I sang these words as part of the rather contrived acrostic hymn for St. Bartholomew at Norwich Cathedral during the Cathedral Chamber Choir’s week there. I joined part way through and so missed such delights as Rose in C minor. However, there were other new pieces for me: firstly, Sheppard’s Libera nos, salva nos. Astonishingly, I think I have only sung Sheppard’s music once before, as a student.
On Sunday morning I performed Finzi’s Welcome, sweet and sacred feast for the first time. This is a lovely piece: like a less dramatic version of Lo the Full, Final Sacrifice (in fact when sight-reading the piece and unsure of notes, I would sing phrases from that and this generally worked). I can’t speak for the other voices, but the soprano line felt as if it could be a solo song without much re-arrangement. I think Finzi didn’t do himself any favours by writing two large-scale anthems about the Eucharist, ensuring one gets performed far less often than the other.
At evensong on Sunday our anthem was Lo! God is here by Philip Moore. This was the first time I’d ever sung anything by him although his music is on my wishlist, and remains there after my first experience of it!
Other music included Gibbons’ madrigal-like O Lord, in thy wrath and Noble in B minor, which I now associate too much with childbirth to enjoy singing.
We did some extra-mural singing while processing in and out of the labyrinth in the cloister. In practice, this turned into Eveline and Locus iste, which everyone knew the parts to. A video of this is doing the rounds.
I can only assume you had Noble in B minor playing in the delivery room.
See here.