The Quinquennial Reunion, October 2006

As you will know, our most recent Reunion was particularly special, in celebration of Edward Higinbottom’s 30 years at New College and 60th birthday. A sequence of events lasted over three days and was hugely successful.

The weekend began on Friday 6 October with a performance of Messiah in the Sheldonian to launch the new recording, followed by a reception for the 120-odd sponsors in the distinguished portals of the Divinity School. The performance, predictably fine and lively, was received with acclaim and a standing ovation.

Saturday 7th saw a full day of events, attended by a total of some 160 Choir alumni. The running order was as follows:

On Sunday 8 October there was a morning Eucharist, truly ‘celebrated’ to music by Mozart, Martin, Palestrina, and Bach. The Rev’d Canon Dr Jane Shaw, Dean of Divinity, preached, celebrating the distinguished service of EH. There followed drinks in the Cloister. The College then provided a splendid lunch in Hall for some 175 parents of present and former choristers who enjoyed themselves so much that they had literally to be thrown out at 4.30 pm so that Hall could be reset for dinner. It was an exhausting but wonderful weekend, with many friendships renewed and made.

group photo
Group photo in the front quad

Read the sermon preached by The Revd Canon Dr Jane Shaw, Dean of Divinity, at Sung Eucharist on 8 October 2006 in thanksgiving for 30 years of Dr Edward Higginbottom’s music making at New College.

head of Epstein's Lazarus


“Good grief! Here they go again!
Can’t a fellow get any peace around here?”


Lazarus’s reaction to the celebratory concert in the antechapel,
7 October 2006, with thanks to John Platts (chorister 38-44).

As an undergraduate, John was present at the ceremony for the installation of Lazarus, attended by Sir Jacob and Lady Epstein. Its appearance was not altogether welcomed and some Fellows were opposed to it. The gossip goes that a clever maths don calculated that in ‘x’ days, the whole thing would topple over, so the distance between the statue and the west door was measured regularly. After a few months the practice was discontinued and Epstein’s sense of balance was accepted, to Warden Smith’s delight.

Speech by Dr Murray Somerville at the Reunion Dinner

The first time I met Edward, I was the host and he was the guest. During my days as organ scholar here, he came with a group of choral scholars from King’s to give a concert here in the Chapel. Who could have imagined then the scene this evening? (And would singers from The Other Place even dare to present such a performance these days, in a post-Agnus Dei world?) This time last week I was at the Cathedral in Orlando, Florida, presiding over the celebrations of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Deanery Boychoir, which I had founded there. But tonight we are all celebrating 30 years of most distinguished service to an institution which is over 600 years old.

It was somewhat of a surprise to many when a comparatively freshly-minted Cambridge Ph.D. was appointed to succeed David Lumsden (himself of course a Cambridge Ph.D.) Dear old Bernard Rose was reported to have remarked over his gin and tonic, “I had expected to at least heard of my new colleague before he was appointed.” Of course one already knew of Edward’s academic brilliance and I had heard direct evidence of his skills on the organ; but could anyone, even Edward himself, have predicted a celebration such as this? It’s been such fun to watch, hasn’t it? Not least because Edward carries his brilliance with such wit. We have all enjoyed every year his accounts of the choir’s doings in the New College Record and Choir News, with those delicious asides and ironic comments.

And I remember when I had him come to Harvard to introduce the music of Mondonville just after I got there. My choir had been asking all sorts of questions about all those pesky ornament signs, which I had deflected by saying, “Edward will explain it all when he gets here.” So early into the first rehearsal, I asked Edward to go ahead and elucidate all of this, expecting a quasi-academic lecture befitting a contributor to Grove. Instead, he just said, “Well, you just start on the top, and you want to get to the bottom note, and in between you just … wiggle!” So indeed the Harvard choir wiggled its way through Mondonville and many other pieces for many years to come!

Then there’s his boldness, hiding behind that slightly rarified academic manner which doesn’t fool anyone for long. When I brought the Harvard choir over here for the first time, we were to sing Evensong together; ahead of time I came over to make arrangements, and as Edward and I were sitting in the pub, I said, “Well, we need some polychoral anthem for the service.” Edward appeared to think for a moment, and then said, “Well, we’d have an hour to rehearse. I don’t know… we could do… perhaps, Spem in alium.” At which point I just about dropped my fork! But what he knew (and I didn’t at that point) was that New College were singing it with King’s the month before, so he wasn’t really taking a risk at all.

Then there is his razor-sharp business sense—in fact, in terms of record sales one could say on many occasions with the Psalmist, “He slew mighty King’s.” What has it been—six CDs every year, sales in the 100s of thousands? And the repertoire has been so intriguing—not only the predictable Tallis, Byrd and Stanford, but the folk-songs, the Frenchmen, even a whole disc of American music! What other English choir has recorded music by Adolphus Hailstork, I ask you? All this has certainly put New College Choir more and more on the map. How my heart swelled with pride listening to the Proms a few years back when the announcer said: “that great shout that went up was to greet New College Choir as they came on the platform.” Almost like pop stars, it was!

Now we know that Edward has not managed all this entirely alone! In fact, Caroline has been more than just mother to his brood of seven, support and helpmate—she has been office manager and much more besides. So to show our appreciation of all that she has done, a bouquet for Caroline!

And as a memento of tonight’s celebration, we also have a little surprise for Edward—the Alpha and, well, we hope not Omega, but certainly probably theta or something—with these two framed posters which Chris Hodges would like to present: a poster of the latest Messiah recording, and a poster (quaintly set in Letraset) of a Cambridge concert conducted by EH in 1976, just before his NC appointment, of Rameau’s Dardanus, including young soloists Felicity Lott and Martyn Hill. To the Dean’s consternation, Chris first tried to present some of the College’s antique plate to EH, but regrettably the ruse was spotted.

On that remarkable monument in the Ante-Chapel, commemorating the German members of New College who died in the First World War, Warden Spooner used the memorable phrase “[those] who… entered into the inheritance of this place…” All of us here tonight have indeed “entered into the inheritance of this place;” – to a select few it is given to enhance and strengthen the musical inheritance of this place. We think of Sir Hugh Allen, that musical force of nature, with his legendary Bach performances; Sir William Harris, conducting Faire is the heaven for the first time in the Ante-Chapel; H.K. Andrews, with those famous war-time broadcasts from the ’Byrd sanctuary’; and in my case of Sir David Lumsden, making those first landmark LP recordings, taking the choir to the States for the first time, recruiting singers like James Bowman to the ranks, and producing a steady stream of cathedral organists from his organ scholars. And Edward has taken that legacy, and developed it in his own brilliant and unique fashion. He has created a sound from the trebles that, one might say, has returned English Cathedral music to A Better Land. (He has even exported that sound across the channel, not only with those legendary choir tours from one great vineyard to another, but also in his work with re-establishing boys’ choirs in France, for which he has been so deservedly decorated by the French Government.) He has brought his scholarly expertise in the French Baroque to this chapel, and thus to the whole musical world. He has not hesitated to have the choir sing under brilliant guest conductors, such as Christopher Hogwood and Robert King. He has produced a brilliant stream of choristers, as well as academical clerks who have gone on as singers and as conductors, and organ scholars who now occupy a significant place in musical life throughout the world. His teaching of the college’s music students, and his influence on the Oxford curriculum (particularly in the field of performance studies), has produced a steady stream of academic achievement. He has indeed maintained and enhanced the choral “inheritance of this place” for all of us, and thus for generations to come.

Tonight we rightly celebrate the work of the Choir Association, and the ongoing tradition of New College Choir, and these are certainly worthy causes. But, Ladies and Gentleman, tonight I believe it is right for us to stand, raise our glasses, and join in a toast to Edward’s past, present and future brilliant career as Organist, Fellow and Tutor in Music at New College.

FLOREAT EDWARD!!