On Saturday the boys performed one of the most beautiful choral works I have yet heard; Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols. This seems to be a bit of a tradition at the Cathedral and I remember Wolcum Yole from last year's school carol service (when Tom sang an echo solo in While by my sheep). What makes it particularly perfect for the boys is that it's just them, the boy trebles and a harp. No adult male voices, no organ, just our boys.
Of course we are lucky enough to get very good seats right at the front and I'm sure that makes a difference. Although the sounds carry when all voices sing together, the solo harp can be very subtle when you're at the west end of the nave.
There is a fascinating story behind the work; of him writing it on a Swedish cargo vessel returning from America to his home in Suffolk. The cramped conditions and the ever present threat of u-boat attack (it was 1942) seem an unlikely setting for composing such a joyful piece, maybe he was just happy to be coming home (Britten was an acknowledged pacifist).
We were so very proud of Tom; he was stood in the middle of the front row next to the Head Chorister. Looking every inch a chorister himself.
What I think the Cathedral does very well is to mix worship and music. This ceremony) offered as a 'devotional preparation for Christmas') started off with prayer but concluded with theatre; the boys recessing out, singing Hodie Christus, waited a few minutes in the Dean's Aisle, then returned to a well-earnt rapturous applause from the congregation.
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