Choral Evensong – Durham Cathedral – 29th August 2011

A few weeks ago I made the rather spontaneous decision to fly back over to the UK for a couple of days and join Bowdon Choir for their trip to Durham Cathedral. I got up before the crack of dawn (again!) and hopped on a plane to Durham Tees Valley, in a fit of silly planning that had me arriving before the rest of the choir had even left Manchester. Never mind, that gave me a nice opportunity to settle in and do a little shopping – there’s something to be said for buying jeans in England where they’re only 3 inches too long for me, instead of 6 or more.

The rest of the choir started arriving around lunchtime, and I spent the next couple hours catching up with everyone, before our rehearsal in the stalls at 4pm. After the week with the ECS, I couldn’t get used to the relaxed rehearsal schedule, but of course this choir is singing together every week, with two services every Sunday.

It’s not so long since we last sang at Durham, so the whole visit proved to be very nostalgic. There were a few new faces in the choir, but the bulk of the choir is still made up of people I’ve known for years. The choice of music could hardly have been better to fuel my nostalgia trip – all the music we sang, aside from the Ireland, is music that I associate with first joining the choir, 15 years ago.

• Preces and Responses – Ayleward
• Psalm – Flintoft
• Canticles – Ireland in F
• Anthem – Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Bairstow