My action-packed October featured a musical event on every Saturday. On the first Saturday I wasn’t actually performing myself – I was in Oxford for a birthday celebration and then went to the installation of an old friend from my student days as the new sub-Dean at Christ Church Cathedral. This was the first Cathedral I ever performed in, though I have not done so for a long time. Priory Voices used to go there sometimes in August, but usually their voluntary choir (which I used to sing in) takes care of services outside school term.
The music was, I believe, requested by the sub-Dean and included Leighton’s’ Second Service (he is a Leighton expert) and Faire is the Heaven by Harris (a piece I first encountered singing in a choir with him). The readings were about Daniel in the lion’s den and Satan being cast out of heaven, the latter scene vividly depicted in a window in front of me. Inspecting the music list, I was a little sorry to see that the Cathedral no longer does the full BCP psalms for the day; it was the last Oxbridge College to do so. Under a previous DoM whom I remember, they were taken slowly and occupied a large part of the service, and the tale is still told of when Jesu Meine Freude was on the list for the 15th evening…