The extensions that open out on all sides make the corona of the dome seem independent of support. Westminster Cathedral is one of the greatest secrets of London; people heading down Victoria Street on the well-trodden route to more famous sites are astonished to come across a piazza opening up the view to an extraordinary facade of towers, balconies and domes. Initially, he determined there should be a community of Benedictine monks at the new cathedral, performing the liturgies and singing the daily Office. The concrete flat roofing around the domes is covered with asphalt. The lighting pendants of the nave – or cantilevers as they were first called – were erected early in 1909. However, the choir is particularly renowned for its performance of Gregorian chant and polyphony of the Renaissance. Hyde was succeeded by George Malcolm, who developed the continental sound of the choir and consolidated its musical reputation—in particular through the now legendary recording of Victoria's Tenebrae Responsories. [12] The main entrance façade owes its composition, in a measure, to accident rather than design. 3 (op. The eastern termination of the cathedral suggests the Romanesque, or Lombardic style of Northern Italy. The vast nave of Westminster Cathedral. The instrument was said to have been voiced so cleverly that organists who had heard the organ from the nave were astonished when they saw the true specification at the console. The Nave of Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England. In the Lady Chapel the walls are clad in marble and the altar reredos is a mosaic of the Virgin and Child, surrounded by a white marble frame. [9] The Feast of the Dedication of the Cathedral is celebrated each year on 1 July,[9] which from 1849 until 1969 was the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Cardinal Vaughan received the boys with the words "You are the foundation stones". This is one of the largest structures of its kind, the total width being 9.5 metres (31 ft), and the height 11.5 metres (38 ft). The cathedral choir also broadcasts frequently on radio and television. Westminster Cathedral, popular guide, n.d. Westminster Cathedral Bulletin, July-August 1993.-----TQ 2979 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER ASHLEY GARDENS 99/15 SW1 The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the Most Precious Blood (Westminster Cathedral) I GV In planning the nave, a system of supports was adopted not unlike that to be seen in most Gothic cathedrals, where huge, yet narrow, buttresses are projected at intervals, and stiffened by transverse walls, arcading and vaulting. Indeed, Bentley's influence is, in reality, only seen in the chapel dedicated to the Holy Souls. In June 2005 the choristers performed the world première of Sir John Tavener's Missa Brevis for boys' voices. In 2012, the cathedral was the host of 2 episodes of the BBC Four three-part documentary series named ‘Catholics’: The first episode looked at women who attend and/or work at the cathedral and their faith, and the third episode looked looked at the men training to become priests in the Church at Allen Hall seminary, and in the episode was a brief scene of their ordination at the cathedral. Mosaics installed during the period 1912–1916 were mostly done by devotees of the Arts and Crafts Movement. From the narthex we see the nave stretching before us towards the high altar under its elegant canopy or baldacchino. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. The ones at Westminster Cathedral are by the sculptor Eric Gill, and are considered to be amongst the finest examples of his work. Due to the very favourable reception of this work, Hobbs was commissioned for further mosaics: the chapel to Saint Joseph which contains mosaics of the Holy Family (2003) and men working on Westminster Cathedral (2006). It is the only cathedral choir to have won in either of these categories. The transept is both wider and higher than the nave, because it was originally intended to have four towers and a higher central tower. The main structural parts of the building are of brick and concrete, the latter material being used for the vaulting and domes of graduated thickness and complicated curve. No new mosaics were installed until 1950 when one depicting St Thérèse of Lisieux (later replaced by a bronze) was placed in the south transept and another (in memory of those in the Royal Army Medical Corps who died in World War II) in the chapel of Saint George in 1952. Chartres Cathedral. Of these the most prestigious are the 1998 Gramophone Awards for both Best Choral Recording of the Year and Record of the Year, for the performance of Martin's Mass for Double Choir and Pizzetti's Requiem. Terry gave the premières of music by Vaughan Williams (whose Mass in G minor received its liturgical performance at a Mass in the cathedral), Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells and Charles Wood; in 1959 Benjamin Britten wrote his Missa brevis for the choristers; and since 1960 works by Lennox Berkeley, William Mathias, Colin Mawby and Francis Grier have been added to the repertoire. Those chapels which may be entered from the aisles of the nave are also 6.7 metres (22 ft) wide, and roofed with simple barrel vaulting. Although the cruciform plan is not very noticeable inside the building, it is emphasised outside by the boldly projecting transepts. In October 2011, they sang the inaugural concert of the Institute for Sacred Music at Saint John's in Minnesota. John Francis Bentley: Cathedral Architect, William Brindley: Sculptor, Marble Merchant, Explorer, The Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine, Chapel of St Patrick and the Saints of Ireland, Chapel of St Andrew and the Saints of Scotland, Shrine of the Sacred Heart and St Michael, The Vaughan Chantry (Chapel of St Thomas of Canterbury), The Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs. 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