Bath Abbey Chamber Choir these days is being given quite a mix of services to sing, not just 9.30 am ones as it looked like at one time. May began with an evensong which included Ireland’s canticles in F, which I had not sung for many years although I remembered them almost exactly. (Lack of competition in the area of Te Deums and Jubilates means I’ve done his morning canticles much more often). Also on the menu were Byrd’s Prevent us O Lord and Hadley’s My beloved spake.
At the end of May at an 11.30 Eucharist we included Robert Walker’s As the apple tree, with the aleatoric touch that was fashionable at the time it was written. Here it takes the form of singing a phrase with note lengths of your choosing and also beginning at a time of your choice. My problem is that all the training I’ve had in keeping in time with the singer next to me is very hard to discard! Alongside it were movements from Palestrina’s Missa Brevis and as an introit Hail Gladdening Light by Wood. Not only did we sing ‘The lights of evening round us shine’ at 9.30 a.m., we sang ‘The rains are over and gone’ just before a torrential downpour!
We completed the pattern of services in June by doing a 9.30 Eucharist with just two anthems: de Sévérac’s Tantum Ergo and Walton’s Set me as a seal.