So Gothic, Yet So Gibberish. By Uncle Monty.

So Gothic, Yet So Gibberish.

Story and Photos By Uncle Monty.
~~

Harrold, King, Nixon and Charlesworth isn’t the

legal incorporation of some law firm, but rather
the surnames of the four vocalists (shown above)
that comprise of the world famous "Gothic Voices"

of the fivesome, or in this case the foursome, that

I saw right upfront. Their fifth vocalist Julian

Podger was a dodger on this occassion it seemed.
~ ~
For close to two hours, "Gothic Voices" performed at
The National Festival of Contemporary Church Music,

which I eagerly attended with much glee until I heard

them do their combo of medieval and modernistic

songs from Plainchant to Antiphons in their pre-

sentation of “New Light on an Ancient World.”
~~
Much of it was so gibberish that all I heard were

meaningless sounds, mumbled tones, and mostly

unintelligible words that the more I tried to figure

out the more I felt so utterly stupid, which some of

my more catty friends would readily agree that I

can be so utterly so, anyway.

~~
Stupid or not, I was also disappointed to see that the

three males of the foursome were dressed more like

Indian curry waiters than vocalists with their all-drab

black shirts, black trousers, and black shoes and with

no dress ties. The lovely Mezzo-Saprano Catherine King
was, however, the most nicely and befittingly dressed of
the foursome and was perhaps the most talented, vocally,
I’d say. I had expected the males to have been dressed
in colourful replica costumes of the medieval period and

since they were not I was pretty peeved at them for

that, too. There was a colourless presence about

"Gothic Voices" that bugged me no end.
~~

My picture (above) of Mezzo-Saprano Catherine

King at the close of the Gothic Voices performance.
~~
No musical accompaniment did "Gothic Voices" have

since such was not then used, I gather, in the Plainchants
and Antiphons then expressed at the Medieval period and

of the Dark Ages. Nor did they make use of any musical

instruments in the modernistic piece of “Gloria – Messe

de Nostre Dame” by Sir Peter Maxwell Davis, who per-

sonally attended the festival at where I did not get

to meet him nor to photograph him in person.
~~
In his lengthy and scholarly 1,800-word programme notes,
Leigh Nixon, who also sings as a Lay Vicar at Westminster
Abbey aside from his vocal role in "Gothic Voices," used so
many esoteric terms I wasn’t sure if I needed to be a musical
archmonk to first grasp the meanings of some of the things

he wrote. Words like organum, ars antiqua, conductus, iso-

rhythmic motet, cantus firmus, duplum, clausula, cauda,

and what have you made me feel like an Anglican ignor-

amus after all. Again, some of my many friends might en-

tirely agree, but wouldn’t say such to my pretty face …
~~

I also discovered that "Gothic Voices" suffers abit from

paranoia of sorts as they first thought I was digitally-

recording their stage performance, which, of course, I

was not. They thought my cameras were some how

audio recording devices, which again, of course, they too

were not. Frankly, to have tried to record them would

have been a waste of time for they have no mass com-

mercial appeal that is quite fine to those of us who share

no taste, like me, for mass appeal anyway. Other than

that,"Gothic Voices" was absolutely so gothic, yet so

gibberish, it still would have also been a waste of time

for someone to attempt to illicitly record them at such a

public festival. The acoustic sounds of them was enough

to have frightened away hungry rats and little contem-

porary Church mice, let alone innocent humanbeings

like me.
~~
For those who loved "Gothic Voices," then I bid them

only well. But for me, I cannot wait to hear instead the

Festival’s upcoming "Closing Concert by The Choir
of the Chapels Royal" under the fine direction of the
noted conductor and composer Andrew Gant. The
concert is set for the Eve of Trinity Sunday, 2oo8.
~~
Faithfully, Uncle Monty.
+Friday of Whitsun, 2oo8.

~~
:: An After Post-Thought ::
Perhaps it was all so anti-climatic for me to then

see and hear "Gothic Voices" just the day after I had

witnessed the extraordinary ceremony of The Festival

Service at St. Paul’s Cathedral. No four individuals im-

mediately after that – except, if I had seen together

the next day say The Holy Father, The Dalai Lama, The

Archbishop of Canterbury and The Supreme Ayatollah -

could have possibly competed for my undivided admiration

and public kudos that "Gothic Voices" had no chance

of getting from me no matter how good and talented
others may declare them to be. Timing is everything,

isn't it? Yeeeeeeeeeeeep. So hearing "Gothic Voices"

for the first time the day afterwards was so ill-timed

for me even though it wasn't their fault after all.

Whatever, I was still some how bugged by them ...

~~

:: Festival Logo of Contemporary Church Music ::

~~
Below: Myself, Uncle Monty, with the Lutheran

Vice-Bishop of the Faroe Islands at The Cathedral
of Torshavn at the Faroes.
~~

Here are some of my upcoming new stories:

1: Making Hay While At Hay-on-Wye.

2: Now Ghettoised -and Foreignised

Is My English Homeland.

3: School Discipline at Caddo Mills.

4: Got Dye So That I'll Soon Not Die.

5: Washed In Him at Holy Walsingham.

6. South Africa's Anti-Foreigner Stance.

Such stories will come periodically and in no

specific order when I decide to post them.