{"id":5609,"date":"2020-08-16T22:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T22:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/?p=5609"},"modified":"2020-08-16T22:20:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T22:20:30","slug":"a-choir-returns-in-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/2020\/08\/16\/a-choir-returns-in-milan\/","title":{"rendered":"a choir returns in Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We managed to escape the UK for a short break in Italy and I was able to get to Sunday Mass in the Duomo in Milan (which has featured <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/tag\/milan-duomo\/\">before<\/a> here).  They are keen to make you pay to see the interior of the building but there is an unmarked entrance at the north-west corner for worshippers to enter by at service times.  The service took place at the main altar under the crossing and I sat in the nave.<\/p>\n<p>There was a small all-male choir of nine or ten singers, of lay-clerk standard.  They sat in the north transept behind a screen (blocked from my view by a pillar) and sang a motet by ?Monteverdi and a Mass setting as well as plainchant.  They were miked, which I hope was just because they were few in number, although they didn&#8217;t need it.   The building is sufficiently spacious that they were well away from both congregation and clergy (there were 10 of the latter, three of whom executed 360&deg; swings of the censer during the service.  I suspect being able to do this is a qualification for admission to the Chapter.)<\/p>\n<p>That afternoon I took a train out of the city to visit the Certosa di Pavia.  The monastery church boasts some very impressive marquetry choir stalls.  I&#8217;m sure this building would be a good place to record (though I don&#8217;t know what the organ is like) with a resonant acoustic and isolated location away from external noise.  But that probably wouldn&#8217;t suit the monastic routine and need for silence.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We managed to escape the UK for a short break in Italy and I was able to get to Sunday Mass in the Duomo in Milan (which has featured before here). They are keen to make you pay to see &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/2020\/08\/16\/a-choir-returns-in-milan\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[1446,445],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5609"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5609"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5614,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5609\/revisions\/5614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}