In mid-November we welcomed Robert Webb to the Cathedral as the second of our three new Section Lead & Lay Clerks. Robert works on Sundays and Tuesdays, covering the three choral services across those days.
The three new positions have been funded by a grant from the Cathedral Music Trust through their Cathedral Music Support Programme. On ‘Celebration Sunday’, when we officially gave thanks for this funding, we spoke to Robert, the Bass Lay Clerk, to find out more about him.
I got into music at the age of seven, playing the trumpet, and that’s been my instrument for almost thirty years now. I played in all sorts of orchestras and bands, doing Jazz and classical.
I didn’t really start singing until I got to university, where I sang in the chapel choir at Merton College Oxford, and then I started to take it a lot more seriously, and was appointed Choral Scholar there in my last year when the new Choral Foundation started (I say new – it’s not new anymore – it’s just new relative to the 400-year-old ones!).
That’s been my path into singing. Since then, I’ve been teaching singing – and singing in various groups – and conducting choirs, and my son now sings at Bradford Cathedral. He started last year, and that’s when I also started to sing with the choir, and that’s turned into this appointment now.
Has a background in different styles and genres helped you be quite adaptable as a musician?
Absolutely. I love the variety and I think everything contributes towards everything else. The more understanding you have of different styles and idioms, the better you’re able to cope with different types of music and bring it all into this wonderful melting pot.
You’re obviously a musical family – is that something that goes back in time as well?
All my siblings play instruments. My sister plays the flute, and I play with her in a Brazilian fusion band called Tempo Feliz (https://www.tempofeliz.com/), and my brother studied clarinet at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy. My youngest brother did not study music – he’s the black sheep, he went and studied Maths! – but he plays the trombone, the piano, and percussion. All our partners and my wife, we’re all musicians in one form or another. My wife sings here at the Cathedral and with me in other groups too!
Brazilian Fusion – that sounds an interesting genre! For people who’ve never heard that, how would you describe it?
Basically it’s bringing samba ideas and combining it with funk; that’s probably the nearest way I can describe what we do. If anybody’s ever heard the band Tower of Power but then with Brazilian music, that’s basically it!
Though Robert started in this role in mid-November, before then he has conducted the girls’ choir at Bradford Cathedral, as well as at the recent All Souls service, building on his work with the Pinsuti chamber choir, based in Ilkley, and the Skipton Choral Society. We asked him how he’d found conducting the Duruflé Requiem.
I love the Duruflé Requiem, because it weaves the Gregorian chant into every piece. I just love the way it flows, and the melody of it, and then when you combine that with some of the quirkier chords on the organ it’s really atmospheric, especially in a building like this.
What are your hopes and ambitions for your time as a Lay Clerk here?
I’m looking to develop as a singer. Most of the time I’ve been conducting and only singing here and there but not concentrating on it to the same degree and really devoting my time to it. I’m looking forward to singing with the children and helping them develop as singers; that’s another part of my role, to help develop the trebles and the adults in the choir, and hopefully to bring something extra to their music education that they haven’t been able to have so far without the professional singers.
What message would you get us give to the congregation to introduce yourself?
It’s always lovely to see everyone – and hear everyone singing – and I hope that we can raise our voices in all the hymns, because it feels so good when we sing together! That’s one of the best things about singing.
Finally, outside of sorts of music, do you have any other hobbies that interest you?
I recently retired from playing American Football. I absolutely love the NFL and American Football; I think it’s a fantastic game. I think it’s much maligned in this country because they think it’s not hard, but I challenge you to watch some of the games and tell me that there’s no athleticism and no physicality involved!
I played non-contact flag football – but I’m too old for that now though!
You can hear Robert singing at our choral services on Sunday and Tuesday. Please visit our website what’s on page for full details of all our services.