Sylvia Townsend Warner in Westminster Abbey - 1 July, 1929
from The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, page 38:
...White service at the Abbey in the evening. My precamur, the Magnificat - it was entertaining to hear my added cantus part careering about that roof on 18th cent. wings - the Miserere, and O Praise God. Hearing my version, done for them, incorporating both 4 and 8 p[ar]t versions absolutely clinched my conviction that the 4pt is an adaptation and very base at that...The White sicut erat beginning with that low F in the bass is exactly like the world beginning to turn round in chaos and hum like a great top. It spins faster, and the pitch rises.
Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Claire Harman (ed.), The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner (:London, 1995), p. 38. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1441707645728 accessed: 1 February, 2025
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers
unknown choral music
written by Henry Purcell |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | 1 July, 1929 |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, indoors, in public |
Notes
'White' refers to Robert White, the sixteenth century composer whose music STW edited for vol. v of Tudor Church Music. From 1570-1574 he was organist and choirmaster of Westminster Abbey.