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Basilica in Mechelen
All Saints' Church, Jesus Lane,
Cambridge
Jesus College is opposite
English Heritage plaque in Harley
Street
GEORGE FREDERICK BODLEY
Reviewed by ANDRE BEAUMONT
All Saints' Church is a Grade I listed church by the Victorian architect, George Frederick Bodley.
Having recently been the venue for a Coronation Celebration on 7 May 2023, it hosted its own first jubilee event on 22 July 2023, when I attended a performance by the CSD Brass band.
This is now a vigorously used venue for music and, as observed at the May event, the acoustic of the church suits brass well.
I have elsewhere commented on hearing organ pipes through the flagstones, floors, seats and pews of churches [1] and there was so much brass on show that the pews resonated even more. I am fairly used to hearing pipes and the conductor explained to the audience the lengths of all the B flat and E flat instruments but I guess there is one difference: the pews here are screwed down through floorboards whilst in somewhere like Westminster Abbey there are flagstones. It does show that a Victorian architect like Bodley had honed down making a great church with an economy of materials. You walk on tiles where there is most traffic.
Wood usually gives a much different acoustic to stone. It is the Victorian decoration that many admire but there is much craft to church design if you want it to last the test of time as, indeed, shown by those who did the restoration.
There were some interesting instruments on show like a flugelhorn, a cornet section and a baritone euphonium.
The jubilee theme was carried through the programme, to the extent that was realistic.
It is also the 400th anniversary of William Byrd's death so we started with an adaptation of the Agnus Dei for 5 voices.
It is the 100th anniversary of the Disney Corporation so there was something from Repunzl's Tangled Adventure and Ghost Riders in the Sky.
The CSD Brass band at All Saints' Church
There was the 6/8 time march Blaze Away, Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time, Ennio Morricone's The Mission with a cornet taking the part of an oboe, the Twelfth Street Rag and the cornet section playing the ragtime Buster Strikes Back.
There was some contemporary composition and, indeed, much more.
The church was packed .... with children over 50
The programme for the Coronation Celebration the day after the coronation
The other G.F. Bodley church and interior in Cambridge, the listed Queens' College Chapel [2]
I was impressed by this school of drama's end of term day out in Cambridge and here you did get children - but so skilled you would never know - I always did think brains worked best at 17
With the pews temporarily vacated by the Contemporary Choir ready to perform, here was packed, too - the other choirs are the Chamber Choir and the Consort of Voices
The Cam from the mathematical bridge at Queens'
On 5 November 2023 I returned to All Saints' Church to a concert by Cambridge Voices whose final piece was a commissioned hymn from Ian de Massini incorporating a poem by George Frederick Bodley.
We were generously provided with the score as well
This was a splendid song by a very talented choir to conclude the programme. It was the only one accompanied by the 1864 Foster & Andrews organ, an organ in original condition which I had only heard in recitals before. There is evidence that Bodley thought a lot about the sound of the organ, which is contemporary to his design, and hearing it accompanying church music is what was intended all along as it does not have the long pipes of organs installed with recitals in contemplation.
The organ section of the hymn was glorious leaving me wanting an organ voluntary as we left the church. Here we have an opening though - perhaps Ian de Massini and the Cambridge Voices (or others) could come back to perform church music that is accompanied by the organ, with organ voluntaries - which were originally conceived to entertain the congregation - thrown in beginning and end? Then we will really hear the organ as Bodley intended.