plainchant in Winchester

The weekend after Salisbury I was in Winchester Cathedral with the Erleigh Cantors.

I don’t know whether this was a deliberate choice, but several pieces we sang were used or were inspired by plainchant. These included Naylor’s Evening Canticles in A, Bairstow’s Blessed City, heavenly Salem and Wood’s communion setting in the Phrygian Mode. A possible side effect was that the weekend was rather less strenuous than a Cathedral weekend with four services usually is.

The main new piece for me was Howells’ Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B minor, which has been on my wishlist for some time. It’s more melismatic (in terms of number of notes per syllable) than some of his other settings, though again not hugely demanding vocally; the treble line only goes once above F sharp.

We also sang some early music: O clap your hands by Gibbons and the Ave Maria by Robert Parsons, who is something of a one-work composer (more pieces by him are extant, but I’ve never sung any of them). Also Sumsion’s Te Deum in G. Our responses were by Anthony Piccolo – notable for overlapping versicle and response, using a soloist other than the cantor and some unexpectedly quiet moments (e.g. at ‘because there is none other that fighteth for us…’). Our Communion motet was Leighton’s tricky Drop, drop, slow tears. So we were kept pretty busy, though I always feel short-changed if I sing a Cathedral evensong with less than 20 verses of psalmody, especially at a Cathedral where they normally do more.

There was clearly once competition among bishops of Winchester as to who could have the most ostentatious monument. One had a plaque with a large profile of himself placed in the nave (directly in my line of view on Sunday morning – I could have wished this particular Bishop had been better looking). A cenotaph to another fills much of the South Transept, where our weekend ended with tea provided after Sunday evensong.