How shall I keep from singing?

Very Kingly hymns today, but otherwise a low-key acknowledgment of the feast. Our church does subtle clues rather well….

‘Thou wilt keep him’ (Wesley) chuntered along quite happily, but we were rather short of Altos this morning. In fact, the much reduced choir stayed reduced this week and the coughs and splutters were much in evidence, except for the wine-fortified anthem. God must have intended his singers to have a drink just before singing – it certainly helps.

We were certainly fortified this evening with an addition of staff to the alto and bass line. In fact, our reader is so keen on the choir that he is to have a ‘dressing’ on Friday – exchanging his normal black cassock for a choir-uniform red one. We’re still working on the vicar….. Festival Evensong was rather under-rehearsed, but we rose to the occasion, with the Smith (five-part) responses, Stanford in C and ‘Lift up your heads’ (Mathias). Hopefully we shall have some more altos next week – it is hard to sing a double alto part on reduced numbers.

A gentle, lazy day today with only one service and everything running like clockwork. Well, almost everything – fortunately just in time the organist noticed that the words of the psalm were in a different translation to that of the congregation. After a brief flurry and flapping of word and music sheets, the situation was resolved and the church was saved from sounding like the Tower of Babel.

Colds and snuffles were the order of the day in the much-reduced choir (those who hadn’t already succumbed to the worst excesses of lurgy*), so fortunately we were only required to sing a good old favourite which didn’t need us to try too hard: ‘Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring’ (Bach).

*I’ve just noticed that the word ‘liturgy’ comprises ‘lurgy’ and ‘i.t.’ Not sure what the deep spiritual significance of that is, if any. But it might come in handy as a crossword clue some time.

Having a stinking cold and lack of sleep, I was not best pleased to have to get up early for a 9am start, having to fit an extra Remembrance Parade service into the morning. However, mindful of the fact that life was not too comfortable for the soldiers on the front many years ago either, I soldiered off to church armed with pockets full of tissues. It’s strange how you often sing better with a cold. We looked very smart in red and white with matching red poppies as we sang ‘We will remember them’ (Ogden), with haunting solos and SATB response. The ahhh factor was well-and-truly satisfied by the presentation of a giant-sized poppy made by the toddler group, and was as large as the little girl carrying it. Any dry eyes left in the house soon altered with the haunting sounds of ‘Nimrod’ (Elgar) from the organ as we processed out.

As soon as the first service ended, we marched across the road to the war memorial for the wreath laying and two minutes’ silence. It’s fun to sing with the brass band for a change (O God our help; Praise to the Lord the Almighty; The National Anthem) and by some miracle – as always – it stayed dry.

Evensong saw us using the Common Worship books for the first time – with BCP words except for the Psalm. As I don’t know all 150 Psalms off by heart I don’t think the modern words will concern me too much (and we can always snigger at the changes if we get caught out), but it was really strange singing ‘Glory to the Father…………… and to the Holy Spirit’. Especially as we still had to sing the ‘Glory be….. Holy Ghost’ version for the Mag. and Nunc. I think there will be a few ‘Girit’s and ‘Spost’s until we get it sorted out. Fortunately, there were no word changes in the anthem, ‘Never weather beaten sail’ (Campion) which chuntered along quite joyfully without a hitch.

After a welcome holiday in Scotland, Northumberland and Yorkshire, it was time to return for some more singing. An All Souls’ Eucharist took the place of choir practice on Friday, with Goodall’s setting of Psalm 23 and ‘Litany to the Holy Spirit’ (Hurford) as the anthem. All the ginger cake had been eaten by the time I had got to the back of church, so I had to make do with syrup cake instead. I resolved to get changed faster next time.

The Sunday morning Eucharist was very much a baptism service – with a new vicar things were done slightly differently (less leaping out of pews for the baby and his parents, which in this case made for a quieter baby – I wonder whether that will continue to hold true) and the whole service was contained in a newly-printed booklet which made it much easier to remember where we had got to. The anthem, ‘Hail Glorious Spirits’ (Tye) was appreciated by at least one member of the congregation who complimented us over coffee. It’s the sort of anthem where you start off at a brisk pace and it almost sings itself. It’s just a pity that it is so short – Tye must have been in a rush for his gin or mead, or whatever after-church beverage they used to drink in those days.

A second service for the bereaved was scheduled for Sunday evening, entitled ‘Lighten our Darkness’. I prefer this one as it is so different from a normal Sunday service, with readings from C.S.Lewis as well as the bible and the lighting of many individual tealights, each representing a person remembered, which are then placed in the form of a cross. There were several congregational hymns between the readings and the prayers; in addition the choir sang ‘Hail gladdening Light’ (Stainer) and ‘Be still my soul’ (Sibelius). Mindful of Friday’s disappointment, I changed extra quickly to find that – yes – there was still plenty of ginger cake on the plate!