Members of the Cathedral Chamber Choir reassembled a week later at St. Gabriel’s Church, Pimlico to remember William Wingate. William was a very long-standing member of the choir, who occasionally conducted it and sadly died recently before his time. Although we tended not to socialise together and our tastes in church music were quite distinct, I wanted to honour his memory by being part of the choir at this memorial event.
The programme can be found here. The Cathedral Chamber Choir offered two pieces, both with words by Henry Vaughan. Did Vaughan have a thing about lilies? Both texts mentioned them, appropriately enough in a church dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel. One was commissioned by William from Ronald Corp, The Revival; I recall singing in the premiere of this in Winchester Cathedral. The other was Welcome Sweet and Sacred Feast by Finzi. I have only sung this once before, and never with any other choir. It doesn’t seem to be programmed much, which is a shame, even if it is a rather rambling setting of quite a diffuse text.
The programme also included performances by the London Chorus and Voix de Vivre. I was particularly interested to hear James MacMillan’s The Gallant Weaver. new to me. We all joined forces for Vaughan Williams’ Let All the World and Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens. The Parry has an unusual status in being proverbially a standard part of the choral repertoire, and yet these days not at all frequently encountered; as with the Finzi, I think I have only performed it once before. We gave enthusiastic performances of both to an audience of non-singing friends and relatives before sharing a meal.