How shall I keep from singing?

This Sunday we remembered the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents by Herod.  Just the day, then, for a baptism!  I hope the family were not too frightened by the harsh words of the Gospel, hymns and anthem (‘Coventry Carol’ – arr. Shaw).  At least the words of the refrain (Lully, Lullay, thou little tiny child, By, by lully, lullay) were appropriate.  And we ended on a much more cheerful note, with the organ voluntary (Carillon Sortie – Mulet).

As usual, the Hospital Carols were fun – although it can’t be much fun actually having to be in hospital on Christmas Eve.  One of the choristers wore her reindeer antlers, complete with jingly bells, and the men and women swapped parts in Good King Wenceslas.  The results were rather hilarious and painful at times!

Ooo errr – we messed up the entry during the anthem at Midnight Mass.  I guess we are just not normally used to singing at half-past midnight and were tired.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if it were a particularly tricky anthem, but ‘Away in A Manger’?  And in an extremely full church as well – oh, the embarrassment.  We tried to sing extra well after the cock-up, paying particular attention to the lovely harmonies in the Willcocks version, followed by those of our organist’s own arrangement of Silent Night, to make up for it.  The choir stalls and vestry were also very full; it was lovely to welcome all the ‘returnees’ – university students and other former choristers home for the holidays.

On Christmas Day, a reduced choir sang ‘Away in A Manger’ once more: to exorcise the ghosts of earlier – much earlier – that morning.  And we enjoyed singing the Gloria again after the Advent break.  Then we all scarpered off home to enjoy presents, mince pies and other treats.

In an otherwise quite solemn service, we were treated to a very funny vestry group play, featuring a dozy, grumpy inkeeper.  The part was played expertly by a former chorister who used to be well-known for falling asleep during every choir event.  The choir’s role was to sing the beginning of the Hallelujah Chorus as the Angel shone her heavenly light in the inkeeper’s eyes.  It even outshone the scheduled choir anthem – the premiere of a new arrangement of ‘O come O come Emmanuel’ (Mazur Park).  We enjoyed the organ interlude between each line, but weren’t allowed to enjoy it too much or we’d forget to come in again.

This evening was the Festival of Lessons and Carols.  The church was so full there was hardly room for the choir to start singing at the back.  The first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ was sung very confidently and competently by one of the choir girls, after which the items were sung partly by a quartet and partly by the whole choir (with selected verses men only or women only).  These pieces included ‘Adam lay Ybounden’, ‘Coventry carol’, ‘Sussex carol’ , ‘Myn Lyking’ and ‘Silent Night’.  In a rash finale, a departure from the norm, we enjoyed singing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ (arr. Rutter).  I’m not sure what the regular congregation thought, but I hope the visitors enjoyed it.

A good swig of communion wine helped clear the throat to sing ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’ (anon) this morning.  A Lord who obviously knew what he was doing when he instituted this method of remembering him by.

A snifter of something rather stronger would have been very welcome at the start of the other benefice church carol service in the evening.  The blessing of the new heating system took place outside (brrrrrr) with doors left open and a terrific draught blowing in – thus negating the whole point of the heating system in the first place.  We sang ourselves warm again – not easy when several of the carols were all about snow – and then enjoyed a glass of mulled wine with homemade mince pies and cheese straws.  By the time it was time to leave, the church was beautifully warm and cosy and we were reluctant to move.  26 beautifully decorated christmas trees (on the theme of A-Z) were in place to be admired as we munched and drank.

The first two Sundays in Advent passed by in a flash.  We announced the coming of ‘The Angel Gabriel’ (arr. Llewellyn) in the morning Eucharist, then enjoyed a full-blown Advent Carol service, complete with mulled wine and mince pies, instead of evensong.  Starting with ‘I look from afar’ (Sweeney), sung at the back, we processed through the church and up to the choir stalls, singing traditional carols plus choir favourites (Adam lay y’bounden, Truth sent from above (RVW), Zion hears the watchmen’s voices (Bach), Gabriel to Mary came (arr. Willcocks) ).  Finally we moved to the high altar to sing ‘People look East’ (arr. Bramma) and ended with ‘Lo he comes with clouds descending’.  It was all sung to candlelight with soft additional lighting so that we could actually see the words, and is one of the most atmospheric services of the year.

Advent 2 had Bach in the morning (Jesu, Meine Freude) and Stainer in the evening (God so loved the world).  But no mince pies, unfortunately.