How shall I keep from singing?

No sooner were we back from our holidays than we were away again. Our new curate was ordained deacon, along with ten others, at Exeter Cathedral. This meant a week off from the choir, but the keen ones amongst us were listening and learning how the cathedral choir did things. There was a feast of music – ‘Christus factus est’, Anerio; ‘View me Lord’, Lloyd; ‘O sacrum convivium’, Tallis; and Caesar’s Missa Brevis. In addition to the mass, there was a mish-mash of congregational music – several hymns plus Walker’s Gloria, Farrell’s Gospel Acclamation, and Lole’s Litany. It was not really possible to listen to the organ music as there was too much background noise, but given the number of people in the cathedral – full to capacity – the service ran very smoothly indeed.

The following week was our Patronal Festival. Banners were lifted high, and a new altar cloth – red with the emblem of our patron saint – was blessed. Our new curate was introduced to the congregation and ’sworn in’, with the vicar swearing revenge for the curate’s team beating him at cricket the day before. There was a good upbeat feel to the service and a full church (with several Canadian visitors) so ‘Rejoice in the Lord Alway’, Anon, seemed a very fitting anthem.

After a traditional cream tea (for those who could bear to come in from the beautiful sunshine) the Festival Evensong provided a good ending to the day. There were some high notes for the sopranos and tenors in the Millington responses and Campbell’s ‘Praise to God in the highest’ and correspondingly low notes in the Noble Mag and Nunc for the altos. Our choirmaster obviously believes in stretching us to our limits on these occasions. The Dean of the Cathedral paid a return visit to preach, showing off his cope with the same symbol of our patron saint into the bargain.

Although I missed the cream tea, there is still the other benefice church’s Harvest Festival and Supper to look forward to tonight. If they are true to form it should be a magnificent sing followed by a magnificent spread.

Holidays are all very well, but you can’t beat your own choir in your own church.
After a summer of listening to others (Exon Singers at Tavistock, RSCM Summer School choir at Durham Cathedral) we returned in good voice and full of enthusiasm ready for a busy term. Over the summer another alto has produced another baby – in these days of boys being hesitant to join church choirs, we have to do a spot of self-recruiting. Another seven years and he should be good and ready.

First off was another Scottish wedding (why do we get so many Scottish weddings in Creamtealand?) with a graphic description – waaay too much information – from one of the sopranos as to what, exactly, the bridegroom was, or more to the point wasn’t, wearing under his kilt. ‘The Lord bless you and keep you’ (Rutter) was the anthem we thought the bride had chosen – too late we realised that was intended for another wedding later in the year, but it did just as well for this one, and no-one complained.

Sunday saw almost full choir stalls for the morning Eucharist (‘View me Lord’, Lloyd) and Evensong (‘Teach me O Lord’, Attwood, plus the Sweeney responses). We remembered to look carefully at the conductor – I wonder how long that will last. It’s good to be back!