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Midnight Eucharist

We've come a long way from September when Tom was made up. It's been tough and rewarding, and now we've reached Christmas. Some say the midnight Eucharist is the most wonderful of the year's services, others that it's a big ask for the younger siblings but it's certainly a full Cathedral for the first Eucharist of Christmas.

  

Memorable it has to be said for the Organist who managed to gently bring 'Jingle Bells'  into the post communion organ accompaniment. Not everyone noticed it at first, but as the simple notes unfolded, wry smiles crept over much of the congregation and some of the clergy too.

As the organist said - you've got to keep the Choristers happy. And he did.

Happy Christmas.

First solo

Can't believe it, Tom sang his first solo yesterday. Just eight notes he said, in the Indroit 'Verbum Salutis Omnium', a hymn from around the 10th century.

Yes, he was excited. So were we and hugely proud. After a whole year as probationer ad a term in the full choir  this is an acknowledgement that he's doing good. 

In fact he sang the same solo at the very next evensong.

He said he felt he was "going to have a heart attack" - but you could tell he loved every second of it.

End of term? Not yet.

Is it -  isn't it? 

School carol service in the Cathedral followed immediately by end of term for all the day pupils and probationers. 

The Choristers have a well-deserved long weekend exeat, but then it's back to school Monday lunchtime for Christmas week. 

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are treated like Saturdays; morning rehearsal, leave at around 10 then returning around 2pm for Carol Service, parties with the Cathedral Canons, visits to the cinema (Disney's A Christmas Carol!).

End of term is actually after 2 Carol Services, 1 midnight Eucharist, 1 Christmas Day Eucharist and a final Evensong for good measure.

Now that's end of term.

Britten's Ceremony of Carols

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.

 

Drinks with the Dean

A few days after Messiah, we were invited to drinks with the Dean. If you get this invitation as a Chorister Parent (or anyone else for that matter), do go. As far as I could see the turnout from the school itself was a little on the low side; but for us that's good. Better access to the clergy and others of interest.

We're really developing good relationships with many of the other Chorister parents, which is understandable given the frequency with which we see them and the circumstances so it's nice to be able to mix with the Cathedral clergy too.

I happened to get myself into a small (male) group including two fathers who also happen to be ex-choristers (mid to late 70's); then the Director of music (the choirmaster) joined us and then the Dean. I hadn't really spoken to the Dean before, other that the niceties one tends to exchange after a service. We talked about many things - a few amusing anecdotes (as you could imagine) and there was a fair amount of musical chat (which I was barely able to keep up with). What was interesting is that there's a real chance of new recordings by the choir, including our boys.

This hasn't happened for a few years but is something both the music department and Cathedral are right behind. 

 

It's always lovely to talk over a glass or two of red with such knowledgeable, esteemed and sociable company and it's also part of maintaining a strong bond between the Cathedral,  the Cathedral School and the parents. 

Next week there are a number of parties with the boys too and on Christmas day itself a lunch with the boy choristers, vicars choral, school staff and some of the Cathedral staff. that will itself be a special occasion.

Hallelujah!

As probationer parents we could only speculate on the considerable effort the boys sustain in the weeks leading up to Christmas; comprising the considerable role they play in the daily pattern of worship and the additional seasonal services and concerts.

There is of course the up side of all this hard graft; the sheer beauty and majesty of the music, the boys obvious pride and enjoyment and the honour and privilege we feel as both chorister parents and Christian music lovers.

Handel's Messiah is of course an extremely popular choral work (and justifiably so) - Tom's Nanny peformed it many times as a soloist and I have a hugely vivid memory of singing the Halleluiah Chorus as an 11 year old in a local parish church.

To have the opportunity to see and hear our boys perform this masterpiece in such a setting as the Cathedral is wonderful in itself - that many of the boys take the Soprano solos is an additional spine tingler. We're hugely lucky that the Cathedral supplies us with decent tickets for the event - and, top tip; do all that you can to take advantage! I've just experienced the full 53 pieces over nearly 2.5 hours for the first time and already I'm planning my next fix.

 

For the boys it's special - they know that - but they also take it in their stride; not in a cocky way, but they do look confident, and at the same time of course, they are still boys. Tom has a favourite - and it's not the Halleluiah Chorus.

The boys clearly adore the choir master who also conducted the performance. He shows leadership, charisma and is rather fond of the spotlight too. As a singer first and foremost (the tradition seems to be for choir masters to be organists), he clearly understands all that the whole choir needs to do and even appears more comfortable conducting voices than instruments (that is just my sense).

Boys took individual solos and some solo'd as a group, I understand this varies from year to year - and these solos traditionally fall to the the year 7 and 8s. Tom still has another four ahead of him (not including performing at Easter, which they may well do).

So they finished at about 8.55 and we saw them for about 5 minutes in the school; they were obviously still on a high... Tom clearly loved it and all the boys accepted the well deserved praises with dignity. Also nice to see a few of last years year 8s there - including the ex - head chorister.

Of course they didn't get a lie-in the next morning - it was a regular school day; although Tom being a 3rd desk doesn't sing at Evensong on Fridays. Saturday morning see a one hour rehearsal at 9am and as I write this he's mid-way through a near two-hour rehearsal prior to Saturday's Evensong.

You reap what you sow, as they say.

Advent services and just where to sit?

Sunday and Monday evenings were the Cathedral Advent services, beautiful services which saw a packed cathedral bathed in near darkness, then dramatically emerging into light.

The Choir moved from the West end, along the Nave, singing beautiful unaccompanied Antiphons in plainsong and Anthems interspersed with readings, at points along their journey. A wonderful opportunity for the congregation to experience the choir in close proximity.

A long-ish service and a little late for our 6 year old daughter who was very fidgety and resorted to trying to sleep under a row of seats. Not easy for siblings, especially younger ones.

 
 

So, where to sit? As chorister parents we do have the privilege of being able to sit in the quire stall but we did that last year along with Tom's Uncle, Auntie, Grandma and Grandad but we only got to see him right at the end of the service as the choir resumed their more usual positions.

This year, although offered the same opportunity, we declined at the suggestion of the Director of Music's assistant who let us know that she thought the best spot was at the head of the nave, where seats were reserved for the choir. thus giving us great views for much of the service, and sitting directly behind the vicars choral tenors and basses.

Dignitaries were present too, the King and Queen of Denmark visited and Tom says he shook their hands. 

Finally us leaving coincided with the Choristers exiting the great west doors to go back to school - Well done boys!