A Trinity of birthdays

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 19 June 2006 06:52:17

As it was the organist's wife's birthday, I was not surprised to hear the happy birthday theme sounding loud and clear during the Gospel fanfare. But, as it was also the birthday of two other members of the congregation, at least he could not be accused of favouritism. And solemn majesty was restored with Karg-Elert's 'Nun Danket Alle Gott' for the voluntary. This Sunday was the first major airing of the Rawsthorne Eucharist setting and also the change from sung to said responsorial psalms. Rawsthorne passed without major incident, although with a noticeable hush from the nave - understandable on the first week. The crucifer said she liked it (especially the Gloria) - I heard no particular comments from the rest of the congregation. Saying the responsorial psalms seemed mighty strange, although I suppose I shall get used to it. My concern is that there will be too many spoken readings all together - until now there has been a good balance between the sung and said items. Hopefully the congregation will be happy with the new arrangements, as we are changing it for them.

The two new members of the choir (tenor and alto) waxed lyrical about how pleased they were to join. We were overflowing in the tenor section this week, but with most of the teenagers having a lie-in after a party on Saturday night the overall numbers were slightly down. 'O taste and see' (Vaughan Williams) was sung accompanied first time through and unaccompanied on the repeat. The soprano soloist was, as usual, magnificent, even though she only had a couple of hours' sleep the night before.

No evensong today - a well-timed break for Father's Day: yippee!!