In A Rut(ter)

Well, Lessons & Carols Sunday at St. Looney-Up-The-Cream-Bun-And-Jam went off almost exactly as I predicted last week. We started off with some lovely Corelli played by a string quartet that contained an unusual left-handed second violin, then proceeded to roll into the standard choir reportoire which included this year "For Unto Us A Child Is Born", probably my very favorite chorus out of The Messiah.

The middle Llama-ette was there with the Youth Choir, stolidly belting out her lines. As it happens, I believe she's the youngest gel in the group. This does not appear to worry her at all, although at first I thought she wasn't standing up with the rest of them: it was only by craning my neck that I could make out the top of her head, sandwiched as she was between a pair of older girls who towered over her. The Youth Choir was scheduled to sing both the 9:00 and 11:15 services. As we proceeded along, I wondered to myself how the Llama-ette was going to manage to sit through the whole thing (which was really rayther long) twice. However, she was allowed to skip the second performance by her leader. Probably just as well. And by way of celebration, the gel went off to tea with her Godmother and the Missus instead.

But I'm not posting this just to tell you about that. Oh, no. I'm posting instead because, as I also predicted, we were subjected yet again to the music of John Rutter. Not one carol, not two, but three of them. The first one was new to me. It was called, I kid you not, "Donkey Carol". I'd give you a sample, except that I forgot to keep the program. However, it starts out with something about "Donkey walking on bumpy road", and is a perfect storm of saccharined lyrics and quirky, maudlin music. A quick bit of research indicates that lots of folks seem to fall all over themselves in praise of Rutter's music, but quite frankly it gives me the guts-ache.

I was chatting with somebody about this Ruttermania after the service. He thought he had remembered the rector mentioning some particular tie he had with the composer (who is only in his 60's, I believe), which is the only reason I can think of to explain why we get so much of this stuff. Feh. There hasn't been a really first-class English composer since William Boyce and IMHO, Rutter's works embodies all the very worst traditions in Brit music since then.