Category Archives: going to services

a reunion in Gloucester

Posted on March 3, 2006 by vhk10

I went to an old girls’ event held at Gloucester Cathedral by my old school (which actually wasn’t in Gloucester, or even Gloucestershire). After a guided tour and tea, we heard the choir sing evensong, for which they laid on … Continue reading →

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planning ahead

Posted on October 10, 2005 by vhk10

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to plan some singing engagements for the next few months. Two fixtures I haven’t sung in recently may reappear: a Requiem in Paddington on All Souls’ Day and Good Friday in … Continue reading →

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Descants

Posted on August 5, 2005 by vhk10

Despite being a soprano, I’m not totally in favour of these. The best ones complement the melody they sit on top of, and are interesting and melodic in themselves. But if you are unlucky they are made up by stringing … Continue reading →

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Henley at the Abbey

Posted on October 20, 2004 by vhk10

I went to hear the choir of St. Mary’s, Henley, sing evensong at Bath Abbey on Saturday (their conductor is the usual organist for the Erleigh Cantors); it was the first time I’d been to hear a visiting choir since … Continue reading →

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plainsong

Posted on August 17, 2004 by vhk10

I don’t usually choose the places I go on holiday for musical reasons, but when I found out that we were going to spend a fortnight only half an hour’s drive from the monastery of Solesmes in Western France, it … Continue reading →

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Good Friday at St. Giles’

Posted on April 10, 2004 by vhk10

Good Friday brought a come-and-sing performance of Duruflé’s Requiem at St. Giles’s Church, Oxford. This work, with its irregular, fluid rhythms and frequent tempo changes, is anything but four-square, and so might not be an obvious candidate for a scratch … Continue reading →

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Rounds on the March

Posted on March 30, 2004 by vhk10

At the weekend I returned to Cambridge to take part in the March March march. Some of us enlivened the notorious Earith-Willingham stretch by singing rounds as we strode alongside the Great Ouse. A few years ago I compiled a … Continue reading →

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secular gringing

Posted on February 3, 2004 by vhk10

This item of news appeared on the BBC website yesterday. Of course it’s not really news because organists have been sneaking secular themes into their improvisations for as long as they’ve been able to improvise in church. I once spent … Continue reading →

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Handel in the hymnbook and out

Posted on January 20, 2004 by vhk10

It is at this time of year that I wonder ‘What is it about the hymn Brightest and best that attracts tunes with awkward intervals?’. What I think of as the standard tune, ‘Epiphany’, is straightforward enough. But I have … Continue reading →

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Bath Abbey

Posted on December 2, 2003 by vhk10

The Rector of Bath Abbey, Simon Oberst, has just resigned with immediate effect. I can’t comment further on this but I am sorry to see him go and I hope it doesn’t take as long to find a new Rector … Continue reading →

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