How shall I keep from singing?

Taking a weekend off from singing, we took a trip to Lincoln Cathedral to hear others singing instead. A glorious, music-filled busman’s holiday. We spotted the ‘Lincoln Imp’ high above the chancel, and thought we spotted a few imps preparing to enter the choir stalls as well – although their behavior was impeccable once they processed in and started to sing.  It is a long time since I’ve attended a Choral Mattins, so I’ve really missed the morning canticles. It was a relief to realise I’ve remembered all the words, even if the Cathedral choir had to do the singing for me. (Settings and Anthem ‘O hearken thou’ by Elgar, Ayleward responses). I noticed the consistently clipped endings when the choir were singing Anglican chant, in marked contrast to the drawn-out sound of the Oxford colleges. 

Evensong saw the admission of two junior choristers into the stalls, a ceremony which was taken seriously by all concerned. The Purcell setting (G minor) and anthem ‘O sing unto the Lord’ demonstrated the strong confident voices of the choristers, who sang with a beautifully clear tone.

At the end of the week, another treat was in store – a visit to the Bodleian Library Exhibition of ‘The British Choral Tradition’, running until April completely free of charge. It was riveting to look at the displays of original copies of the Eton Choirbook, autographed scores and first editions, and to listen to original recordings from the beginning of last century. Despite choral music having a chequered history, it is still going strong and long may it do so. I would recommend a visit to the exhibition by all interested in British Choral music through the centuries.

Two contrasting services, firstly Sung Communion in the morning with an atmospheric anthem – ‘Spirit of the Lord come down’ (Harper), appreciated by several people who spoke to us over coffee.

Then the mad, crazy, full-church chaos of the Schools’ Songs of Praise Service in the evening. For once, even the independent schools let down their usual reserve and sang catchy little numbers. The infant school stole the show with their beautiful singing and the sixth form gospel choir showed it was still cool for older teenagers (including boys) to sing. Being in place of evensong, our choir gave a taste of the sort of music we would normally sing – ‘The Magnificat’ (Stanford in C). We were joined by the vicar who showed that, as well as telling everyone else when to sing (acting as compere for the evening) he also sings rather well himself.

It seemed very appropriate to have a baptism today as, when the baby and his family were presented with the baptismal candle, we all lit ours as well.  It looked very pretty as we processed through the church singing ‘Faithful Vigil Ended’, although the wind whistling through the porch soon extinguished the choir candles as we passed through.  Being a feast day, we chose a celebratory anthem, ‘O thou the central Orb’ (Wood) which was enjoyed by several members of the congregation used to us singing something more reflective at the Eucharist.  We told them they’d have to come to Evensong to hear more of the same.  One of the Readers enjoyed joining in singing Bass, as he is sometimes too busy leading the service to participate in much of the singing.  We exited the church to the triumphal organ sounds of Final (Symphonie I) by Vierne.

Festival Evensong had us singing the Smith responses and Ireland in F (Nunc Dimittis), plus ‘Lift up your Heads’ (Mathias).  Mathias is quite tricky to sing without a conductor, as there are some unusual rhythms, especially for a traditional church choir to get their heads around.  We sounded rather ragged at rehearsal but, as – fortunately so often happens – a few nerves and the resulting heightened concentration ensured it was alright on the night.