St. Albans: Day 6

Saturday
It is 52 steps from the ground floor to the choir school in the new Chapter House That means that we work out every day, for we go up and down at least five times a day, which means 520 steps, not counting the steps up and down to the toilets and to the crypt, or the stairs we walk down – and up again – following the verger at the beginning and end of the service(s). Then there is the hill on which the former abbey was built, with a nice pub down at the bottom.

One of the gates to the former Abbey, to the close.

Today was a long but fantastic day with good and joyful singing. Practice started early, as we also had to practice the music for the two services on Sunday. The lunch break was limited to just one hour. Fortunately I had taken sandwiches again, so that I could sit on a park bench and enjoy some sunshine. It has been sunny today, but not as warm as yesterday. I had become rather chilly in my dress in the choir school because of the draught from the windows. Like a lizard or other reptile, I had to bask in the sun before I could function well again. Anyway, the singing is so much better and so much more enjoyable and musical for me and perhaps for all of us, when I know the music well. Only then can I concentrate on the words and can the music be prayerful and part of meaningful worship. We all seemed to feel more confident. At least I did. It was a happy service with the Stanford in A (Canticles) and the anthem by Schütz, a paraphrase of Psalm 100. The Schütz is for double choir, and so is the Gloria of both the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. It is rather mathematical music, and almost impossible to go wrong it if one keeps counting.

Preces & Responses:Gabriel Jackson

Psalms: 65

Canticles: Stanford in A

Anthem: Jauchzet dem Herren (Psalm 100 – SWV 36) – Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)

Hymn: NEH 378

Jauchzet dem Herren

Today, a Saturday, Evensong is at 16.00 hrs, much earlier than on a weekday. It doesn't mean that we will enjoy a longer evening. We have to vacate the Song School, move all our stuff, music, robes, belongings, to the library which is on a lower level of the building. Moreover the conductor has scheduled an extra practice for the Sunday services. However, at 5.45 the verger knocked on our door, quite upset, as the cathedral closes early on a Saturday, and he had noticed a light in the library just before he was going to set the alarm and lock up! He didn't know we were still there, so we are quickly shepherded out of the cathedral by the two grumpy vergers. They want their supper. 

Detail of the West door

To console ourselves we walk down the hill to the pub The Fighting Cocks, and have our usual drinks, inside this time. When it comes to food the only thing available in this pub on a Saturday night is BBQ food which doesn't look very appetising so we walk back up again and try several restaurants. However, we did not book in advance and it proves impossible to find a restaurant for our group of 17. In the end we split up into two groups of 12 and 5, and find restaurants next to each other. I end up with the largest group in a French Restaurant, the Cafe Rouge. A chaplain who helped out as a locum in Haarlem for some months, Nigel, has spent two days in St. Albans to hear us and joins us with his wife for the meal. He is the heart of the party and enjoying it enormously.We share the hors d'oeuvres, the water and many bottles of wine. I have to be moderate, as I still have to drive back, and I have to leave earlier than the others, as I haven't got a key to the B&B and my hosts have very early nights, so I phone them. I do not arrive back till 11 and my landlady, who has been waiting for me, is already dressed for bed.