How shall I keep from singing?

As usual, the The Exon Singers Festival was a feast of glorious choral and organ music. Highlights included Compline by candlelight at 9pm, The ‘Splendour of the Baroque’ concert on Wednesday (music of Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Buxtehude) and the ‘I was Glad’ concert on Saturday (music of Parry, Britten, Wesley, Elgar and Skempton). Skempton’s music was surprisingly melodious for a contemporary composer; the music for accordion, piano and organ comprised simple and short themes (where were the variations?) and haunting choral items. They all seemed to end up in the air, leaving the listener expecting more.

Sunday evening saw us in a muddy field (although rather less muddy than the proposed drive-in would have made it) for the Deanery Songs of Praise and Barbecue. Each church chose a hymn, saying why they chose it, and we sang with great gusto, accompanied by the Stannary Brass Band and watched by several curious cows. They soon scarpered when they realised that beef was on the menu. The sun came out for the most cloudless, if not the warmest, evening of the month so far. It was a toss-up whether to head for the beer tent or the hot coffee queue – I couldn’t decide so ended up doing both.

Some soulful, ponderous music this morning, including the Sibelius ‘Be still my soul’ as an anthem plus ‘Finlandia’ as the voluntary. But in spite of that, and the psalm being in a minor key, the service felt very upbeat. For some strange reason the minor key always cheers me up and excessively cheerful music saddens me. Some people are just born with their wires crossed. The young children of the Vestry Group led the prayers with a good deal more confidence than the adults often display. The choir were presented with a wonderful picture by the chorister who got married two weeks ago: of us all standing outside the church porch with drinks in our hands toasting the bride and groom. It looked a lot more natural than many of the ‘posed’ choir photos we’ve had done in the past.

Evensong had a good turn-out which pleased us as this was the last choral service before the summer holiday. It being a feast day (Mary Magdalene) we had the excuse for a Festival Evensong, with Brewer in D, the Sweeney responses and ‘Here O my Lord’ (Whitlock) as the anthem. Several choristers stayed behind to chat as we didn’t want to go home. We may not be singing together for the next five weeks but of course we will all turn up to listen to the Exon Singers next week.

It was a race between can. and dec. this morning in ‘Lead me, Lord’ (Wesley). Possibly because it was a much easier anthem than we have been singing recently – so it was thought a smidgen of syncopation would liven it up a little; alternatively, one side of the choir was in more of a hurry to get to the party than the other.
We were sent on our way in merry style by the reserve organist (usually the quiet, reserved one) giving the organ a good work-out with Widor’s Toccata, shaking the very stones in the choir vestry wall.

Three miles away in one of the alto’s houses and gardens a veritable feast was being organised. Salmon and chicken salad and a table groaning with creamy puddings, plus fruit punch and unlimited wine. A very pleasant lunchtime and afternoon was passed, the rain stayed away, and it is probably just as well that we weren’t required to sing evensong…..

After months – if not years – of preparation, one of our second altos got married on Saturday. Being a chorister, the normal hymn-sandwich was nowhere near good enough, so we sang our little hearts out (‘I was glad’ – Parry; ‘Ave Maria’ – Gounod; ‘The strength of God’ – Harper). This was followed by a three-course feast, wine and champagne in the Town Hall and an evening of Country Dancing. It’s hard to dance on a completely full stomach – and that was before an enormous cake, made entirely of cheese, turned up!

We enjoyed singing the music for the wedding so much that we repeated the repertoire again on Sunday – the first two in the morning and the Harper at evensong. Used to peaceful, restful music whilst taking communion, the congregation may have been taken aback by the blast of Parry, but the comments appeared to be favourable. It helps to have so many in the congregation who are slightly hard-of-hearing.

Now we will have to wait a whole week before the next choir feast.

We were treated to a musical spectacular by the joint choirs of Bristol (soon to get a girls’ choir), Wells and Exeter at Exeter Cathedral last night. Rutter’s Gloria sounded particularly spectacular with brass players from Wells Cathedral School – it’s the first time I’ve heard it performed live. But the special treat was the massed singing of ‘Locus Iste’ (which my own choir sang last week): over a hundred choristers singing to send shivers up your spine.

Today during the morning Eucharist we sang Elgar’s ‘Ave Verum’ from the back of the church but with organ accompaniment – it sounded as if there was a time lag; we are much more used to singing from the front (near the organ) if not singing a capella. The choir master must have felt like he was conducting jellyfish on a piece of elastic.

The Chorister’s Prayer (Bless O Lord us thy servants….) has been set to music by Martin How, which we sang at Evensong. It’s a simple little piece, somewhat reminiscent of the Prayer of Richard of Chichester (‘Day by Day’, also by Martin How), in two parts. We sang the first verse SA and the second ST/AB. Our diction was obviously not too good as one member of the congregation complained that, although she enjoyed the tune, she couldn’t make out the words until we got to ‘Amen’. An ex-chorister herself, she has standards.