I had a busy weekend with two extra services, both of which included anthems by William Mathias.
An appropriate kneeler for our anthem
On Saturday I revisited St Mary Redcliffe for the first time in several years, to join a visiting choir for the first Evensong of Candlemas. Our music included Eccard (from the ambulatory), Neary responses, Wood in D and Mathias’ Let the people praise thee O God. There was a final chance to see their Christmas decorations, including a nativity scene within the main altar and a huge suspended wreath, before the season for them ended. Kudos to the Redcliffe folk for providing us with tea, biscuits and cake before we sang.
On Sunday evening we had an extra service of hymns, anthems and readings for Candlemas at church, which included Mathias’ Lift up your heads, Ola Gjelo’s Ubi Caritas, O Nata Lux by Lauridsen, and the inevitable Eccard. An occupational hazard of Candlemas is dealing with lighted candles. We juggled ours carefully while singing the Nunc Dimittis from Howells’ Coll. Reg. setting; extra tricky, firstly because we do not yet have our new choir-stalls so we had to hold the copies in the non-candle hand, and secondly because this is one of those settings where you have to turn back to the Magnificat for the Gloria…