Ship of Fools: St Paul's Cathedral, London


imageShip of Fools: St Paul's Cathedral, London

Olivier Messiaen’s Meditations on the Birth of Our Lord transport our Mystery Worshipper in sheer ecstasy

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here


Comments

  • WOW
  • "The cathedral's organist" surely has a name. It's a shame it was not mentioned.
  • Our policy is not to mention participants in a service by name. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and all that, don't you know.

    This policy does not apply to reports published before GDPR was enacted.
  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    Not only that, but very often, especially in cathedrals, the name of the person playing the organ at any given service isn’t published
  • True - our local Cathedral publishes monthly lists of services, with the music to be played, but simply puts the name of the Director of Music on the bottom margin, along with the names of the Dean, and the Precentor.

    If there is to be a special organ recital, or whatever, then the name of the (guest) organist might be published beforehand, as, for example, when we had a visit from Olivier Latry of Notre Dame de Paris, some years ago.

    As you might imagine, that was NOT to be missed!
    :wink:
  • I suppose one reason for not mentioning organists and clergy in MW reports is to discourage wildly enthusiastic Comments from being filed by mates and fans of the musicians, a la TripAdvisor. NOT that I am suggesting any SoF regular would indulge in such a practice...

    However, I do notice that organists (and sometimes singers) dont get such clear billings as clergy and that seems a tad unfair.

    There are those who feel that giving fuller music credits smacks of the concert promoters handbill. But sometimes the clergy names are VERY prominently listed - and unless they are preaching and therefore have to prepare a sermon in addition to officiating, the clergy are unlikely to have spent as much time as the musicians rehearsing during the previous week!
  • I just checked our Cathedral music list, and see that the preacher's name is mentioned (if a service includes a sermon - not all of them do, of course), as is the name of the choir (whether 'visiting', or one of the 'regulars'.

    Otherwise, the clergy are anonymous, and not named individually e.g. as 'celebrant', 'deacon', etc.
Sign In or Register to comment.