the Great Service

Long-term readers of this blog will know that Byrd’s Great Service of evening canticles has long been on my wishlist of church music that I’d never sung. In the usual way, after years of waiting, and just as I was thinking of organising a performance myself, I got two independent invitations to sing it this month. The one I was able to accept came from the Laetare Singers who included it in a workshop conducted by Adrian Partington at St Peter’s, Henleaze. I signed up like a shot when I was given a flyer for this.

I had a slight head start with the Byrd as I have heard it many times (including a very duff performance at one of England’s premier church music establishments). It requires a long attention span and much concentration, especially as we were all invited to sing the verse sections.

I hadn’t sung Howells’ Take Him Earth for Cherishing since I was a student, and it was another piece I was very keen to sing. I’d never done the second soprano part, which has some decidedly non-contractual notes in. (Adrian Partington, a former pupil of Howells, explained why this was: HH composed at the piano). I equipped myself with a score beforehand to learn them and the 2nd altos behind me also came in handy.

Later we were introduced to early Hispanic liturgical music. I’d assumed this was the Iberian version of the Sarum Rite et al, but it is earlier and tantalisingly undecipherable. Rather the opposite of ancient Greek music, where we can read the notation but don’t have many actual scores. One thing that can be worked out is that it went in for extremely long melismas, reminding me a little of the meditative chants of some Eastern religious traditions. We sang three pieces by Alison Willis (who came along to talk about the project out of which they arose): psalm settings inspired by what we know about this murky area of church music.

We had light accompaniment in the performances at the end of the day, which was a relief to me as I’d have got very thrown in some of the high Howells entries if we’d slipped too far. (Pitch drop might however have suited a fellow singer who was clearly experiencing discomfort with her hearing aid if anyone near her sang above an F! There are surely few worse places for such a person than the middle of the front row of a soprano section.)

This handsome church – built more recently than its exterior would suggest – made a very good venue. They have a seriously skilled flower arranger there.