After last month’s visit to the Churchyard, this column returns to the interior of the Church and in particular to the choir. The Benefice has two church choirs, Dymock and Redmarley. One has red robes the other blue. A choir is more than music however as it adds both colour and movement to a service and gives a congregation the confidence to sing lustily.
If you ask choir members why they sing they will invariably answer, “Because I like to”. However most members have no formal training in music and yet at times produce a magical effect which lifts the hearts of listeners.
Some choir members also sing with musical societies and are used to performing music varying from Grand Opera to Musicals. These members often bring more than their vocal gifts to the church choir and it is likely that humour elicited from opera finds its way into church music.
The anthem, Walk with an upright heart can be rendered as ‘Walk with an uprigh tart,’ and I have heard the last line of Valiant for Truth by Vaughan Williams, Lo he passed over, sung as, ‘Lo he passe Dover.’
Choirmaster don’t like such variations however as they have clear ideas of what they want, including tempi. Too slow or too quick means that a choir and orchestra get out of time, and when this happens a choirmaster is often rude to the chorus. It can also have disastrous consequences for a performance. Particularly in cases of well known pieces such as Handel’s Messiah.
A late friend of mine who sang with the BBC during the forties and fifties told me of such a disaster when, as a young man, he sang Messiah with organ accompaniment at All Saints Evesham. At the time, the organ was driven by a set of bellows, hand pumped by a local character named Charlie.
During the afternoon rehearsal Charlie came to the conductor whom we shall call Dr. Ifor Williams. He enquired if the good Doctor would be so kind as to take things a little bit faster. The conductor saw this intrusion as an affront to his own musical interpretation and told Charlie in blunt terms to go back to his bellows!
The evening performance commenced and parts one and two went splendidly. Part three commenced with ‘I know that my Redeemer Liveth’, but during the next item, ‘Since by Man came Death,’ the organ gradually lost air until it slowed to a stop.
In the silence a rustling could be heard in the dimly lit side aisle and the entire choir and audience peered into the gloom only to see Charlie putting on his coat and making his way to the exit. “What’s going on Charlie,” cried Dr, Ifor Williams. “Why have we stopped? “
Calling down the length of the nave Charlie replied, “I warned ee twice to speed up. ‘Messiah has one thousand seven hundred and sixty four pumps, and you’m ad em!”
View from the Pew 