Ever since moving here I’ve been frequently asked ‘Do you sing in Bath Abbey?’ And for a long time I not only didn’t, but couldn’t, as there was no Abbey choir containing adult women. But that has changed with the setting up this autumn of the Bath Abbey Chamber Choir, which I am singing in.
It’s a mix of younger and more experienced singers, and in the few weeks it’s been going we have begun to gel nicely as a group. The repertoire is mostly known to me but nevertheless a challenge to sing well. Like Christ Church, the choir is also getting to grips with new furniture and a new acoustic, but we also have the benefit of the new rehearsal facilities which have recently been created.
Our first outing was a weekday evensong a couple of weeks ago, singing Dyson in D and O pray for the peace of Jerusalem by Howells, among other things, and we also led the family Eucharist at the Abbey that weekend, including an anthem by John Rutter (Look at the earth) which I have only ever sung in Bath Abbey, the other occasion being as an alto! Here‘s a clip of us in rehearsal.
I’ve long felt that every diocese should have a choir like this in a major church. Bath Abbey had a mixed choir when I first moved here, but what it sang was a cut-down evensong, this being the era when it was thought women couldn’t sing Anglican chant or full canticle settings. The BACC will be doing occasional services, singing the same quantity of music at them as the other Abbey choirs would do.