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Whilst practising a verse of "O Worship the King" two of the red-robed choirboys of the "Templars", the Temple Church Choir, raised their hands. Their choirmaster, Dr. George Thalben-Ball, conducted on undisturbed. Several times more this happened among the boys during the singing of this melodious hymn. Intrigued, I asked George Dixon, Dr. Ball's assistant, what these hand signals meant. "Why, it's been a Temple tradition for many years", he said. "Whenever someone makes a mistake in the music, he raises his hand immediately and this encourages both accuracy of performance as well as instilling a great sense of honesty in the boys."
We had come to the Temple to record the year's new choir in a programme of "Standard Hymns" — a follow-up of our "Christmas Carols" which was such a great success last year. Dr. Ball had been enthusiastic about this choir, as he has been about all he has led at this ancient church since 1919. I marvelled at the patience and great musicianship he must have to weld each year ten to twelve boys and an equal number of men into a team of glorious precision. Each Sunday there is a choral service at the Temple Church, requiring practice and study of new anthems, many voluntaries and psalms. This doughty veteran, who must be one of the busiest men in Britain, does it all most cheerfully with the quiet authority one has come to expect from him, in his own right one of the foremost British organists and musicians. HMV's first electrical recording in 1927 by "Master Ernest Lough" was made under G.T.B.'s (as he is fondly known) direction — what a long way from the crude, old-fashioned waxes to the highly sensitive stereo equipment which was now installed in the vestry of the Temple Church to make our present recording; so sensitive, in fact, that Dr. Ball and I made a tour of the nether regions of the cellars (braving the ghost of Oliver Goldsmith buried in the tiny churchyard) to trace a low noise that was disturbing the sound of the organ during the recording. The culprit was revealed to be not a ghost, but a tiny jet of the gas boiler providing the scant heating for the church (oh how we shivered!) where already the breath of the singers kept condensing visibly! The jet had to be switched off and we continued unhampered.
The organ voluntaries (including Clarke's famous Trumpet Voluntary) on our recording are played by Dr. Ball on the new instrument built after the fiery destruction during the War of the famous Father Smith organ. This former organ was the issue of a fierce "Battle of the Organs" in the mid-seventeenth century in which John Blow and Henry Purcell featured as champions of the Father Smith instrument. The loser, Renatus Harris, with infinite care had also built an
organ for Sir Christopher Wren who started the contest, but his organ lost the battle and apparently disappeared. Two years ago on one of our trips to capture the sound of the few real baroque organs left in England (baroque referring to the period of the instrument, and not their architectural appear- ance) we came across this "Harris" organ in a grimy Midland
town, hidden in a crumbling, plain and deserted-looking church.
A recording which we made there has been pronounced by scholars "miraculously clear and beautiful" — in fact, as we know today, the judgment given by the now infamous arbiter of the organ contest, who knew nothing about music or organ
playing, may not have been a sound one, and perhaps the forgotten relic of the past might have been installed instead.
Processionals are part of the life of the Temple Choir. It is a moving and impressive moment for the listener to hear the lovely tune "Now thank we all our God" recede into the ancient Round as the singers slowly walk into the west end of the church. Famous effigies of the original Templars lie silently in that dim and ageless porch. Our procession, pre- served on the recording, took quite a while to achieve. The choir had to sing the first verse in normal position to achieve a proper balance, then we had to turn everybody around slowly through an arc of 45 degrees, and the leading boys had to set off in step very slowly to the rhythm of the music. Half way down the aisle we had a conductor relaying the beat of the hymn to Dr. Ball on the organ loft upstairs. Organists are almost always thus isolated, and ensemble is endangered. However, the experience of the choir soon told in the result of the recording which we hope will give as many people pleasure in their homes here and in far away places as these highly skilled young musicians had in singing for us. Ernest Lough's voice is a few octaves lower than it used to be when he recorded "Hear my prayer". However, the same devotion permeates his art today as then, and now as a proud father of "young Robin" one senses the smile they give each other as they alternate in singing the verses of "For the beauty of the earth".
The tape machines cease turning and we put on our coats to go out into the still, frosty London night. Behind, the church lies half hidden in darkness with some few lights left burning where "the Doctor" is still working, practising a thundering organ Toccata which goes rolling through the night. Working with the Temple Church Choir has been a happy experience for us, as always, and we hope in capturing their fresh voices on record this will be shared by our listeners.
1961. PETER ANDRY
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