I’ve enjoyed reading the site of this name but I’m going to use this post to applaud St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. On a weekend visit to Edinburgh last month I wondered whether to go along there on the Sunday. I rang their office out of hours on Saturday night, hoping their answerphone message might tell me service times. Not only did it do that, but I was told which service settings would be used for Eucharist and Evensong. I accordingly went along to the morning Eucharist to hear Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor.
I’m normally a bit better organised and look up service times on the internet before I travel so I don’t have to ring up, but I wonder whether many other Cathedrals do this?
One thing I’ve noticed and enjoyed on the broadcasts from this Cathedral is the full-blooded approach to playing the hymns, including office hymns at evensong. The introit hymn at this service was the first time in a long while, perhaps ever, that I have been unable to hear myself singing when in the congregation (in a choir this is much commoner, depending on the piece, the acoustic, the singers and the way they are arranged).
It is not clear whether you enjoy a full-blooded approach to playing the hymns, or is the clue in the title to this post? There are few things worse than an organ being played far too loudly. One, however, would be a choir conductor failing to mention to the organist that they were far too loud. This is why I did not continue in a previous choir and joined the CCC.
No, I enjoy hearing the organ in full cry just before the evensong Psalms (that’s a topic for another time) in the office hymn, rather than the wispy plainchant you often get.
But obviously not throughout every verse of every hymn. In fact at the service I attended it was really only the first, processional, hymn that got the full whack.