Eton College Chapel, Eton
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Eton College Chapel is the chapel of Eton College, an independent school in the United Kingdom.
Never completed due to the Wars of the Roses, the Chapel should have been a little over double its current length - a plaque on a building opposite the West End marks the point to which it should have reached.
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[edit] Architecture
The Chapel is built in the late Gothic or Perpendicular style.
It is unique amongst its comparably-sized peers in that it eschews modern musical technology, in particular sound boards (a common feature of English chapels in which medium-to-large-scale services and concerts are heard) in favour of what the Precentor, Ralph Allwood, calls a more "organic" sound produced without the use of equipment (apart from microphones in the pulpit). The new headmaster of Eton, Tony Little has been widely speculated to be planning to add a mixing board, with +4dBu levels, and extensive lighting to the Chapel following the impending departure of current Provost and staunch traditionalist Eric Anderson in June 2007.
The Chapel glass was all blown out by the bomb that fell on Upper School (a building nearby), except for the window above the organ. The fine East Window is the work of Miss Evie Hone of Dublin, and is considered one of the finest pieces of modern stained glass in existence.
The fan vaulting was installed in the 1950s after the wooden roof (there was no money for a vault to be installed in the 1400s) became infested with deathwatch beetle. It was completed in 3 years and is made of concrete supported from steel trusses, with genuine hand-carved Clipsham stone for the stone ribs supporting each bay.
[edit] Services
Eton College chapel is in frequent use, with at least one service a day, and many additional services which are in popular demand, ranging from Taizé to Roman Catholic Communion, to Compline. In these the Chapel is lit by a mere dozen candles, making it a magical place.
[edit] The choir
The choir which sings in the Chapel is made up of boys from the school, and is directed by the Precentor and Director of Music, Ralph Allwood. Up to 75% of the choir are former members of various cathedral and collegiate choirs, and many have been admitted under the school's Music Scholarship scheme. Many go on to continue their singing careers as choral scholars at Oxford or Cambridge.
Nowadays the choir only sings at three or four compulsory services a week, as recent cuts in the services mean that the choir only makes appearances to boys on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. There are a number of other services that are optional.
[edit] See also
- Late Gothic architecture
- Eton College
- Syon Abbey
- King's College Chapel, Cambridge
- King's College, Cambridge
