I did a bit of moonlighting at a couple of churches I used to sing in. First came a service for All Souls’ Day in Bathwick. We were in the side aisle, but this time for the good reason that new underfloor heating is going in the nave. The choir contained some of those who used to sing at the church with others from the other church in the benefice. Our conductor had an admirably gung-ho attitude when people appeared not to be watching during the rehearsal – pulling around the tempo to see who followed him and who didn’t!
At the weekend I was over in Cambridge and sang for the first time in a few years for an ordinary Mass (i.e. not a Requiem) at Little St Mary’s. In fact it was the Feast of Dedication, which meant an overlap with one of the hymns we had at our wedding in this church. The choir is quite a lot larger than it used to be (it helps that there is no longer an annual turnover of choirmasters, as there was when I lived in Cambridge) and has junior choristers in alternate weeks. Another difference is that the singing of plainchant is more nuanced; rather than singing the same psalm tones in the same way to the proper texts each week, there is some of the plainchant appropriate to that day in the liturgy, with expression marks of various kinds. As I’m not a plainchant expert, I let others take the lead in this.
I finished my weekend in Cambridge by going to King’s College Chapel for Sunday evensong, where I heard the eponymous canticles by Howells and Let all the world by Vaughan Williams.
How was SC at King’s? I’d heard various rumours about his health.
I’ve heard rumours too, but don’t know how much to believe them. He didn’t process in with the choir, but walked out with them.