Otherwise known as the acapella day (which was actually very sunny!). This was my favourite music day of the trip, but not without its challenges.
The Gray and the Harris are all in double choir, as are bits of the Shephard responses, the Gray unknown by all but one singer, and a very small group with which to pull it off (20 originally, reducing to 16 with sickness).
Not much rehearsal time either; the only slots to get learning Sunday’s 3-service music list were Friday morning and Saturday morning, so we just had 2-5 to prepare for today’s evensong.
The exciting thing about Friday was the arrival of the weekenders: Eric, Ben and Laura, Ben Brown, Richard, Nigel, Sarah T, Jo, Malky, Snapesy and probably others I’m forgetting (sorry!).
Thankfully Richard was around in the morning to accompany Sunday’s music (Cummings was playing for the actual services but only arriving on Saturday night) - notably the Walton Jubliate and VW Te Deum would be very difficult for me to rehearse from the piano (glossing over the fact I can hardly play them in first place).
I’m not sure how sold people were on the Gray in F minor, but for me it remains a firm favourite with one of the most exciting Glorias in the repertoire.
The Harris, much more familiar went really well, and in the rehearsal at least held its tuning:
I really enjoy watching this bit of footage; I don’t normally get to see it from the outside but it looks like we’re working hard but having a chuckle between ‘takes’, which is good.
Disappointingly, in performance, we lost some pitch in the Harris — not that the bottom C didn’t trouble our Can Basses!
This was also the joint-best, and certainly most plaintive, psalm singing of the week (Wednesday was excellent but we don’t have the recording, grr; Sunday evensong, Murril chant, was also very tight) 142 to the Howells chant (click to listen).
Afterwards, we went to the Swan bar, where my folks were staying (where they were stashing the booze for tomorrow evening’s party and also presented me with my other birthday present - tickets to the First Night of the Proms), where we had a few rounds in the sunshine before gravitating towards the City Arms (five nights in and we’ve restarted the cycle!) for food and more beer.
Unfortunately, Vicars Close’s resident drunk materialised back at #14 after pub closing — which sent nearly everyone to bed! Olly, just arrived after deadline week, and he stayed up a little longer debating the ins and outs of the BBC Music Magazine CD reviews process…
