Ringing in one's ears
Yesterday morning was an unexpected pleasure when the previous Tuesday, I was asked if I could stand in at short notice at Findon, their organist booked for the day had a problem. A normal 4-hymn eucharist, with Bach during communion and Frank Bridge after. In the afternoon, I thought that, since it was a lovely day, I'd go to a choral evensong. Chichester had Purcell in C and his Thy Word is a Lantern. Guildford had Howells' Gloucester service and Finzi's Lo, the full final sacrifice . So Guildford it was, 35 miles through the Sussex Downlands and Surrey commuterland. As I was standing, gormlessly, at the back of the cathedral, two friends greeted me, they'd some up from Portsmouth for the same reason (nothing much on at their diocesan cathedral - Chilcott 3 choirs service and Mathias' Let the people praise thee, a service, slightly confusingly, described as choral evensong "with Commemoration of the WWI Centenary ringing by Winchester & Portsmou