On Saturday I went to hear the choir of Wimborne Minster sing Evensong in Bath Abbey. I sang in Wimborne Minster myself in 2000 during the usual choir’s break after Easter. The choir had lots of boys and girls on the top line (I didn’t think there were that many boys and girls in Wimborne!). Unless the congregation at the Minster has changed in the last three years, it must also have been a novelty to perform to people under sixty, although the choir appeared to have brought quite a few such people with them. The performance (Stanford and Stainer) was good apart from some strident and nasal tone in the tenor line, very obvious to me as I was sat about halfway down the nave where it carried more strongly than some of the other singing. (This is a general problem with visiting choirs in Bath Abbey – they tend to think the building will help them more than it does and don’t project enough. At one time there was a proposal to glaze the back of the choir stalls which might have made a difference, but nothing has come of this yet). [The glazing has since been done, and has made some difference]
On Sunday I went to a rehearsal of the Erleigh Cantors, a Reading-based choir with whom I do a cathedral visit a couple of times a year. The Responses we ordered haven’t arrived in time, but I have located another set whose owner is willing to lend them. We are about to sing in Winchester Cathedral – more next week.