At the weekend I returned to Cambridge to take part in the March March march. Some of us enlivened the notorious Earith-Willingham stretch by singing rounds as we strode alongside the Great Ouse. A few years ago I compiled a list of various places on the route of the March, which could be sung to the tune of Frère Jacques, but this time we sang ‘Great Tom is cast’, another to the words ‘Viva la musica!’ and finally Byrd’s Non nobis, Domine. We couldn’t get this last to work, and now looking at an online edition (PDF – by David Till) I realise how we were going wrong.
On Sunday morning I went to Little St Mary’s Church, where I was married a few years ago and heard the choir sing a couple of motets. When I started singing there, the organist used to change about once a year, but now things are more stable. The current organist and choirmaster is Christian Rutherford, who plays horn in the Academy of Ancient Music. (I had Christopher Hogwood for a next-door neighbour nearby for a couple of years, but that’s another story!)