I have a soft spot for Lichfield Cathedral – it is your proper large mediæval cathedral, but doesn’t double as a major tourist attraction, and is situated in a pleasant place of walkable size. The rail strike obliged me to drive there for the Erleigh Cantors’ weekend, which I’ve never done before, and while I wouldn’t choose to travel that way, there was a treat as I reached the brow of a hill on the A461 and saw the trio of spires for the first time a few miles away.
The choir stalls and metalwork screen in Lichfield Cathedral
Pauline Duval, my generous host on some earlier occasions in her B&B, died earlier this year and I’d like to think she’s enjoying the pampering up there which she used to give her guests. So this time I stayed in an AirBnb on the north side of the city.
I am of course well versed in what Lichfield used to sing at certain times in the 19th century. The only piece we performed which might have been sung in those days was God is our hope and strength by Blow, a longish verse anthem, new to me, with a flexibility about rhythm and first-beat stress that recalls his Tudor predecessors.
There were a number of pieces I hadn’t sung in a long time. The Ebdon responses – a dark setting which I associate with Lent (it used to be the standard setting on the Ash Wednesday evensong broadcast). Richard Drakeford’s Mag and Nunc in E minor – the only piece I’ve ever come across by him (he was once head of music at Harrow) and one I’ve only ever sung with this choir. Peter Aston’s Alleluia Psallat – in his
usual mediæval-influenced style but with a lot of 7/4, which I sang in my Manchester days with the John Powell Singers. Lennox Berkeley’s Missa Brevis – we did this at Cambridge and I notice that because Berkeley’s choral music is sung less often now, choirs struggle with his idiom. Kenneth Leighton’s O God Enfold me in the Sun, whose name appeared on the service sheet as ‘…unfold me in the sun’, which sounds as if the Almighty is rescuing you from a collapsed deckchair. A rather more familiar idiom, in fact the same chords as in every other piece of Leighton you’ve ever done.
There was one other piece new to me: David Bevan’s Magnificat on the fourth tone, from his set of faux-bourdon Magnificats on all eight tones. This is one of the more thickly scored of the set, and sounded surprisingly different on the webcast from when I was singing in the middle of the texture. We paired with the Nunc ‘by an unknown Edwardine composer’ though I suspect the so-called editor (Royle Shore) of having written it himself.
Recorded webcasts of our services are available on the Lichfield YouTube channel for a while and I was impressed by the production values, with shots from many angles, including both Dec and Can while the choir were singing (more of Can though!) and stills of Cathedral details during organ voluntaries and the Glorias of the canticles. Not quite immune from the bane of webcast services though – the member of the clergy who sings without turning off their microphone! And note the vergers’ outfits, which are as impressive as any you’ll see anywhere.