evensong

We share our parish choir room with the school, St. Richards. And for some reason, the air conditioning was shut off in that classroom last night. And we all rushed in at 6:00 pm to warm-up, hit a few phrases from each of the works that we sang, and then it was time to go upstairs.

So draped in robes (cassacks and cottas), and sweating a bit, we processed into a mostly empty -- but cool -- church, and then immediately jumped into the service. It may be one of the best ways to end one's daytime activities.

Usually choir members do the readings during our choral evensongs, and the text was copied out ready for distribution during rehearsal, but in the rush, it wasn't passed out or brought upstairs. At the point for the first reading, Dr. Messina ran into the sacristy, ran back into the choir area, and then proceeded to read a rather long passage from I Samuel in the Old Testament, sweating through every word.

Our first summer evensong before we went to England in '02 was a disaster. I think the mag and nunc were by Howells, but regardless, we had problems. In fact we came close to crashing, which means that we would have to stop and start over. That didn't happen last night, but we were a bit rusty.

One of the results of not having a practice right before the service is that we don't have an opportunity to hear the words again, to take a moment to remember what we are singing.

But we made it through, walked back out into the garden and then back into the church for another 2 1/2 rehearsal. The good news is that is music we have sung over the past year -- which means we go through it quite fast. And I think I am beginning to get a tinge more excited about going. So much has been going on in life that I have not focused on the trip.

And we are not singing next Wednesday, afterall. The AAM (not museums but Anglican musicians) is having their annual meeting in Baltimore. So we get a rest next week. And then we sing:

Preces and Responses (Smith of Durham)
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D, George Dyson
Thou, O God, Are Praised in Sion, Malcom Boyd