The Choir Weekend at Salisbury Cathedral

by Ann Scott Russell

Once more unto the breach

After a well deserved break the choir reconvened over August bank holiday for a weekend of ecclesiastical delight, sprinkled with a taste of modern art — both musical and visual.

Twenty four intrepid souls entered the Song School in Salisbury Cathedral, late Saturday morning, with that new term feeling. Several hours later, a select but nonetheless appreciative congregation enjoyed a polished evensong performance, ending with the beautiful Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus.

Now, thoroughly in the swing of things we decided to visit Salisbury’s second most famous landmark, Zizzi’s (Novichok was not on the menu), to refresh and prepare ourselves for a full-on Sunday.

The following morning saw us tackling Jonathan Dove’s modern (and tricky) Missa Brevis with great gusto. I think we pulled it off! The Agnus Dei sent shivers down my spine anyway, whilst the recording of the anthem, “O Sing Unto the Lord” by Cecilia McDowall, as well as the comments fom clergy and congregation, showed that we did justice to this piece too.

To hear recordings from the weekend, click here.

And now for something a bit different

Between services there was opportunity to explore the Cathedral exhibition “To be free: Art and Liberty” My appetite had been whetted by the morning’s sermon and I rushed to admire Ai Wei Wei’s Free Speech Puzzle and Cornelia Parker’s embroidery of Magna Carta Wikipedia pages. There was a wide range of exhibits raising awareness of the oppression of various peoples of the world – so poignant in this most privileged of places.

And finally…

Sunday evensong completed our stay with an old favourite: Howells’ “Like as the hart” (favourite at least for us sopranos – the altos are always disappointed they only get to sing about four notes!) We are so grateful to all those family and friends who supported us, those involved in the organisation, and of course the hard work of Andrew Hanley, our Music Director, and Sean Tucker, who played the organ for us for the weekend.

Back to “Music at St Michael’s”