New Canon Pastor appointed - Truro Cathedral

Chris Gray our Director of Music takes a look
at the end of term while Luke Bond, his assistant,
previews the Visiting Choirs this summer.
Farewells for the Cathedral Choir
We finished our academic year on Sunday 10 th July with a
mixture of impassioned music and emotional farewells after
Evensong. We said goodbye to our three Head Choristers,
Glen Badve, Angus Edmondson and Jonathan Hunkin as
well as our six Choral Scholars, Tim Braithwaite, Jacob Dennison,
Henry Hawkesworth, Joe Judge, Humfrey Jeakins and
Kieran White and our Organ Scholar, Sachin Gunga. All
have served the Cathedral with distinction and will be
greatly missed for their music and all that they have brought
to our group socially.
We also said farewell to Richard Hichens who has been one
of our bass deputies, singing on Mondays and Fridays, and
has brought a tremendous amount to the Cathedral, in a
variety of ways, over several decades.
Richard was a Lay Vicar in Truro Cathedral Choir from
1976 to 1978 at a time when the duties included singing at
the Eucharist, Mattins and Evensong on Sundays and weekday
services only on the feasts of Apostles. He began a long
and happy association with our choir school, Polwhele
House School, when it opened its doors in 1981 and rejoined
the Choir at that time, singing under John Winter then
David Briggs and then the early days of Andrew Nethsingha.
He deputized under Andrew and then, more regularly,
under Robert Sharpe and, happily, in my time as well.
As well as this, Richard has been a core member of St
Mary’s Singers and Three Spires Singers for many years.
Though he was determined not to have a fuss made, the
Gentlemen of the Choir said farewell to Richard over a glass
of sherry at the top of the Cathedral tower on a beautiful
Sunday evening in June. He leaves us for Hereford where we
wish him every happiness. He will be missed by all at Polwhele
as well as the Cathedral community, within and outside
the Choir.
Webcast Evensong
As most Cathedral Newsletter readers will know, it is a treasured
part of our heritage in England that so many of our
Cathedral Choirs sing services almost every day. Outside the
UK, this only happens in a handful of places, most famously
at St Thomas’ Church on Fifth Avenue in New York. At
Truro, our full choir of men and boys sings at services on
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays during term
time. In June, we embarked on a new initiative to bring a
small number of these services to a larger congregation via
the internet. Our Evensong on Tuesday 28 th June was recorded
‘live’ (sound only) and uploaded to the Cathedral’s
6
website where it can be listened to for free by anyone with
a computer. So far, there have been nearly 8,500 individual
track plays from listeners in 37 countries across the
world. We are the first English Cathedral to webcast a service,
though other foundations have being doing it for a
number of years. I am delighted with the number of people
who have listened to us and we will be exploring ways to
build on this success in the future. We hope to have another
webcast in October.
Visiting Choirs
Luke Bond has again worked hard to create a summer programme
of Visiting Choirs who will provide the choral accompaniment
for the sung services. The warmth of our
Cornish welcome is known through the length and breadth
of the country (possibly further) and goes some way to explain
why we have visiting choirs booking to sing here as
far into the future as 2014. Please do come and support
the choirs and do please say hello at coffee on Sundays.
From August 1 st -7 th the Lynwood Singers will be joining us.
They were formed in 2007 and choir members come together
from many different parts of the country to sing and
enjoy each other’s company. The choir’s director is Robert
Soper and the organist is Daniel Soper.
The Harsnett Choir will be with us from August 8 th -14 th .
Samuel Harsnett was born in 1561, and between 1597
and 1605 he was the Vicar of the Parish of Chigwell. In his
later career he became Bishop of Chichester, then Bishop of
Norwich and, at the time of his death, in 1631, was
Archbishop of York. Samuel Harsnett enjoyed a certain
amount of fame in his day. He was well known for his support
of the Anglican campaign against the practice of exorcism.
His treatise, 'A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures',
was published in 1603 and appears to have
been used by Shakespeare as a reference for certain
scenes in King Lear.
The following week, August 15 th -21 st , we welcome the Priory
Singers who perform a wide range of music from Tudor
anthems and madrigals right through to arrangements of
contemporary works. They have performed anthems by
sixteenth-century composers, a fully-staged performance of
Purcell's Dido and ­Æneas, a new setting of the Requiem
mass by their Musical Director, Stephen Benavente, they
give an annual nine lessons and carols service by candlelight,
and perform their regular 'Lighter Side' engagements
at the Dolman Theatre.
Finally on September 3 rd -4 th we welcome St David’s Singers,
from Exeter. St David’s Singers was formed by Sylvia
Pritchard, then organist of St David’s Church Exeter, in the
early 1970s. Sylvia directed the choir until Autumn 1994
when the baton was passed to Mark Perry. The choir consists
of about 28 singers who enjoy singing challenging
music from a wide range of composers, periods and styles.
They sing sacred and secular music, normally a cappella,
in and around Devon, usually for charities. They have
toured in England and France and have previously recorded
a CD of the music of local (Dartmoor) composer
Christopher Williams.