Category Archives: going to services

when the conductor is ill

Posted on November 12, 2016 by vhk10

I went along to hear Priory Voices sing Evensong with music by Stanford and S S Wesley at Wells Cathedral. The founder and usual conductor is not able to conduct at the moment so members of the choir are (very … Continue reading →

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introit vs anthem

Posted on September 9, 2016 by vhk10

I went along to hear a choir drawn from an RSCM course sing at Bath Abbey (they are resident at Kingswood School every year). Looked out for the distinctive cassocks of St. Ann’s Manchester (no one else wears that shade … Continue reading →

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The Three Choirs evensongs

Posted on August 25, 2016 by vhk10

I went to most of the Choral Evensongs at the Three Choirs Festival. These of course are the real Three Choirs – the Cathedral choirs of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford – and it’s clear that for many festival-goers the evensongs … Continue reading →

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Gibbons for the Gaudy

Posted on May 3, 2016 by vhk10

I went back for a Gaudy at my old Oxford College, Merton. It was the first Gaudy I’d been invited to for 9 years, and the first since the choral foundation was set up. A selection of choir members sang … Continue reading →

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the sun but not the moon

Posted on February 24, 2016 by vhk10

For the first time in ages I went to evensong at Bath Abbey, sung by a visiting choir in residence for the weekend, in this case the University of Bristol Church Choir. They proved to be one of the better … Continue reading →

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On the German border

Posted on January 15, 2016 by vhk10

I made two overseas trips in December, both near the border of Germany. First a short break in Aachen. The Cathedral there had a handsome organ, though its unique shape may give it some acoustic peculiarities (I didn’t hear the … Continue reading →

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The Assumption in Milan

Posted on September 1, 2014 by vhk10

I have been fortunate to be in Milan for some major festivals of the Church year, and this year we were there on the feast of the Assumption. I went to Vespers, which included a procession around the building for … Continue reading →

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At the enthronement

Posted on June 23, 2014 by vhk10

(adapted from an article written for my church magazine) On June 7th I attended the ‘installation’ (rather as if he were a boiler or a modern artwork) of Peter Hancock as Bishop of Bath and Wells. The doors of Wells … Continue reading →

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Dedicating the Dobson organ

Posted on April 30, 2014 by vhk10

It’s not every day you get to go to a 750th birthday event. I attended the dedication evensong for the new organ in Merton College Chapel in Oxford, at which one of my friends and contemporaries was preaching. The choral … Continue reading →

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quick on the draw in Wells

Posted on March 21, 2014 by vhk10

Just a quick note of an evensong I went to in Wells Cathedral, sung by the men and boys. A mixture of periods, with the Byrd responses, Howells in B minor and Wesley’s Wash me throughly. The Howells in particular … Continue reading →

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two Abbey services and a funeral

Posted on January 31, 2014 by vhk10

I joined the choir of St. Peter’s Caversham to sing a Saturday Evensong in Bath Abbey. Our canticles were Stanford in G and the introit and anthem were selected for Epiphany: Here is the Little Door by Howells, and Mendelssohn’s … Continue reading →

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The Britten centenary at Merton

Posted on December 24, 2013 by vhk10

In between two performances of the War Requiem, I went to Oxford and heard two evensongs; a midweek one at the Cathedral and another live evensong broadcast from my old College, Merton, centred around Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia. This … Continue reading →

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