Complicated things with jabots

Not being sure about my future with Priory Voices, I have been looking at other similar choirs and joined one, the Harsnett Choir, for a weekend of services in Wells. I’d been on their mailing list for a few years and shown an interest in one or two of their other Cathedral visits, but their numbers are strictly controlled (I was only able to take part because one of the usual sopranos volunteered to sing alto) and this was my first time actually singing with them. This weekend was, I think, the fourth time in my life I’ve worn a surplice and this is one of the choirs that does complicated things with jabots.

There were some pieces which were new to me. Somehow I’ve managed to avoid singing Stanford’s Te Deum and Jubilate in C. Not just because Matins is rare these days, as I probably sing it a couple of times a year at least and I’d have expected to have encountered this setting by now. We sang all of Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus (I hadn’t realised there was more of it than just the first part). I hadn’t previously come across a Mass setting by Healey Willan, which I’d guess was one of his early works (incidentally, are there any other church music composers with a public park named after them?). We sang a Magnificat on the Fifth tone by Cima; for a truly bizarre YouTube video of this piece see here. There were also a couple of pieces written specifically for this choir.

I didn’t sing in Wells last year and took time to notice that it has a good line in three-dimensional altar frontals.

I wasn’t in the best of voice – I’d had a cough in the New Year and it was brought on again by spending several hours in the rehearsal room with all the windows open – but managed to complete the weekend without any mishaps.