Wednesday, July 27
The festival begins today. The singers had breakfast in the flats and made their half hour trek to the Cathedral this morning. We all have plastic wrist bands that are our entrance into the Cathedral. We are special and get to go through a separate entrance. The door to go in is an arched door that is about five feet high. Needless to say most had to duck to enter especially the adults!!
As we enter the grounds we are to be in the spirit of respect. Again, no walking on the grass. The singers were kept outside and brought into the rehearsal rooms by singing section. The room is called the Chapter House which is like a large empty hall. The rehearsal setting is lengthwise and the perimeter of the room is two stone steps surrounding the room. That is where we chaperones get to sit and it is a little rough on the behind!! The singers get the seats!!
The festival began with one of the priests giving some history of the church and wishing the singers luck. Mr. David Flood who is the music director of the church introduced himself and Henry Leck did the same. Each director introduced themselves and had their respective singers stand and be recognized. As the singers look around they see that all choirs are in t-shirts alike. We know our singers don’t like it but hopefully they understand now seeing others choirs do the same.
David Flood explained to the singers that this Cathedral was based on cathedrals in Normandy France and were built to be sung in. He wants them to fill this building with what it was made for…singing. He also explained that most of the singers are used to singing vowels a certain way and that won’t work in a cathedral such as this one. He went through exercises that showed the singers how they would sing their vowels. Mr. Flood also talked to the singers about singing in the Evensong tomorrow. This church has had an Evensong service every day for 1400 years. With their singing as part of that service they will become part of history and they should embrace that. We hope our singers understand the magnitude of that statement.
Mr. Leck was conducting Adoramus Te and seemed pleased with the sound this 250 voice choir was making. He talked a lot with them about understanding the text and singing with emotion. Mr. Flood directed two others that will be sung in Evensong. He talked a lot about dynamics and at one point asked the singers if their parents follow road signs when they drive. They said yes. He then says, “You have road signs in your music as a singer why aren’t you using them? Look at your music.” Wonder where they have heard that before! When it was time for a restroom break, the singers were told that there are not bathrooms in the cathedral that they would be directed to another building. Why aren’t there restrooms? We were told the monks did it differently!
Our choir was released early to warm-up for our performance at noon. They took us to the choir room which was in another part of the Cathedral and up a spiral stone staircase (more stairs!). Once we got there it is a choir room where there are no chairs, just the long wooden stands that hold music. While the singers the chaperones looked at the music library that was in music boxes surrounding the room. The room wasn’t very big to begin with but there are hundreds of boxes of music, many of which we have sung as a choir. When it was time we descended the stairs and went to the high altar section of the church to sing. Before we sang a priest had a blessing and prayer and all were invited to say the Lord’s Prayer or pray their special prayer whatever their religion to their one on high. This is actually done every hour on the hour. Our singers sang three songs, join the White Rock Children’s Choir for Can you Hear and then White Rock sang. The church was packed. We got a good response. The singers weren’t quite sure of their performance. In this space they were told that they would not be able to hear each other, not even the person beside them because of the acoustics of the church. You can hear it fine in the church but not as you are singing. Also everything must be acapella and trying to sing a song acapella that you are used to singing with a piano is a challenge. Our singers pulled it off! Great job! The next two days the others choirs will sing during this time.
After the concert ended the chaperone groups went to lunch at various places. Mr. Crest’s group convinced her to take them to McDonald’s! All these great food choices and they pick that!! Mr. C, Mrs. Treadway, Mrs. Ator and Jennifer went to Wagamama. It is Asian food and it was very good!
After lunch we had a guided tour of the Cathedral. Very informative. So much history in architecture. So many graves and tombs of important men. One shrine honoring Thomas Beckett is more recent and a wall hanging sculpture was commissioned. It is of metal with the tip of large spear straight up and down signifying the tip of the sword that was left in Thomas Beckett. Then a cross piece of metal representing the top section of his head that was sliced off and four swords around it representing the four knights that all had a part in murdering him. With the reflection from a window that shows behind the sculpture on the wall looks like the scene of the three crossed with Christ hanging on the middle one. Very moving actually.
There is also a tunnel that the monks built after Thomas Beckett’s death so they could move about the Cathedral and not be disturbed by the many pilgrims who came from afar. The stained glass windows are just unbelievable. Some depict stories of the Old and New Testament, celebrating moments in the lives of Saints and some telling the stories of the miracles believed to have happen following Thomas Beckett’s death. There is a lot of renovation going on, some being restoring some of the stained glass.
Following the tour we had a bit of free time so of course shopping had to happen! Some of the singers found a chocolate shop. Kyle found a tiramisu block of chocolate which was huge and when we returned to the flats he served each of his roommates a piece on a glass plate!
After shopping we went to the dining hall of the Christ Church University. Quite a modern place amongst the old buildings. The meal choices were many and the singers seemed to enjoy! There was beautiful garden we met in after dinner and there was a pond with interesting fish in it. Grace N. Especially liked watching the fish.
Guess what? Back to rehearsal. This time they were taken to the quire section of the church to rehearse what they would be doing for the Evensong tomorrow night. The quire is normally where a choir would sit and they face each other. Tough for the conductors to do this with 250 singers. The sound was magnificent. While they rehearsed, Mrs. Ator got to go above in the organ loft and check out the organ. Such a treat for her.
Rehearsal ended about 9:00pm and the singers were told that lights out for everyone would be 10:00pm. Some weren’t too happy but I know five chaperones that are!
