserved funds for the Cathedral and its music. For those outside, it gives an insight into the running and development of provincial cathedral music in the 19th and 20th centuries, and for this it is worth buying. Much has been written about London and its music. Here is a book to start to redress the balance.
Philip Bailey - June 2009 –
