{"id":7077,"date":"2025-11-12T00:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T00:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/?p=7077"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:19:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:19:56","slug":"a-memorial-requiem-at-merton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/2025\/11\/12\/a-memorial-requiem-at-merton\/","title":{"rendered":"a memorial Requiem at Merton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had not returned to hear a service in Merton College Chapel, or indeed set foot in the College, since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/2016\/05\/03\/gibbons-for-the-gaudy\/\">2016<\/a>.  I came back for a memorial requiem Eucharist for a former Chaplain.  I was at Merton mid-way through his very long tenure of the post, and a few years ago had run into him when I was singing in Chichester Cathedral.<\/p>\n<p>He was not keen on having elaborate music in Chapel services (we were only allowed to do a choral setting of the canticles once a year) so I&#8217;m not sure what he would have made of the quantity of it at his memorial service, although in content and spirit the service was a fitting tribute to him.  The choir sang most (the movements without soloists) of Durufl&eacute;&#8217;s Requiem, and the Russian Kontakion (in a lower key than I&#8217;m used to).  There was just one hymn, sung to the <i>Old 124th<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The Durufl&eacute; (which was not revived from All Souls but must have been specially learnt) was a fine performance, although possible in places to tell that it was early in the year and this particular group of singers hadn&#8217;t been together long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had not returned to hear a service in Merton College Chapel, or indeed set foot in the College, since 2016. I came back for a memorial requiem Eucharist for a former Chaplain. I was at Merton mid-way through his &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/2025\/11\/12\/a-memorial-requiem-at-merton\/\">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":[1311,12],"tags":[424,211],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077"}],"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=7077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7078,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions\/7078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.virginiaknight.org.uk\/vhkssinging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}