How shall I keep from singing?

We experienced church in a rather different way this week. Having two Sundays off from our normal commitments, in order to travel to St. Andrews Graduation Week, meant no singing but the chance instead to listen to two university chapel choirs. At the Graduation Service in St. Salvator’s Chapel, the red-robed choir sang from the balcony. Confident young voices sang Howells’ Magnificat (Gloucester Service), some wonderful descants to the hymns and a glorious choral final ‘Amen’, before entertaining us with a lighter programme (folk songs) at the actual Graduation. ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ (Weelkes) and ‘Timor et tremor’ (Poulenc) started off the varied Graduation Recital at the end of a long day. I think the choir definitely earned their free board and lodgings for staying on an extra week after term ended.

The atmospheric Candlelit Compline at St. Leonard’s Chapel (surely Harry Potter was meant to be set here?), with a choir led by one of the students, happened late at night so my attention unfortunately wandered. The Tudor introit was introduced in a thick Scottish accent, so I didn’t catch the name, and didn’t recognise it when it was sung. Balfour Gardiner’s ‘Evening Hymn’ was sung in Latin with a beautifully lush tone - when sung well this always makes me think I am slowly sinking into pillows of velvet. To match the beauty of the singing, and send us on our way in peace, was the three-minute silence at the end of the prayers.

The environmental theme continued today, with the Gospel Reading (all about scattering seed, growth and harvest), the sermon (about growth and tending small shoots) and the anthem ‘Thou visitest the Earth’ (rather appropriately by a chap called Greene). I began to think I’d slept through summer and woken up to find ourselves in the middle of the harvest festival.

Evensong was quiet and dignified, in the way that only evensong can. Attwood’s ‘Teach me O Lord’ was sung confidently, by a much larger choir than in recent months; we processed out to the rather delightful Canon in D by Pachebel - a total contrast to Verdi’s ‘Grand March’ this morning.

A very brave conductor stood in front of us on Saturday, having arranged for 40 parts to gather together to sing Tallis’ ‘Spem in Alium’ in aid of a children’s charity. After two hours’ practice, we held together just enough to sing the monster work in public, together with other Tallis motets: ‘If ye love me’, ‘O nata lux de lumine’ and ‘Salvator mundi, salva nos’. People listening seemed to appreciate the richness of sound, which carried well across the church, even though to some of us, in the thick of it, it sounded more like ’spam in aluminium’ in places.

On Sunday we were joined by some of the students, back from their term’s studies, which was an encouraging boost to numbers. It was a joy to sing the Benedicite (a reminder of Mattins days) as the anthem in the morning service, a strange mixture of Trinity Sunday and World Environment Day. However, it all came together at Evensong when we sang ‘I bind unto myself today’, the words of which neatly combine Trinity with the natural world. The Sweeney responses and ‘Hymn to the Trinity’ (Tchaikovsky) made a splendid end to a weekend feast of music.

This weekend saw us in Bristol, first at the cathedral for Friday evensong with the lay clerks. Six singers with beautifully clear voices sang full SATB, with one counter tenor having a tremendously high range. Tallis responses, the Batten Short Service and Purcell’s ‘Thou knowest Lord the secrets of our hearts’ were sung with exquisitely gentle voices - the choir boys could enjoy their half-term break knowing that the music was in very capable hands.

The ancient ‘Rush Sunday’ service at St. Mary Redcliffe sounded rather intriguing, and so it proved to be. There was a wonderful perfume pervading the church, with rush-strewn floors and nosegays in the main aisle pews. The service was based loosely on Mattins, beginning with a very grand procession of city dignitaries and ending with sherry on the church green. The all-male choir is a rather special church choir, almost at Cathedral standard, so it was a tremendous pleasure to hear them sing Howells’ ‘Jubilate’, the Rose responses, and Carter’s ‘Come Holy Ghost’. The rousing choice of hymns was further enhanced by a brass quintet joining in with the final verse of each hymn. A joyous celebration fitting for Whit Sunday and the latest in a long line of such services stretching from 1493 to the present day.

One of the curates came into the vestry, for pre-service prayers, calling ‘Order! Order!’ She will henceforward be known as ‘Betty’.
A very small, nervous group of sopranos gamely kept the show on the road today - being the First Sunday of Half-Term (that well-known date in the Liturgical Calendar) - singing the first verse of ‘Come Holy Ghost’ (Attwood) before we all came in singing SATB. People in the congregation seemed to appreciate the quiet sound though, although one person asked who was the soloist.

Quiet was not the word to be used for the organ voluntary (’Transport de joie’ - Messiaen), which I’m sure the Director of Music played louder than usual to make up for the general air of quietness in the chancel this Sunday. He’d also had fun earlier in the service playing Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as the Gospel Fanfare (as a lead-in to the other curate’s sermon theme about ‘The Apprentice’). I think these curates are having too much fun while the vicar’s away….. I expect he’ll come back and say, ‘You’re fired!’

Visiting a friend’s church in Surrey on Thursday gave me a chance to sit back and enjoy the singing of another choir. It was a small church but a very enthusiastic choir, not afraid to challenge themselves. A delightfully informative and friendly atmosphere pervaded, with laughs and understanding smiles accompanying the announcement that the service booklets were last year’s and had to be hurriedly reprinted. It brought a direct relevance to the proceedings of the phrase ‘Hot off the press’, with the service starting 5 minutes late.

The accoustic of the building was such that it gave the impression of a choir double the size. We were treated to a mixed medley of music, from Byrd’s ‘Alleluia’ through Haydn’s ‘Little Organ Mass’ (Gloria and Sanctus) to ‘Above all praise and majesty’ (Mendelssohn).
When all the individual candles were lit, the choir sang the very atmospheric ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus’ (Taize chant) with the vicar as Cantor. We then all processed out in silence, leaving only those who wished to stay in church and pray.

The choir master has obviously had a clear-out of the music cupboard and discovered some anthems we haven’t sung for a while. So we enjoyed becoming familiar again with ‘O Taste and See’ (Vaughan Williams) for the morning Eucharist (with a lovely soprano solo) and ‘Evening Hymn’ (Balfour Gardiner) for Evensong. At the end of which the organist had fun sending us out to ‘Popular Song’ by Walton, one of the pieces known collectively by the choir as ‘Giggle Music’. It made the flood on the choir vestry floor (a result of the heavy overnight rain) not seem so bad after all.

We had a wake-up call at the weekend, for Gordon Stewart came to take choir practice, run an area organists’ day, give an organ recital, use us as a demonstration choir, and conduct evensong. In his usual energetic style he demanded high standards and called us all ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’, until we laughed our way into improving our technique. He taught us a new anthem (Stopford’s ‘O thou who camest from above’) and a new psalm setting, conducted us through Millington’s responses and anthem (’Sing we merrily’) together with Brewer in D (Mag. and Nunc.). Altogether an inspiring day.

It would have been very easy to fall back into old habits on the Sunday, but that wouldn’t have been right. So we tried to remember the tips on technique to sing Lloyd’s ‘The Call’ as well as we could.

We relearnt a half-forgotten childhood hymn today, especially for the little girl who was to be baptised: ‘Daisies are our silver, buttercups our gold’. The simple anthem, ‘A new commandment’ (Aston) was also appreciated and commented upon.

We pulled out all the stops for our Festival Evensong (part of the Tavistock Sings Festival) and enjoyed listening to our guest speaker, Lord Harries. The chance for a ‘jolly good sing’ is always appreciated, and provided for with the Millington responses, Brewer in D, 150th psalm (confusingly with modern words) and Millington’s ‘Sing we Merrily’.

Those of us still with voices left on Monday continued the festival with a workshop and performance of ‘The Armed Man’ (Jenkins). Our own vicar sang the solos (some in counter tenor, others in baritone) and we enjoyed listening to the young trumpeter playing the Last Post.
An enjoyable ending to a thoroughly musical week.

A thoroughly good day out at Exeter Cathedral was had on Saturday. The RSCM choirs combined with the boys, girls and men of the Cathedral Choir and the Voluntary Choir to fill the quire of the Cathedral with music. Ayleward responses, ‘Cantate Domino’ (Pittoni), Mag and Nunc in Eb, no. 2 (Wood), ‘O how glorious is the Kingdom’ (Harwood) were rehearsed and conducted expertly by Andrew Millington, with Paul Morgan on the organ. This is my favourite RSCM event of the year - although it was missed by one poor lady who fainted at the end of the rehearsal and missed the service. We were all very relieved at the end to see she had recovered and had enjoyed listening, even though she was unable to join in.