If you place a coin on its side on the floor of the nave of St. David’s Cathedral, aligned east-west, it will quickly start to roll westwards because of the slope of the building. It’s really quite disconcerting to see choir members in the stalls opposite apparently leaning at an implausible angle, especially if you had a drink at lunchtime.
The Cathedral Chamber Choir was making its first visit to St. David’s Cathedral. I joined part way through the week, which included a couple of performances outside St. David’s, as we didn’t have so many services in the Cathedral itself.
My first service was a relatively modern one, with Kelly in C canticles and Sheppard Ye choirs of new Jerusalem. By contrast, Friday’s was more subdued, partnering Tomkins’ (local connexion) Fifth Service with Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas.
A work new to most of us was David Briggs’ Messe pour Notre Dame, which we sang both at the Sunday morning Eucharist and in concert in St. Mary’s Church, Cardigan. When I learnt some songs by Liszt once, I had the impression that the interest was mainly in the ‘accompaniment’, while you, the singer, were really a courtesy detail. This Mass rather gave me the same impression in places. In fact some parts of it are taken directly from organ improvisations by Pierre Cochereau, while elsewhere the influence of Langlais (whose Messe Solennelle we considered doing) was apparent. To provide some gentler reflective music at Communion we sang Byrd’s Confirma hoc, Deus (also new to me) as our anthem.
Our final service paired Howells’ ‘St. Paul’s’ Service (always good to sing) with The Spirit of the Lord by Elgar.
I recommend the free tours of the Cathedral, and also a visit to the ruined Bishop’ s Palace next door. Nice to see an old Mertonian (one of the early ones in this case) making good, even if no one’s really sure where he got the money from.