Double Gloucester

Back in Gloucester again, this time for a weekend at the Cathedral with the Erleigh Cantors.

As has happened here before, we had an out of the ordinary service to sing, in this case a farewell Eucharist in the nave for one of the Canons. Our setting was Jonathan Dove’s Missa Brevis, which I hadn’t sung before and which presented a lot of rhythmic challenges, as any mistakes in this area could be ruthlessly exposed. For the anthem, Giovanni Gabrieli’s Exultet iam angelica, I was part of choir 3, which sang only briefly but which got to go up on to the spacious organ screen. (This space got quite a bit of use for stray singers in the 3 Choirs Festival, for example the Carmina Burana‘s children’s chorus, ‘Lift thine eyes’ in Elijah and Mater Gloriosa in Mahler 8. You’d be amazed what there is up there.)

Sunday morning’s Eucharist was also in the nave, and we presented Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor, with Philip Stopford’s Ave Verum Corpus as the offertory motet. Although the heating was on (unlike at Ely four years ago) the Gloucester miasma was beginning to settle for the winter. There isn’t much that can be done about it, short of diverting or draining the Severn.

It was good for the final evensong to be cocooned in the quire, where we sang Howells’ Westminster Canticles and Walton’s Coronation Te Deum. Now where have I come across that piece before? In fact, I’m about to do it again with Bristol Choral Society, so my copy had a complicated arrangement of colour-coded tabs and markings with initials, to indicate differences for the two performances. It is a confusing enough piece to sing even once, especially as different editions have moved the vocal lines around. (I have removed/deleted the first lot of markings from the score now, so it is a little less complex.) Our introit was Casals’ O Vos Omnes. I don’t rate this as highly as does the choral acquaintance whose favourite anthem it is. I don’t think it’s the greatest setting of this particular text, or indeed, even the greatest setting of this text in the European Sacred Music volume. But it is a well-crafted piece that I enjoy singing.

I had the honour of being one of the last people ever to park in the spaces immediately south of the Cathedral; the following day the archaeologists moved in to investigate the site before it is grassed/paved over, as part of Project Pilgrim. Maybe this might be followed by Project Chorister, a renewal of rehearsal facilities similar to what has been done recently at Wells and at Exeter?