The final day of this fantastic tour was bitter sweet. We all knew that at the end of the day we would have to say our long goodbyes and go our separate ways... well, until next Monday - musicians know how to be dramatic!
Though it was the last day of a long week of singing, Jim did not let us off easy, not even the organists. We arose bright and early, the Luceat chauffeurs transported the choir and luggage to the cathedral, and we were all ready to start rehearsal at 9am.
Once in the stalls, we ran through the repertoire for the morning‘s Eucharist - Vierne’s Messe Solenelle and Widor’s Tantum Ergo - with Dan Mathieson in the organ loft and Rory Moules joining in the back row. After a big sing and some dancing from the second sopranos in the Sanctus, we had built up an appetite for the carvery.
The choir feasted on much meat (and nut roast) but, as ever, this was not enough to sate us. We needed our daily ice cream and thus headed for our favourite Truro gelato shop, Angelato. With so many amazing flavours to choose from, I set a personal best in time taken to decide what to have - 15 minutes!
With time to spare, we basked in the sun (the first convincing sun we’d seen all week!) and then headed back to the vestry for rehearsals. Rory had mastered the organ part of Britten‘s Rejoice in the Lamb, the soloist were considering cats, discussing mice, creating poetry with flowers and running through the alphabet and Jim had just mentioned how he had hurt his arm, which he had never done before..
Sunday was evidently a day for rarities - not only were the choir up before 8am, and the sun was out, but we also received a compliment from Jim! Over the week, many memes had been created based on Jim’s obsession with consonants and today, this obsession paid off: “That was some EXCELLENT psalm singing” - Jim Fellows, 2019.
All too soon, it was time for our last evensong. Once the final Rose response had been sung, it was time to say goodbye. It was sad to say “see you soon”, “see you next year” or “see you next week” (for those of us recording the CD), but my dog Frodo was ready to put a smile on everyone’s faces as he bounded towards us, tail wagging and ready for cuddles and cooing.
A week of fantastic repertoire, lots of food and many, MANY dogs had come to an end. Keep an eye on the blog - it‘s less than a week until we record our CD and we will be sure to keep you updated!
- Becky (Sop 2, Social Secretary)
Comments