Of course that isn’t true because this will be the only September 2025 post in my blog. September, like January, is always a rather slack time for performances and this September just saw me singing in an evensong at church and an audition for Three Choirs.
Normally though I’d be writing about Proms, and in many seasons I’ve gone to a Prom in September, when I’ve realised I hadn’t yet been to any. But this year I gave the Proms a complete miss, not because there weren’t worthwhile concerts, but mainly because the concert experience itself has been unsatisfactory recently. Usually because of poor audience behaviour (something others complain about) but on one recent occasion because a physical barrier was placed between me and the performers. Unless I’m going to be in London anyway as I was last year, this makes me think twice about making the effort.
However even when there is no performance, change is afoot. Some ideas from Exeter are making their way into the Abbey’s Chamber Choir, among them discussions about what we wear and when we sing. After four years when you had to look on a music list to find a mention of us, there is now a dedicated section about the choir on the Abbey website.* Secondly, we can now take away a cardboard wallet with our music in after rehearsals, obviously bringing it all back again next time. Until now, the music has had to be handed in at the end of a practice, so that you weren’t guaranteed to be singing from the same copy next time. There were attempts to be reunited with the copy with one’s markings in by marking one’s initials discreetly on the cover, but now that is unnecessary!
*although it is not strictly true that the Chamber Choir started off singing monthly at the Family Communion and then took on other services. Our very first service was a weekday Evensong, and Evensongs and the more formal 11.30 Eucharist have been assigned to us from the start.
