Not the spiritual this time, though I wish it had been. On my railway journey to sing with the Erleigh Cantors at Liverpool Cathedral, my overnight bag was stolen from the train between Bristol and Birmingham. (Memo to Cross Country Trains: please install CCTV on your trains as other companies have done). I consoled myself with thinking how disappointed the thieves must have been to open it and find it was a musician’s case: boring and rather old monochrome clothes, overnight stuff, sheet music and a choir folder. Nothing worth risking getting caught for.
Liverpool (and Christine from the choir) was able to supply me with replacement clothing (H & M is the place to go if you need a black skirt of a sensible length in a hurry). Also many thanks to Ian, Catharine and Liverpool Cathedral’s music department for sorting out a replacement set of music for me.
There was a shortage of hotel rooms in Liverpool that weekend. My accommodation had the advantage of being near the Cathedral, but was not very satisfactory (contact me if you want details!) However, when I got on to the actual singing things improved.
As usual at Liverpool, Saturday evensong was in the Lady Chapel, but we still put in some big expansive pieces – Os Justi by Bruckner and Gloria Deo per Immensa Saecula by Healey Willan – as well as the canticles for tennis players who don’t hit straight, the Byrd Second Service. Our responses for the weekend were by Sidney Campbell but very different from his usual jaunty style, being apparently inspired by mediæval music. Recommended for choirs with a less than confident tenor and/or bass line (we don’t have this problem!) as they duplicate sopranos and altos respectively almost all the way through.
Our accompanist on Sunday was Professor Ian Tracey himself. We established a quick rapport for Grayston Ives’ Missa Brevis at the Eucharist, where we also sang the only piece of the weekend that I’d never done: Ubi caritas by Paul Mealor. It’s usually just a matter of time before new commissions for royal occasions turn up on music lists (although the Rutter piece premiered at Prince William’s wedding seems to have sunk without trace).
We could hardly have picked a bigger sing for our final service: my favourite canticles by Howells, the St Paul’s service, and Wesley’s Ascribe Unto the Lord. I have not sung this latter in the lifetime of this blog, but having once recorded it, I remember it very clearly, apart from the second soprano verse part which was new.
The main choir stalls are now closer together (new stalls have been placed in front of the original ones); I am not sure whether they had moved at the time of my last visit ,a few years ago. We felt well looked after and the use of the kitchen near the rehearsal room was appreciated. So not the happiest of weekends overall but musically a good one.