I rather dropped into and out of the Cathedral Chamber Choir’s week at Exeter Cathedral. This week was keenly awaited because the choir has not (as far as I can tell) been to Exeter before, and had indeed been trying unsuccessfully for some years to get a week there, before my persistent enquiries paid off. I made a special excursion to Exeter on the Wednesday to sing my favourite canticle setting (the Gibbons Second Service) before returning at the weekend.
On the Saturday all the music for the service (bar the hymn tune) was by Donald James, who was associated with the choir in its early days. We enjoyed the anthem (a setting of Psalm 100) in particular and tried to work out the influences on it: Walton’s setting of the same text, Rejoice in the Lamb and I thought also the Holst Nunc Dimittis.
Sunday was busy with a Mass setting by a composer new to me, Rogier (his Mass Ego sum qui sum), and Howells’ Coll. Reg. Te Deum in the morning. On Sunday afternoon we had Elgar’s Give Unto the Lord (one of those pieces for which there never seems to be enough rehearsal time) and I did the soprano solo in Stanford in G.
I was glad to hear that the amplification system has been altered since I last sang in the choir stalls. Formerly, you were addressed not by the person whose lips you could see moving but by a distorted sound coming from a totally different direction. (Although the new system had a glitch on Sunday morning, when an echo effect made it sound as if all the president’s part was concelebrated!)
There are some matters which a visiting choir should be aware of which weren’t mentioned in the notes sent out in advance to us. The song school is no longer available for the use of visiting choirs. In the usual way some rehearsal time is available in the Cathedral itself when nothing else is going on there, but Exeter is busier in this respect than many Cathedrals and so this time can be limited. For example, during the summer (though not in school terms!) a guided tour is scheduled from 1.30-2.30 on Sunday afternoons (Evensong is at 3) and the choir is not supposed to rehearse in the Cathedral while this is going on. (We just went ahead and rehearsed then anyway).
Apart from that the Chapter House can be booked for rehearsals, although the choir may not necessarily have it to themselves (when I sang at Exeter in October a buffet lunch was being set up there during our rehearsal). We used the boys’ vestry next door as a lockable space for our music and gowns. It is a good idea to sort out rehearsal time in the Chapter House well in advance, especially if the choir isn’t meeting before it gets to Exeter.
[Since this was written, a new and very nice choir rehearsal room has been created and can be used by visiting choirs.]
It seems that Cathedrals are limiting their rehearsal time. Chester certainly does, which is where the OUCC went on its most recent tour (my final one with the choir BTW Virginia!). At St. George’s, Windsor, rehearsal time is adequate if one has worked hard enough in The Dungeon during the week. They empty the Chapel of visitors when the choir is rehearsing. I enjoyed my week with SAS so thanks for putting me in touch.
The Cathedral Chamber Choir went to Chester last year and I think rehearsal time in the Cathedral was adequate there, though I wasn’t around at the weekend when things are usually tightest.
It makes a difference whether you can rehearse in the Cathedral’s own song room, or (if not) what the alternative is like. At one I visited a couple of years back, we rehearsed with an out-of-tune piano in a room so narrow that the knees of the front rows of Dec and Can were practically touching one another. I can’t believe there wouldn’t have been a more suitable room in their choir school!
One time it is good to rehearse in the building is after the Saturday evensong if it is early. For some reason the places which don’t allow this tend to be the ones which have Mattins as well as Eucharist on the Sunday morning! At Exeter, the rest of the Saturday after the 3 p.m. evensong was taken out by a wedding blessing.
A couple of comments which really belong in this item are here.