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|---|---|---|
Searching... Mount Angel Public Library | PBK TROLLOPE, J. Choir | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC TROLLOPE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In the gentle precinct of Aldminster Cathedral, crisis loomed. The urbane and worldly Dean (Purdey guns and the regular arrival of a delivery van from Berry Brothers) wanted nothing so much as to restore and beautify his beloved Cathedral--even if it meant sacrificing the Choir School to pay for it. Alexander Troy, Headmaster of the school, a conscientious man, somewhat out of his depth with his elusive and poetical wife (once seen walking barefoot in the dew across the Cathedral Close) was determined that nothing and no-one-certainly not the overbearing Dean-should destroy the Choir. As the rift widened into Machiavellian dimensions, many others found themselves caught in the schism--Leo Beckford, brilliant but wayward organist, repelling the adoration of the Dean's dreadful daughter--the gentle, left-wing Bishop, trying to soothe the angry protagonists--Sally Ashworth, mother of the leading chorister, fighting loneliness and an erring and absent husband. Each frail and human dilemma took its part in the greater turmoil of Chapter and Close and the final battle for the survival of the Choir. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Summary
In the rustic choir town of Aldminster, a divisive crisis looms. Funds are short and the cathedral is in need of major repair. Some hope to finance the work by abolishing the costly boy's choir; others vow to save the archaic but beloved tradition.Drawn into the fray is an extraordinary cast of characters, including Sally Ashworth. The lonely mother of a ten-year-old chorister, Sally meanders through her quiet, solitary life. She is anchored only by her unexpected love for the brilliant choirmaster and by her young son, whose melodic voice may be the only thing that can unite a divided community.
Author Notes
Joanna Trollope was born in Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England on December 9, 1943. She graduated from Oxford University. She worked on Chinese affairs in the Foreign Office in London for two years, and then became a teacher. In 1980, she became a full-time author.
Her first books to be published were a number of historical novels written under the pen name Caroline Harvey. These were followed by Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire, a historical study of women in the British Empire. The Choir was her first contemporary novel. Her other works include A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector's Wife, Girl from the South, The Soldier's Wife, and Balancing Act. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Joanna Trollope was born in Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England on December 9, 1943. She graduated from Oxford University. She worked on Chinese affairs in the Foreign Office in London for two years, and then became a teacher. In 1980, she became a full-time author.
Her first books to be published were a number of historical novels written under the pen name Caroline Harvey. These were followed by Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire, a historical study of women in the British Empire. The Choir was her first contemporary novel. Her other works include A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector's Wife, Girl from the South, The Soldier's Wife, and Balancing Act. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
As in the music that pervades the plot of Trollope's (The Rector's Wife) absorbing novel, contrapuntal technique results in a brilliant composition. Like her ancestor Anthony, Trollope focuses on an English cathedral town and its dissonant voices. Hugh Cavendish is dean of Aldminster Cathedral. The father of mutinous, unorthodox children, he is a bitterly disappointed man who craves administrative and spiritual authority. The prized boy's choir, however, is under the authority of King's School headmaster Alexander Troy and music master Leo Beckford. When the cathedral needs a quarter-million pounds worth of roof repairs, all matters of God, pedagogy, politics and music become matters of funds. Cavendish prefers to pay off the roof costs by sacrificing the expensive-to-maintain choir. Meanwhile, socialist/atheist city councilman Frank Ashworth wants the town to buy the headmaster's house out from under him to use as a community facility. Into the fray fall Sally Ashworth, married to Frank's long-absent son and in love with Leo; Sally's young son, Henry, the choir star; Alexander's untethered wife, Felicity; and Hugh's daughter Ianthe, an up-and-comer in the music business, who helps give her father what he deserves. Sacred music, the perfect treble of pre-pubescent boys and delicious deadpan understatement create a uniquely rich soundtrack on the pages of this beautifully crafted tale, which was first published in Britain in 1978. Author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
From a descendant of the Bard of Barchester, a seventh novel (The Men and the Girls, 1993, etc.)--and an upcoming Masterpiece Theatre dramatization--that breathlessly chronicles minor intrigue on a venerable English cathedral close. Though gritty Aldminster and its ancient cathedral are less famous than the lightly disguised Salisbury that Anthony Trollope himself immortalized as Barchester, and though the present story's politics, both temporal and spiritual, are moderated by contemporary realities, the whole still has an old-fashioned feel. Characters, even adolescents--despite references to rock music, anti-nuclear demonstrations, and apartheid--sound like the cast of a 1930s drawing-room drama. Mostly, they are period figures caught up in a quintessentially Old England conflict as Cathedral Dean Hugh Cavendish embarks on a devious scheme to get the money needed to repair his beloved cathedral. His announcement that the choir can no longer be funded by the Cathedral Chapter immediately divides the close, as does his decision to secure more money by selling the choir school headmaster's historic house to the city council, who want to use it as an advisory center. While the Dean plots on, the opposition rallies: Headmaster Alexander Troy, whose wife has temporarily disappeared; Leo Beckford, the talented but idiosyncratic organist and choirmaster; and Ianthe, the Dean's daughter, who has her own reasons for opposing her father. Caught in the middle is young Henry Ashworth, whose sublime voice makes a recording of the choir a bestseller, but whose grandfather is against local funding for the choir and whose mother is in love with Leo. The intrigue will be fast, furious, and only rarely high-minded. A thin and relentlessly quaint there'll-always-be-an-England story: The passion is as tepid as breakfast toast, but scenes of angelic faces singing sweetly in the choir will no doubt play well on TV. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Trollope's contemporary novels usually take place in picturesque English villages where the business of the church is inextricably bound up with the business of the town and where, behind the front doors of their gentrified cottages, people live messy lives. In the village of Aldminster, factions are lining up over the disposal of the church's dwindling cofferson the side of its much-needed new roof or on the side of its prestigious but high-maintenance choir. The large cast of characters features Sally Ashworth, whose marriage has been strained by her husband's frequent business absences; her young son, Henry, who has just been invited to join the choir; her father-in-law, Frank, a champion of leftist and lost causes who loves his grandson and the choir with equal ardor; and Leo Beckford, the organist with whom Sally falls in love. Trollope's villagers, young and old, take up room in one's heart. Published in Britain in 1988 and issued in the United States for the first time to coincide with its appearance on Masterpiece Theater, The Choir is one of Trollope's very best. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/95.]Barbara Love, Kingston P.L., Ontario (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
As in the music that pervades the plot of Trollope's (The Rector's Wife) absorbing novel, contrapuntal technique results in a brilliant composition. Like her ancestor Anthony, Trollope focuses on an English cathedral town and its dissonant voices. Hugh Cavendish is dean of Aldminster Cathedral. The father of mutinous, unorthodox children, he is a bitterly disappointed man who craves administrative and spiritual authority. The prized boy's choir, however, is under the authority of King's School headmaster Alexander Troy and music master Leo Beckford. When the cathedral needs a quarter-million pounds worth of roof repairs, all matters of God, pedagogy, politics and music become matters of funds. Cavendish prefers to pay off the roof costs by sacrificing the expensive-to-maintain choir. Meanwhile, socialist/atheist city councilman Frank Ashworth wants the town to buy the headmaster's house out from under him to use as a community facility. Into the fray fall Sally Ashworth, married to Frank's long-absent son and in love with Leo; Sally's young son, Henry, the choir star; Alexander's untethered wife, Felicity; and Hugh's daughter Ianthe, an up-and-comer in the music business, who helps give her father what he deserves. Sacred music, the perfect treble of pre-pubescent boys and delicious deadpan understatement create a uniquely rich soundtrack on the pages of this beautifully crafted tale, which was first published in Britain in 1978. Author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
From a descendant of the Bard of Barchester, a seventh novel (The Men and the Girls, 1993, etc.)--and an upcoming Masterpiece Theatre dramatization--that breathlessly chronicles minor intrigue on a venerable English cathedral close. Though gritty Aldminster and its ancient cathedral are less famous than the lightly disguised Salisbury that Anthony Trollope himself immortalized as Barchester, and though the present story's politics, both temporal and spiritual, are moderated by contemporary realities, the whole still has an old-fashioned feel. Characters, even adolescents--despite references to rock music, anti-nuclear demonstrations, and apartheid--sound like the cast of a 1930s drawing-room drama. Mostly, they are period figures caught up in a quintessentially Old England conflict as Cathedral Dean Hugh Cavendish embarks on a devious scheme to get the money needed to repair his beloved cathedral. His announcement that the choir can no longer be funded by the Cathedral Chapter immediately divides the close, as does his decision to secure more money by selling the choir school headmaster's historic house to the city council, who want to use it as an advisory center. While the Dean plots on, the opposition rallies: Headmaster Alexander Troy, whose wife has temporarily disappeared; Leo Beckford, the talented but idiosyncratic organist and choirmaster; and Ianthe, the Dean's daughter, who has her own reasons for opposing her father. Caught in the middle is young Henry Ashworth, whose sublime voice makes a recording of the choir a bestseller, but whose grandfather is against local funding for the choir and whose mother is in love with Leo. The intrigue will be fast, furious, and only rarely high-minded. A thin and relentlessly quaint there'll-always-be-an-England story: The passion is as tepid as breakfast toast, but scenes of angelic faces singing sweetly in the choir will no doubt play well on TV. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Trollope's contemporary novels usually take place in picturesque English villages where the business of the church is inextricably bound up with the business of the town and where, behind the front doors of their gentrified cottages, people live messy lives. In the village of Aldminster, factions are lining up over the disposal of the church's dwindling cofferson the side of its much-needed new roof or on the side of its prestigious but high-maintenance choir. The large cast of characters features Sally Ashworth, whose marriage has been strained by her husband's frequent business absences; her young son, Henry, who has just been invited to join the choir; her father-in-law, Frank, a champion of leftist and lost causes who loves his grandson and the choir with equal ardor; and Leo Beckford, the organist with whom Sally falls in love. Trollope's villagers, young and old, take up room in one's heart. Published in Britain in 1988 and issued in the United States for the first time to coincide with its appearance on Masterpiece Theater, The Choir is one of Trollope's very best. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/95.]Barbara Love, Kingston P.L., Ontario (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.