Beverley Minster must be one of the best-kept secrets on the cathedral/greater churches visiting choir circuit. Apart from the summer holidays the only weekends available are those after Christmas and Easter. No wonder few of us in the Cathedral Chamber Choir had sung there and there was a lot of interest in going.
We sang a full evensong on the Saturday. The Minster uses a congregational eucharist setting so our efforts on the Sunday morning were concentrated on two Byrd motets I hadn’t sung before: Terra Tremuit and Pascha Nostrum. We found out a few weeks beforehand that the Sunday evening service on the Sunday after Easter isn’t evensong but a service for relatives of those whose funerals have been taken by Minster clergy recently. (Visiting choirs ought to be aware of this as it may influence whether choir members who have been bereaved themselves want to take part.) There were four choir items in this service, as we sang Rutter’s The Lord bless you and keep you after the blessing and used Fauré’s In Paradisum as a closing voluntary. Our anthem was Faire is the Heaven which is a great favourite of many but not an especial one of mine; I always end up wondering why Spenser couldn’t write about ordinary human beings!
Our organists confirmed that the building has a good instrument and it is certainly a pleasant one to sing in, from any of the three locations we used (the ‘real’ choir stalls on the Saturday, the north transept for both motets on the Sunday morning, the nave choir stalls on the Sunday).
i expect that when Alan Spedding retires his successor won’t be there with the choir 46 Sundays a year and half-terms in particular might become free for visiting choirs.
I suppose church music is up to personal taste as much as anything, but the Harris is a glorious piece! On the other hand I can take or leave the Rutter.
The Harris has never done anything much for me, although I’m always happy to sing it.
CCC doesn’t normally sing Rutter, but we felt we should be more populist in our choice of music for the Sunday afternoon as we were advised that the congregation at this particular service were ‘not used to church services — choral or otherwise!!’ and that ‘minimum choral involvement’ was usual. I think it was a reasonable compromise.
You didn’t mention the Sydney Watson Nunc Dimittis – which I thought fitted the mood well on Sunday afternoon. But yes – you are right – we didn’t have a free hand on the Sunday afternoon as we had to propose pieces that the Minster clergy felt would go down well with a congregation who were in the main not familiar with the anglican liturgy or music repertoire…
IIRC the Minster choir used to do this service, but didn’t like it so it got shifted onto a Sunday when they weren’t there!
Liz was absolutely right – since Alan Spedding retired in 2009 the choir has got a break at half-term!