I sang at or attended choral services in three different churches in Holy Week, including the Easter weekend. Bath Abbey Chamber Choir sang two of these services, Evensong for Palm Sunday and a Eucharist for Maundy Thursday. The novelty for me was Palestrina’s Missa Secunda, which I’d never come across before; the rest of Maundy Thursday had a French accent, with Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas and Déodat de Séverac’s Tantum Ergo.
Good Friday’s service was at Christ Church, where we sang some of our repertoire of 4-part anthems for the day, including Victoria’s setting of O vos omnes.
I changed location and went to the First Mass of Easter at Little St Mary’s in Cambridge, as well as the Easter morning Eucharist. The choir now sings significantly more and to a higher standard than when I used to sing in it, but some things don’t change, such as Stanford’s Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem. (I suppose there is the excuse that he is an anniversary composer, and there really aren’t that many good alternatives for Easter Day.)