Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 October 2011 19:58:59
We enjoyed singing for the wedding of a long established church couple on Saturday - home-grown weddings are always very sweet and very special. Not having had time to practise the two anthems was the scariest part (for once the choir was more nervous than the groom). However, good memories served us well, and Panis Angelicus (Franck) and Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart) passed off well enough - just giving a few hairy moments to the altos who realised part way through that the version we had been asked to sing from had a different harmony than we were used to. Fortunately, we were able to busk the new version, and hopefully managed to fool most of the wedding congregation that we were completely in control of the situation (cough).
Fortunately, the next morning we didn't have to work so hard - with a responsorial psalm we knew well, plus the Thorne Mass setting. 'I give you a new commandment' (Aston) was only in two parts, with a good turnout of high and low voices available. The Vestry Group gave us a break by also singing a song, strangely with exactly the same words as the anthem, but with a different tune. Only the organist had to work extra hard today, with both the Prelude and Fugue in C Minor (Bach) being played as the voluntary - after which he discovered his post-service coffee had gone cold.
By contrast, in the evening, we had an ecumenical service in the style of a hymn sandwich (rather too much sandwich and not enough hymn for my liking) - we heard the second of our new readers preach, and realised he has an enjoyable story-telling style. I needn't have feared falling asleep in the sermon after all, but found myself nodding off in the prayers instead.