Tag: ECS

If it’s the end of August, it must be time for the ECS to sing Evensong at the Bavokerk in Haarlem. Thanks to some delays along the way, and my own unusual style of timekeeping, I ended up arriving 30 minutes late to the rehearsal, after the choir had finished with the responses, and were busy with the Magnificat.

I was very excited to discover that the Bavo is currently hosting an exhibition about Anthony Fokker, including the very first little Fokker – quite a wondrous thing, though I’m not sure I’d choose to fly in it myself.

The programme for this evening was mostly new music from our trip to Ely, in all honesty, nothing that really set my heart on fire, although I rather like the Justorum Animae.

• Introit – Justorum Animae, Gabriel Jackson
• Preces and Responses – Walsh
• Canticles – W. Lloyd Webber in E minor
• Anthem – Lord who’s glory fills the skies, Darke
• Anthem – Litany to the Holy Spirit, Hurford

After one final lunch on the Cathedral Green we robed up and filed into the stalls for our last practice, during which I spent most of my time hanging precariously on one foot on the edge of the stalls, trying not to fall off backwards. This was not helped by the fact I had to hold my choir folder slightly behind me, and every time I looked at my music my balance was compromised. A good reason to rely on my memory for as much of the music as possible, something that was reasonably easy to achieve, as all the music was very familiar, even the office hymn, which we sing regularly in Amsterdam. Of course, in Amsterdam we sing it without an extraneous Ab, and with an occasionally different text, but switching between choirs as often as I do, such surprises are beginning to be expected.

I had the feeling in the last 3 services that we were finally reaching the light floaty singing in the office hymns that Martin was requesting, but it may only have been a reflection of my new position at the end of the row which meant that I simply couldn’t hear the other singers.

Unlike many Cathedrals, Sunday Evensong appeared little different than that on any other day of the week, with no sermon, and no opening sentences. The lack of the latter made me a little sad, as I’m rather fond of erring and straying from my ways like a lost sheep, and following too much the devices and desires of my own heart. I will never cease to find pleasure in the texts of the 1662 liturgy.

In the blink of an eye, Evensong was over and we were processing out of the Choir and lining up for the dismissal for the final time. We didn’t fling off our robes straight away though – tradition dictates the necessity of a choir photo, accompanied by the requisite fumbling around with tripod and self timer in my case, and a string full of cameras around the neck in Brenda’s.

Yesterday swimming, today running – don’t let it be said that Anna and I are slacking off on this trip.  Again, we were up bright and early and headed out to a little park next to the cathedral.  We didn’t take ourselves too seriously, just ran around the park a little and played tag!  The park was, by Dutch standards, extremely hilly – something of a challenge when you’re used to running on the flat.

Our statutory exercise done, we headed back to our accommodation for a much needed pre-rehearsal breakfast.  By this point in the week, everything is becoming routine – we no longer have to rack our brains, or consult little scraps of paper for the door code to the song school, and we know what time rehearsals start and finish without checking the timetable (even if we do still end up running late because of emergency frapuccino stops at Starbucks).

The weather has been getting warmer and muggier, and we were promised thunderstorms this evening.  They can’t come soon enough – the small song school where we rehearse is very cramped and stuffy, not helped by the fact that it’s on the south side of the cathedral.  When we leave the song school and move into the main cathedral the sudden drop in temperature and increase in oxygen levels is glorious.

Today is the only service where we’re singing anything which splits into two choirs (although we do have a few pieces coming up later in the week where only one or two parts split), so that took much of our attention.  We also had the mammoth psalm 18 to sing – all 51 verses of it, with 4 chant changes.  Luckily, we repeated the same set of responses from yesterday, which saved some rehearsal time.

• Preces and Responses: Michael Walsh
• Psalm 18 (chants by Cooke, Riding, Grey and Massey)
• Office Hymn 210
• Canticles: St. Andrew’s Service – Peter Aston
• Anthem: Hail gladdening light – Charles Wood

After the service we went out with some of the other choir members for a curry, and then chilled out on the lawn of the retreat house before finally calling it a day and heading off to bed.

Anna and I began the day, more or less bright, and not quite as early as we’d planned, so that we could fit in a swim before breakfast and the first rehearsal of the day.  We cunningly set out without the iPhone (and therefore lacking Google Maps), so we had to rely on my vague recollections of the swimming pool being ‘on the other side of the cathedral’, after Waitrose and near the memorably named Prickwillow Road.  In such a small city, it didn’t seem that finding something as large as a swimming pool should be too difficult, so we pootled along past the cathedral, and along down the High Street, and then began to wonder if we might be going completely off course.  Conveniently, one of the cafe owners was setting out his tables and chairs, and pointed us in the right direction.  From the number of roads we had to cross, you might have thought that the pool was miles away, but we found it in about 5 minutes, after passing the ‘Cathedral Veterinary Centre’, which is presumably the vergers’ first choice when their cats get sick.

I digress….

550m or so later in a rather narrow pool with a view onto the Cathedral, we realised that we were running out of time if we wanted to still get breakfast and headed back to our retreat house, to make the most of the stewed tea and cold toast – the price you pay for turning up at 8.45 when breakfast starts at 8 o’ clock sharp.

The first rehearsal of the morning flew by with the presumably unintentional theme of going backwards – first the responses which we sang from start to finish and then backwards to the beginning again, and then one of the psalm chants which we sang whilst counting in 1 to 10 in German, and then back down to one again (vital preparation for our German anthem this evening).  Yet again I discover that whilst I can count forwards quite capably in Dutch, French and German, counting backwards is an skill I have yet to master.

Lots of fun singing words like ‘abominable’ in the psalms today… not so many sheep and oxen, however.

Whilst the weather is unpleasantly muggy, especially in the tiny song school where we are rehearsing, it’s nice to be able to sit outside on the Cathedral Green and enjoy some sun in between rehearsals.

We’ve also been enjoying picnic lunches in the shadow of the cathedral – this is the Lady Chapel, where we’ll be singing Evensong on Friday.  The iPhone doesn’t really do it justice, but I haven’t yet taken my ‘real’ camera up to the Cathedral, and I haven’t yet been able to download the photos I’ve taken on my compact camera.

Since we ran through all today’s music in the morning, we spent the first part of the afternoon rehearsing for tomorrow and Friday, before heading into the Quire for our final, robed rehearsal of the day.  One rehearsal and a cup of tea later, and it was yet again time to line up for evensong – choir trip days always fly by.

The music for this evening:

• Preces and Responses: Walsh
• Psalms: 12 (Smart), 13 (Hayes) and 14 (Walmisley)
• Canticles: Sumsion in A
• Anthem: Geistliches Lied, Brahms

Like yesterday, our non-written plan for the evening was ‘stretch out on bed with laptop, with peanut butter , olives and carrots in reaching distance’.  I also took a small tour of the gardens at dusk.  I’ve never been to a retreat house before, but I had the feeling that the gardens fit the bill perfectly – lots of little corners to retreat to, and a swing fixed low enough on the tree that even my feet scraped the ground.  Fun times.

Oh, and if you read Dutch, you should definitely take a look at Anna’s blog.  She writes far better than I can.

I flew over from Amsterdam to the UK last night, along with a group of fellow singers, who I bumped into in the security line.  Despite being threatened by a 747, we had a quick and uneventful flight (even if we did have to pay for the cups of tea).

Whilst the rest of the group headed straight off to Ely, I spent the night in an old manor house, near to the airport.  Aside from the planes taking off overhead, it was very tranquil, and felt like being in the middle of the country.

This morning I took the train to Ely, arriving with enough time to sit down with a cup of tea on the cathedral green and catch up with everyone before our first rehearsal.  The song school here is tiny, and we had a hard time fitting everyone in.  I sang here 12 years ago, with Bowdon choir, but I have no recollection at all of where we rehearsed, the song school seems totally unfamiliar.

After 3 rehearsals, it was time for our first evensong:

• Preces and Responses: Heathcote Statham
• Psalms: 6, 7 and 8
• Canticles: Walmisley in D minor
• Anthem: The Lord hath been Mindful, S S Wesley

As ever, after all that rehearsing, evensong itself seemed to be over in a flash.  Considering that it was a Monday night, we had a pretty decent congregation, though I should of course some of those present were our own fan club.

We’re staying at Bishop Woodford House, a diocesan retreat house.  It’s pleasant enough, although the lack of shower is somewhat depressing.  Looks we have to go back in time and use one of these. Unfortunately it seems like it won’t attach to the bath, but only the sink taps.  Good thing that Anna and I plan to go to the swimming baths, I think!

We do, at least, have a view onto the cathedral from the kitchen.

• Introit – Chorister’s Prayer, Harper
• Preces and Responses – Sumsion
• Psalm 132
• Canticles – Brewer in D
• Anthem – Ave Maria, Parsons

We had a full hour’s break between the second Eucharist and the rehearsal for our final evensong – just enough time to go to the Cathedral Refectory and enjoy a jacket potato with cheese (a meal which I have come to associate with choir trips and cathedral refectories) and listen to some of the recordings from evensong earlier in the week.

There’s something sad about lining up in the choir vestry for the final time.  The psalm was shorter than any we’d sung earlier in the week, the reading weren’t so long, and before we knew it, we were raising the quire roof with the last hymn, and processing out for the last time.  On the positive side, we were very heartily thanked by the Dean for our singing during the week, and invited to come back again in the future.

Now, the long wait until we find out where next year’s trip will be.

• Introit – Prayer of King Henry VI, Henry Ley
• Preces and Responses – Morland Responses, Graham Ellis
• Psalms 73 and 74
• Canticles – St Andrew’s Service, Peter Aston
• Anthem – Blessed be the God and Father, S. S. Wesley

So, yesterday I moved over to cantoris (and thus second alto) for the second half of the week.  Today, we ended up having a reshuffle, and I found myself back on decani (first alto) again.  It didn’t make too much difference in today’s service, though I got caught out a couple times in the canticles, but it does mean that I’ll have to be on my toes tomorrow when we’re singing quite a bit of music with two alto lines (some of which I’ll now be sight reading).

With 3 services tomorrow, we didn’t have much free time today, but I did manage to take a few more photos, including this one of the organ.

• Preces and Responses – Tomkins
• Psalms – 69 and 70
• Canticles – Weelkes First Service
• Anthem – I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, Tomkins

This evening’s service was the one I’ve been panicking about for the last 2 days. I had two solos – in the canticles (this was the scary, very exposed, miss the viols first chord and you’ve had it, one) and the other in the anthem (which was part of a quartet, and seemed pretty unintimidating in comparison).  Because we were singing with the viol consort today, we had some extra work trying to figure out how best to organize ourselves in the service.  In the end, the soloists had to do the walk of terror down the aisle and stand in a little huddle near the viols.  It was rather scary, but really was much easier to sing that way, and the end result was much better.

In the end, the service did have more than its fair share of dodgy moments, but my solos went as well as could be expected, considering how nervous I get.   Now I can relax a bit before tomorrow’s service, and try to regain some energy before the marathon sing on Sunday.

I’ll leave you with this picture of Anna and myself.  Despite the fact that we’re wearing different colour robes, we do actually come from the same choir, in Amsterdam.