New College enjoyed a great success with its choir’s “Agnus Dei” record (Erato, 1/97) and is likely, I should think, to have another with this. As Edward Higginbottom acknowledges in his introductory notes, the folk-song becomes a different thing when sung from a written text and musical score; different again when that score is written in choral parts with enrichments of harmony and counterpoint. This last matter probably warrants more discussion, for views may differ about the art of arranging. Should the words and melody be ‘given straight’, with no more adornment than in the harmonizing of a hymn tune? That is Gordon Jacobs’s way with The Ash Grove. Or should they become the basis for what is essentially a new composition, as in John Cameron’s version of Blow the wind southerly? Is (perhaps) the purity of the first a trifle dull, and the ingenuity of the second a little too sophisticated? A happy medium maybe. Anyway, ample opportunity to think about it arises during the course of this recital.
It is, of course, unusual to have a church choir in such a programme. The sound of the boys’ voices and the male altos has different associations, and a choir of mixed voices might be expected to bring a fuller colour of country life into its singing. If so, it comes to me now as an afterthought, not a consideration that consciously affected the pleasure of listening. And this was great. The fine tone (with a likeable individuality in that of the trebles), the intelligent phrasing, clear enunciation and sensitive shading are all admirable. There are some good soloists too, outstanding among them being the tenor Philip Cave who sings so beautifully in Brigg Fair. Occasionally (as in the trebles’ verse of the Londonderry air) the notes are ‘individualized’ at the expense of the flow; sometimes (as in The Ash Grove) the punctuation may be a degree too deliberate. Of the selection itself the only complaint, and a mild one, is that a few more quick-tempo items would not have gone amiss (the Kerry dance, which is fairly quick, seems to me the one failure as an arrangement – it’s a song that needs a freer speech-rhythm rather than this regular and rather insistent compound-time). Recorded sound is fine – not at all churchy though in fact recorded in the Chapel – and the booklet is attractively produced.'