Tag Archives: Bath Abbey

from Palm Sunday to Good Friday

Posted on April 9, 2026 by vhk10

The Abbey Chamber Choir got to sing two services in Holy Week. As last year, we provided the music for the afternoon service on Palm Sunday, but this time it was a straightforward evensong. Somehow Ernest Bullock’s canticles in D … Continue reading →

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Purcell, Charles Andrews, Ives, Morley and Byrd for Lent

Posted on March 25, 2026 by vhk10

Meanwhile at Christ Church we sang evensong mid-March with more Purcell (Thou knowest, Lord) and the ‘faux-bordon’ canticles by one Carolus Andreas. I am suspicious of the provenance of these last. They have been reprinted by the RSCM (starting in … Continue reading →

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Purcell, Lotti and Byrd for Lent

Posted on March 2, 2026 by vhk10

For the second year in a row the Chamber Choir sang at the Abbey on Ash Wednesday. We opened with Purcell Remember not, Lord, used Byrd’s Four-Part mass as the setting, and during the Ashing sang Lotti’s setting of the … Continue reading →

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Post-Christmas carol services (1): Epiphany

Posted on January 31, 2026 by vhk10

I sang in two carol services for the latter part of the Christmas season, both of which brought new repertoire with them. First was Bath Abbey’s now annual Epiphany carol service. Among more standard pieces, we did Palestrina’s setting of … Continue reading →

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Advent and Christmas 2: inclusive carols, the hospital lobby and Jethro Tull

Posted on December 19, 2025 by vhk10

My second tranche of seasonal music began with an inclusive service at church for our Open Table Network congregation. This began and ended with some appropriate ‘songs from the shows’, which was for me a welcome chance to dip into … Continue reading →

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Advent and Christmas 1: the anniversary that wasn’t

Posted on December 8, 2025 by vhk10

November was packed with musical events, and although I had no actual Christmas concerts in December there was nevertheless more other seasonal performances than I usually give. Actually, this started well back in November with the opening of Bath’s Christmas … Continue reading →

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All Souls Day at Bath Abbey

Posted on November 11, 2025 by vhk10

The Abbey Chamber Choir sang evensong for a transferred observance of All Souls’ Day. I’m not sure whether this was a first for Bath Abbey, but we were able to submit names of the departed in advance and they were … Continue reading →

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Abbey interregnum

Posted on July 27, 2025 by vhk10

It’s now time to quickly cover some services I sang at Bath Abbey during the gap between the departure of Dewi and the arrival of Adam. (Much of the Abbey Chamber Choir’s 4-year existence to date, including one period of … Continue reading →

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a farewell organ recital

Posted on April 30, 2025 by vhk10

I went to what was billed as an ‘Easter Bank Holiday Bonanza’, Dewi Rees’ final organ recital before leaving Bath Abbey for St Alban’s Cathedral. For this, a small part of the quire was cordoned off so that the audience … Continue reading →

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Morley at Passiontide

Posted on April 8, 2025 by vhk10

Bath Abbey Chamber Choir’s final performance with Dewi Rees (an evensong originally planned for Holy Week was cancelled) was one of music and readings for Passiontide. The music included a couple of pieces from our repertoire (Elgar’s O salutaris hostia, … Continue reading →

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Billing, Chorus Angelorum or Gerontius?

Posted on February 14, 2025 by vhk10

Bath Abbey hosted a well-attended evening event: a hymn forum in which four people involved with compiling hymnbooks (in particular the Revised English Hymnal) discussed hymnody, the part it had played in their lives, the history of recent hymnals, and … Continue reading →

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3 kings in Latin and English

Posted on January 19, 2025 by vhk10

Bath Abbey Chamber Choir began the year with the fixed point in our annual schedule: the Epiphany Carol service, with two pieces I hadn’t done before. Byrd’s 5-part setting of Reges Tharsis appears to be an early work, using the … Continue reading →

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