The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge is an Anglican Chapel, part of the established Church of England.

‘Nicaea” or “Holy, Holy, Holy” is one of my favourite hymns and I enjoyed playing it when I was Organist/Choirmaster in Anglican parishes. But up until now, my main peeve with this hymn is that a descant was never sung on the last verse of this hymn, even at such places such as Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue (Anglican Communion). Well, the guy they hired there seemed to be very anti-descant despite him having the finest trebles you’ll hear anywhere able to superbly sing descants. So I stopped watching their Liturgies at Saint Thomas, in part, because of that. I’ve only heard a descant sung on this hymn by the trebles at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (Anglican Communion) on one occasion and it seemed like no one else in the Anglican Communion knew of this descant or had thought to write one for ‘Nicaea.’

Descants are very easy to write. They don’t work with all hymns, but a descant works nicely with ‘Nicaea.” I know the descant used at Grace Cathedral and have that in my head. If I were Choirmaster, I’d jot it down for my sopranos and have them sing it, assuming I had top-notch sopranos singing in perfect intonation. I wouldn’t need to contact the Music Department at Grace Cathedral and ask for a copy of it. It’s not difficult and the descant sung by the sopranos at the Trinity Chapel is similar to it.

This is a double descant — which they sing in the video above — and I’m not hot on double descants when sung by a Chapel Choir. That’s because they have a relatively small number of sopranos. What is it approximately 4 or 5 sopranos on each side? The problem with a double descant and a Chapel Choir (30 voices for example) is that it divides up the sopranos so that half of the sopranos sing one line and the other half sing another line. That’s why it’s called a double descant. Well, you don’t have that many sopranos to begin with in a Chapel Choir, so the problem with that, at least to my ear, is that it makes the top line descant sound especially thin rather than having a lush, full descant soaring through the Nave, if all the sopranos were singing the same line. With the double descant, it almost sounds like just one or two sopranos are singing the descant because of the “thin” sound on the top and bottom line, which you can hear in the video above.

To be clear, this is not meant as any criticism of the stellar Choral Scholars of The Trinity Choir or any of the Chapel Choirs at Oxbridge, which is where I’ve heard the double descants. If it were me, I’d have all the sopranos on a single descant line soaring through the Nave. I think double descants are best left to a Chorus or Choir with a larger soprano section. Because, again, overall the descant does not sound full and lush as it would sound if you have 50 sopranos, for example, so that would be 25 sopranos on each part.

Also, I really like their new Choirmaster, Professor Steven Grahl. He doesn’t make it all about himself. In fact, the Choir sing the psalm setting/Anglican Chant without him. They conduct themselves. And their psalm settings are masterfully sung. Steven’s conducting style is very discreet. He is excellent and I especially like his interpretation of the works of Herbert Howells.

But at least Trinity uses descants which I very much appreciate about them. And one has to have the finest sopranos singing in perfect intonation to sing a descant well. If one doesn’t have superb sopranos, don’t even bother trying to do a descant because it will sound awful. I know, I’ve heard some of those. Or if one has wobbly sopranos (“Church Choir Sopranos” as Margaret Hillis called them), forget it! Don’t even bother.

If I were still Organist/Choirmaster in an Anglican parish, I’d have my soprano section sing the descant at least twice, rather than the traditional Anglican way which is only on the last verse. Why only once? With that tradition, the congregation only gets to hear the descant once. I’ve heard people in congregations say, “Oh I always stop singing the hymn to hear the descant because we only get to hear it once.” At Notre Dame de Paris, they used the descant on every verse of the hymn. Why not? It certainly makes a hymn much more interesting, which is part of the reason for singing a descant.

In the video above (from a Choral Evensong from last term, May 2024), the Choir sopranos are singing the Christopher Robinson double descant on the last verse.

Here’s one of their Choral Evensong Liturgies from this term (this past week) where you can hear their superbly sung psalm setting which begins at approximately 13.00 in the video below. I can’t imagine it being sung any better. Such perfect ensemble. This is choral excellence at its highest level. The canticle setting is the Oriel College Service by Bingham. And, here’s the service leaflet.