Another Good Man Gone!

We’ve just lost a good friend to a brain tumour. He was only about 52, and we got to know him when he came to join my choir. He showed an immense talent for music composition, keyboard skills and a wonderful sense of humour through even the dark days. He also came over as very thoughtful, caring and non-complaining.

He had looked forward to going to Ballachulish, Argyll in March to join in Evensong. His health had badly deteriorated, and we were very unsure about whether it was wise for him to go. If anything had happened while up there, the distance to a suitable hospital would have proved catastrophic, and we might have carried this in our mind for many a long year.

My final opinion was sought, and I had to say YES, as I could never have forgiven myself if I has said NO. In the event, two members very kindly looked after him over the weekend and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It was his last major event outside his hospital and hospice.

So, ‘CARPE DIEM’…..never let an opportunity of any kind go by….you may never get the chance again!

STOP PRESS!

I’ve recently appeared twice in the press. I’m afraid it was not in the big nationals, or even Hello magazine. And I am glad it isn’t in the Obituary section! No, the reports and quotations were to do with my great little choir Angelus Singers.

It followed our appearance at one of the churches in Ballachulish near Glencoe (see a previous blog).  The local press there (The Oban Times ) published a very large colourful photo with a two line report….I think they were trying to fill a lot of space! Our local paper here (the Kirkintilloch Herald) has just published a small black-and-white photo with a quite extensive report, …..I think they also were trying to fill up non-used advertising space! Several copies have been purchased for some reason, by the Lady of the House!

Have you e ver cringed at, or been proud of, any references to you in the Press…..come on spill the beans!

Singing in Argyll….NOW WITH PHOTO

 On Sunday our Choir ‘Angelus Singers’  went to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ballachulish, at Argyll near famous Glencoe, for the service of Sung Evensong. You can’t miss the Church, in its glorious setting halfway between Glencoe and the Ballachulish Bridge. It has an ancient history with the graveyard of especial historical interest, and they have the Communion Cup and Plate reputedly used by the Jacobites just before Culloden. The building is in some need of restoration, but the beauty is still evident. 

The fact that we were asked made us feel very proud, as the area of course is full of musical choirs, who participate in the Mod Festival, and Gaelic is still extensively spoken.We were supplemented by some local choir members, and a total of  18 singers filled the choir stalls. This allowed us to have a rousing service of well-known hymns, traditional sung responses, collects, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and Psalm 119 (only a small part!). In addition we had an Introit and Anthem. The performance of the latter, ‘I saw a new heaven’…. was a first performance. Words of the Revelation of St John were the inspiration of this piece, and it is dedicated to the present congregation, and those who have gone before.

The weather was foul, during the two hour  journey both ways, but we all arrived safely. We couldn’t  process from the ‘old church’ (really an old storehouse), to the ‘new church’  (1830’s)  because of the rain and snow.  The  organ then threw a tantrum by ‘ciphering’, when certain stops and notes got stuck and kept on playing! The organist kept her cool and and played well under the circumstances!

An excellent congregation had braved the weather, many from a long distance, and obviously enjoyed the old well-kent words, spoken and sung.
So it was a great event, and shows that many people working together, despite the many problems can produce something bigger than any of us.

How fortunate can anyone get to be in the midst of some of the most wonderful countryside in the world, and sing our hearts out!

 

Re-cycled music!

 

On one of my other blogs ( click on the ANGELUS SINGERS Blogroll link) I happened to be describing the life story of John Stainer, a marvellous and famous English organist and composer. He is probably best known for his oratorio ‘Crucifixion’. I had mentioned that many decades ago, I had conducted this piece with a choir who mostly used Tonic Solfa (a way of reading music). This method is rarely, if ever, used now-a-days.

Someone e-mailed me to say that they had googled to try and find out if there were any of these copies still in existence. A member of the Royal School of Church Music was going to South Africa, and wanted to teach the piece to people who had no access to normal staff music. Luckily I was able to contact my old church, speak to one of my old choir members and establish that indeed those same copies were still in the music cupboard.

They are now on their way to South Africa to be re-used some 4 decades later……the internet is wonderful!

Listen Here!

I was on Radio 4 this morning….maybe you didn’t notice!

I must be honest, it was more a case of my croaky voice, and cough!

Our Cathedral is convenient for the BBC Studios in Glasgow, and the Morning Service was live from there from 8.10 am. That meant we had to be seated by 7.45!  The Choir of 40 was its usual wonderful self with some unusual pieces (including one from a Salvation Army book), and the readings and Sermon were all about the dawning of the new day.

The uniquitous cold/cough which I brought into the Cathedral had to be stifled several times, and even my singing of the hymns had to be done with caution. I had two microphones quite close to where I was sitting, and I am sure that at least  one cough may now be in the BBC archives. If you are a desperately-sad case, and want to see if you can spot it, then click on the link below…at least for about a week, and then the BBC will probably decide to edit it out after numerous complaints!

For a wonderful piece of music listen to the anthem …..which comes just after the Sermon….’The Quiet Heart….’  (words by James Morgan, and music by June Collin)….superb!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/sundayworship/

A grey Scotland

I drove some 250 miles yesterday, with a friend, to visit a few chuches in Argyll, one of the loveliest areas of Scotland.

It would have been, but when we started at 8.30, it was dull with lowering clouds. Even when crossing the Erskine Bridge about 9, we could just see the Clyde Estuary below (usually a wonderful, long-distant vista). Loch Lomond was wind-swept with few boats venturing out. Much of this road is new and wide, but when approaching Arrochar, we are suddenly into a tree-lined narrow twisting road which requires a lot of concentration in the driving. Puddles and fallen leaves were predominant here.

Tyndrum, with the famous ‘Green Welly’ shop, led us north to mysterious Rannoch Moor, which would be a perfect setting for a prehistoric film with dinosaurs etc, rising from deep brackish water. Eventually, as the rain and wind worsened, we descended through the very narrow gorge to the infamous Glen of Weeping, Glencoe . To Scots (and in fact, the whole civilised world), it remains as a reminder of what one person, or government, can do to others….formally-accepted murder.

The village of Glencoe sits in a marvellous setting, but seems uncomfortably close to the water level. Global warming and the rise in sea levels that it poses must be an obvious long term consideration for the inhabitants.

But we were here to see two buildings in the neighbouring village of Ballachulish (famous for its slate quarry). A store house which was used as a very early Episcopal church, and the magnificent, (and very proud) St John’s Church which was built in 1842, and extended in 1888.

It holds the Communion vessels which were reputedly used by the Jacobite troops, on the night before the fateful Battle of Culloden. The building is badly in need of repair and has a Restoration Fund.

Our Choir, Angelus Singers http://angelussingers.wordpress.com (click the link) are helping to raise their profile by singing Choral Evensong there in March, so this visit was essential. It was of course freezing in the church as the rain continued to hammer down , but Highland hospitality in the local Tourist Information Office helped to warm us up.

We then headed through Rob Roy country via Appin, to the Church of Scotland building dedicated to St Oran at Connell. It was a subject of a previous posting ‘A little Gem’, and was no-less-lovely this time (The Header picture is of the sanctuary). Although it is Church of Scotland, we have been tentatively asked to consider coming as a choir to sing  the Anglican Service of Evensong for them!

The day’s work complete, we headed back through wonderful countryside, just visible in the gathering gloom. Maybe it had been a grey day, weatherwise, but none-the-less I wouldn’t have swopped it (except, maybe for a sun-drenched beach and a glass of beer!!).

Singing in Hospital!

Last night, I joined with many others of our Church, and other Churches (in total about 40 folk), to visit a hospital at the west end of Glasgow. The event was organised by the Chaplaincy Centre, and involved dividing into groups and going round various parts of the hospital to sing carols.

You need music of course, and two other groups had a guitar, or, in one lovely case, a set of hand-bells, whilst your’s-truly brought along a keyboard for our group.

The only problem was that the keyboard did not have a stand, and was mains-powered, so at each of the locations (generally in a passageway), we had to find some flat surface to place the keyboard, a chair, and a mains-socket.

As most people realise, all of the above are in short supply in such a situation, as you can’t ACTUALLY push someone out of bed to set the keyboard down, so sometimes it was on a trolley, and sometimes on my knees! Also,  the risk of pulling-out some vital piece of life-saving equipment is always there so we had to do a lot of double-checking before getting power!

What came over to me was that there are a considerable number of people in hospital, all with their individual worries. It is something we only think about when we have to go into a hospital, or see a programme on TV.

In our general life we mostly see normal, reasonably-healthy people, and so it is easy to forget the pain, suffering, and anguish people and families are having to endure on a daily basis, and in an especially-poignant way, at this time of the year.

Does singing and music in general help in the healing process? Well, there is some evidence to show that people who sing regularly, and enjoy music, tend to have a happier disposition and a slightly-better average life. So maybe we did make a minute difference.

But it will be a long time before I will forget the look on some of those poor people. We obviously could say no more than platitudes…you sometimes just don’t know what to say.

Many of the serious cases may not make it past Christmas, but I suppose if we have raised a small smile of joy, or a glimpse of recognition of Christmasses gone past, then it will have achieved something.

‘What about Carol?

 

 At this time of the year, our Choir (Angelus Singers……check the Link) are involved in Carol services. Thought you might like to know some facts you might not have known about Christmas Carols…you can always throw a few into a lull in a conversation or at dinner-party…:- 

• Originally a Carol was not a religious song, but a secular dance, often in 3/4 time…..a bit like a waltz
• The carol ‘In Dulci Jubilo’, when the words are sung as a mixture of English (from the German), and Latin, is an example of a ‘macaronic carol’. The melody can be found in a 14^th century manuscript in Leipzig University.
• The wonderful combination of Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn gave us ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
• The tune of the French carol ‘Whence is that Goodly Fragrance’ later appeared as the rousing drinking song ‘Fill ev’ry glass, for wine inspires us’ in John Gay’s ‘The Beggars Opera’ in the 18^th Century. I remember well singing it with the Kirkie Players some years ago!
• ‘Good King Wenceslas’ originally appeared in 1582, as a Spring carol. It was only about 150 years ago that the 10^th Century story of Saint Wenceslas of Bohemia was told. After his father died, he encouraged Christianity in Bohemia, against the wishes of his mother, and was murdered by his brother Buleslav.
• The Romans used Holly to decorate their houses at the feast of Saturnalia, which occurred in the winter season. Ivy was dedicated by them, to Bacchus from the idea that it warded-off drunken-ness!
• The Coventry Carol (‘Lul-ly, lul-lay’) is one of the oldest English Carols. The original tune comes from 1591 and was sung in the Coventry Plays of that era.
• There are several Wassailling Songs. The word Wassail means ‘Keep You Well’.
• Czechoslovakia has provided a number of lovely quiet carols including the ‘Rocking Carol’, ‘The Birds’, and ‘The Zither Carol’. ‘Infant Holy’ is from Poland.
• ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’ was written in 1857 by Dr J.H.Hopkins of Pennsylvania, one of very few well-known carols from the USA.

 

So give a thought, when next singing over Christmas, that the words and music may have had a very strange history.

A full Church and Choir Stalls!

Sunday evening saw our Choir joining with other singers to sing the Office of Evensong, in St Aidan’s Church on the southern outskirts of Glasgow as they celebrated 85 years in existence.

We had been helping in the arranging of the musical content of the Service along with the Rector and the Organist, but were not sure how many others would join us in the Choir stalls from the other invited churches, so did not know how many copies of the music would be required.

The equivalent problems were being faced by those organising the printing of Service sheets and also the catering for our bodily needs afterwards as regards food.

In the event we were all caught un-awares by the numbers turning up for the practice, the service itself, and the numbers of sticky buns required.

Choir stalls, church and hall were all filled to overflowing!……you never see that mentioned in the newspapers!

My other life!!

Some of you may already know of my great love of choral music, and our loyal band of Choristers who have worked together for some years now. So much is happening in that field that it needs its own outlet for information.

If interested in this you can use the link on the Blogroll at http://angelussingers.wordpress.com

I have many references under ‘irishpisky’ about the choir, and will still blog on it if something proves of general interest