{"id":2345,"date":"2025-01-07T01:19:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T00:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/?page_id=2345"},"modified":"2025-01-07T01:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T00:25:49","slug":"into-a-quiet-world-en","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/into-a-quiet-world","title":{"rendered":"Into A Quiet World"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As part of a DAAD project, I had the great opportunity to follow the traces of the choral culture in Durham, England, and to view the legacy of a recently deceased composer. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The diesel multiple unit from Newcastle arrives at the first of the two platforms two minutes after the scheduled arrival time. The train was still full on the short journey, but now it empties into the small town below us. On the sloping path down, I walk in a crowd of remarkably young people who are sure to spread out on the quickest shortcuts to their destinations. I could just make out the spires of my destination through the treetops. But first I have to make my way through the bustling provincial main street without being run over by a double-decker bus filled with school uniforms. Finally, the street leads into the pedestrian zone that begins at the bridge and my efforts are rewarded. The battlements of the castle gleam in the last rays of the day, and next to them, reflected in the gentle waves of the River Wear, Durham Cathedral.\n <\/p>\n

On the left, the beautiful curved path leads through the city center. Next to a group in evening wear and gowns, two people dressed in Hawaiian shirts, straw hats and sunglasses pass me by. But the sound of a bell awakens me from my brief moment of rest and reminds me of my appointment. So I happily hurry up the direct path to the right, through the small wood, along the castle wall. Today I am given a small farewell gift. For the first time since my arrival, the Choral Evensong program includes the composer who brought me to Durham.<\/p>\n

Tony, choir librarian and alto singer at the cathedral, has kindly offered to let me listen to the only rehearsal half an hour before it begins. At the rood screen that leads into the wood-panelled choir room of the almost thousand-year-old building, Tony hands me the sheet music to read along with. The cathedral choir, consisting of six professional singers, six students and alternating boys’ and girls’ choirs, normally sings a daily changing program at the highest musical level every day from Tuesday to Sunday for the sung evening prayer. I sit behind the choir, where the canons usually sit, and open the scores. Even more interesting to me than the printed notes are the many pencil entries that testify to musical practice, e.g. for a difficult cue: “Sang too early, 16\/2\/2018 :)”. But today the “Master of the Choristers” can only concentrate on small details, because everyone knows the setting of Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, which are at the heart of the Evensong, very well. They are by one of his predecessors: Richard Hey Lloyd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The estate of Richard H. Lloyd in the Durham Cathedral Library.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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A life’s work in five plastic boxes<\/b><\/p>\n

The story of why I came to Durham in the first place is almost miraculous in itself. On my last trip to England (see here) I came across Lloyd’s music for the first time in Hereford Cathedral. He also worked there as a cathedral organist and choirmaster and so shortly after his death in 2021 he was remembered in particular at the “Three Choirs Festival” held there. Afterwards I was particularly fascinated by the recording of his piece “Open Our Hearts” (see link below) and so I tried to find the corresponding sheet music in the following period – initially without success. Finally, through a few channels, I came across the email address of Simon Anderson, who manages Lloyd’s estate. He wrote that he knew this particular piece very well, because it was dedicated to his wife and him for their wedding.<\/p>\n

From further contact and the stories that followed, the picture that emerged was of a loving and modest man who lived for music, who wrote fantastic music for his work as a choirmaster and cathedral organist, as well as for his friends, which he himself probably did not consider to be very good. Simon told me about the hundreds of manuscripts that he left behind. The majority of them were never published, let alone recorded. All of them are now in five plastic boxes in the cathedral library in Durham. I wanted to take this as an opportunity to help digitize this work with financial support from the DAAD, because the long-term plan is to make the unpublished pieces available digitally to the interested public, and my plan is also to perform this beautiful music in Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Richard H. Lloyd and the manuscript of one of his pieces (see Youtube link below)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I love my fluffy cat<\/b><\/p>\n

It’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m on cloud nine. Just an hour ago I was happy to have found my first choir in Durham with Hatfield’s College Choir. Now I am already on my way to my first evensong with my second choir – fortunately there is a lack of tenors here too. The choir of St. Hild and St. Bede’s College does not sing in the college’s own chapel due to reconstruction work, but in the parish church of St. Cuthbert. Within an hour, the program must be set, which I am not the only one seeing for the first time today. But this seems to be normal here and many in the local choirs have grown up with this working method themselves as choristers in the cathedrals of the country.<\/p>\n

But the biggest challenge for me today is not the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Edward Bairstow. A special specialty in the Anglican Evensong tradition is the psalm soundtracks. These are not written out as notes, but are content to print a recurring four-voice sentence at the top left and then only the psalm text with certain markings. The challenge is therefore to memorize the choral movement as quickly and as well as possible. But Bea, the choir director, has a trick: Instead of the Old Testament psalm texts peppered with complicated proper names, she first lets the choir simply sing the following sentence: “I love my cat, I love my fluffy cat”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The choir of Hatfield College with a very, very happy German guest singer.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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All So Still<\/b><\/p>\n

Now I’m sitting in Cologne with a view of the now very quiet Ebertplatz and wonder if it was all a dream. I think of the great people I got to know, who welcomed me openly, who are committed and with heart and with heart and soul keep the culture of this small English town alive. People who study physics or biochemistry and at the same time sing music at the highest level, whose memory makes me almost cry again. Not to post it on TikTok or to become rich or famous, but out of love for music and the common sound. From this I have eerie inspiration with me home and a suitcase full of sheet music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Click here for english version<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2291,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2345","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2345"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2356,"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2345\/revisions\/2356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreastheobald.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}