A week in Cambridge

Cambridge, the Mecca of church music. Each college of the University has its own chapel where Evensong is sung every day. But some colleges are more famous than others, and their chapels more beautiful and impressive. The best known of course being King’s College, followed by St. John’s.

 Iconic images of King's College Chapel

 St. John's Chapel and roof

 I had the great pleasure of staying in Cambridge for a full week. Having friends there I was immediately “volunteered” into singing Choral Evensong with an unknown choir in a village church in Stapleford, just outside Cambridge. A challenge, but I knew the music and was really looking forward to it. It was such a privilege to be able to sing with another choir and see how and what they are doing.  In the morning I had been to Choral Eucharist in King’s College, and the contrast couldn’t be more striking. But both services were memorable and meaningful. Of course it is impossible to compare a country church with King’s College, a University Chapel full of choristers who are being professionally trained aiming to achieve perfection.

 Stapleford village church

The week was full of music. It started with a concert on Saturday night in which a friend played the viola. Not a bad start of the week! On Monday night I joined another unknown choir which was having one of the final rehearsals for a concert the following week. This was all music I did not know at all, amongst it many compositions by Joseph Rheinberger, so all I practised that evening was sight reading! Not bad to get a free two-hour training.

 Another picture of King's. No pictures inside the chapel.

Writing and listening to Evensong in the colleges were the only things on my to-do list, apart from seeing friends. Friends who live in Cambridge and friends who came to town to have lunch with me. Staying in this lovely house in which I felt like a pea in a pod, and being within walking distance of everything I wanted to see and/or do was a huge bonus. In one week I managed to attend five choral services in King’s College Chapel, three of them Evensongs. It could not have been better. I knew half of the music, and it was a joy to hear what it ideally should sound like. Being an alto, when singing I concentrate on my own part and can’t really hear the whole. But music, however beautiful, must be enjoyed within the context of the liturgy, otherwise it is hollow and just a meaningless art form. Sitting in a wonderful chapel where generations of young people through the ages have worshipped, adds extra meaning to it all. The music seemed to soar up, pure and bright in this high ribbed ceilinged chapel. The late afternoon sun illuminating the multi coloured windows and bathing them in a golden light. The golden pipes of the organ rising up high above us on the transept dividing the inner and outer chapel, fitting in perfectly. My eyes were drawn to the stained glass windows, depicting the story of the Bible in many multicoloured pictures, too many to take in in just an hour. It is a magnificent chapel, and although I went through St. John’s chapel and meant to go to Evensong there as well, I never did, the lure of King’s being too powerful to resist.

It was a week I shan’t easily forget. What privilege to be a student in Cambridge!

 Phone boxes, bikes and advertisements pinned to railings

Of course Cambridge was flooded with tourists, many of them Asians as we now see everywhere. And overrun by bicycles, not only ridden with a total neglect of traffic rules, but fastened to railings wherever one could find them, as were announcements of concerts and cultural activities. Cambridge isn’t just church music as it was for me, it is a city which is very much alive and busy. No chance to drive a car in the centre: it is strictly busses, taxis, bikes or pedestrians, who go in a steady stream from one shopping arcade to another one, the connection leading through a nice park. Shopping has become a pastime here, or perhaps everywhere in the western world. But although the place where I stayed was just off this pedestrian thoroughfare and had a supermarket round the corner, the street itself was blissfully quiet.

Narrow boats, punts and a lock on the river Cam

I was surprised by the many parks and green areas. I understand that large plots of land belong to the various colleges. The river Cam meanders quite a bit and many narrow boats are moored along its banks outside the built-up area of the centre of the city. Some looked very dilapidated and in bad repair. I suspect they are lived in by students, but don’t know for sure. Some had pot plants on the roof, and many had bikes on board, most of them rather old and often rusty. 

 Active punting...

 And punts in autumn mood.

The river is overcrowded with punts, every tourist trying to have a go. I even saw a Japanese wedding couple boarding a decorated punt. Not having a bike I walked and walked and really broke my own record. But it was very enjoyable. I walked to and through the colleges, to museums and through narrow streets, around the Backs and along the river banks, admiring the boathouses from the colleges on the opposite banks, each college having its own. I browsed in bookshops and music shops, but fortunately was limited in what I could comfortably carry home. Most of all I enjoyed getting a glimpse of life in Cambridge, and being able to take part in so many wonderful services and enjoying the great musical tradition of the Anglican Church.

 Typical houses and pubs at narrow street corners

Gates and Doorways:

Magdalen College on the left,              and Clare College on the right

 Jesus College and gates

 St. John's College 

Below, The Bridge of Sighs