How shall I keep from singing?

A relaxed start to the Exons Festival week – singing on our own in the morning ( Psalm 23 – Brother James’ Air, with alternating middle verses, women and men.) Followed by an afternoon rehearsal with the Exon Singers in preparation for Evensong. There was just time in between to have a lazy ice-cream sitting on the grass outside the church before robing and returning to the choir stalls. This year the music was all familiar – Sweeney responses, canticles to Stanford in C, Psalm 73 to familiar Anglican chant and Mozart’s ‘Laudate Dominum’, with a beautifully clear soprano solo by one of the Exons.

Sunday morning saw a speedy rendition of the notices and slickness in the service from a retired priest who doesn’t like to hang around. Having a great sense of humour – of course he does, he’s a fellow chorister – he let us in on the secret beforehand, so there were many surreptitious smiles as the service progressed. The anthem was a repeat of one sung at a recent wedding, ‘Ave Maria’ (Arcadelt): quartet followed by full choir.

Coffee was late today, much to my discomfort, for two reasons: firstly we had to assemble on the altar steps for the annual choir photo. ‘Cheese’ was what we were instructed to say, although there were many alternatives. Secondly, we had to say goodbye to a long-time chorister who was now ill and no longer able to sing. She was presented with a large shrub by the youngest chorister, slightly larger than the aforementioned shrub.

I was tired today, and more than ready for the choir holiday which begins in two weeks’ time.

Saturday saw the wedding of one of our former sopranos who has sung in the choir since she was a small child. It is the only wedding I’ve been to where the bride and the bridesmaid (also a former member of the choir) sung the descant on the last verse of the hymn. Old choristers never die, they just go off and get married. We sang ‘The Garlic Dressing’ (as the Gaelic Blessing by Rutter is known by church choirs the world over) while they were up at the altar and then ‘Ave Maria’ by Arcadelt (quartet followed by full choir) while they were signing the register. The Arcadelt sounded particularly good so it was a pity the bride and groom weren’t there to hear it. They will have to wait until the video is ready, after the honeymoon. Great fun was had at the evening reception, with lots of food – far too much to eat at one sitting and a very cheesy disco where the choirmaster and a surprising number of normally stiff-upper-lip choristers revealed their comic dance routines. I think I need a copy of that video for future manipulation purposes…..

Sunday morning was one of those frustrating times when the anthem (‘Give us the wings of faith’ by Bullock)went much better in the practice before the service. Ah well, you win some you lose some. The choirmaster kindly explained that it was partly his fault as the pages of his copy had stuck together. As one member of the congregation remarked after the service – ‘The Anthem was good in parts’ – whatever that means! Some of us soon stopped worrying about the anthem, however, as there was another filling spread served up in the parish centre, courtesy of the wedding couple’s family. This was much more of a DIY affair, but good company and yummy food, nonetheless. And plenty more left-over wedding cake, some of the best I’ve ever tasted.

It was too hot yesterday to sing well.
However, I did enjoy both anthems, very different in style: the a capella ‘Jesu, the very thought of thee’ (Vittoria) in the morning and ‘Spirit of the Lord’ (Harper) for choir and organ in the evening. For unaccompanied items we sing at the back of church, facing towards the altar, standing together with a conductor. For accompanied items we stand in the choir stalls, sopranos in the front, altos in the back, with tenors on one side and basses on the other. Despite the lack of conductor (who was busily occupied playing the organ) we managed to stay reasonably together in the Harper and the throwing back and fore of the sound between the two sides of the choir came across to good effect. We could have done with some air-conditioning though – who plugged the long-time hole in the stained-glass window?