Bath Abbey Chamber Choir was quick to restart for the new season, with a conductor newly appointed to the Abbey’s music staff, and a midweek evensong livened up a September which was otherwise musically blank. And it wasn’t standard pieces either! Our canticles were mix’n’match: a four-part Magnificat on the first tone by Palestrina and a Nunc Dimittis by Victoria. The anthem was How beauteous are their feet by Stanford. What these all have in common is that I’ve only sung them once before (according to my records); in the case of the Palestrina and the Stanford, a long time ago! Ley’s Prayer of Henry VI and Ayleward Responses were rather more familiar.
I miss the next service in the Abbey but after a couple of false starts we have a Cathedral visit coming up.