We feebly struggle, they in glory shine

We met at 4:45 for an hour of rehearsal before Choral Evensong. On this day, it was the Youth Choir as well as our adult choir and the St. Simeon singers who assist with evensong. We had an ambitious music list, including the Bainton anthem “And I saw a new heaven” and the Gibbons Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from his Short Service. This rehearsal was the only opportunity to combine the adults and youth choir, it was not nearly enough time, and it was a challenging workout, serious and intense.

During the break afterwards, our youngest chorister (known to those who attended this year’s RSCM Course) spoke with me; she said that it was hard; she did not know whether she could do it all again – that is, sing all the music again for the church service. “That is all right,” I told her; “Choral Evensong requires all that you have.”

I have tried to explain this many times on these pages – why is Choral Evensong so important? Why does it matter so much more to me than the Holy Eucharist?

Why was this service, this night, so important?

Part of the answer is what the chorister had already learned, in her first evensong as a part of this choir; one cannot properly sing Evensong without an absolute commitment that requires all that you have. And that is all right; it is indeed our bounden duty. “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”

As we heard this summer from Mr. Walker: “One hundred percent, all of the time.”

One chorister who demonstrated this was Lucy. She arrived for the rehearsal and told me that she hardly had any voice, which was obvious as soon as she spoke. But she had nonetheless come. She sang a little, but mostly she led by example. She lined up the younger choristers for the procession, she was as attentive and fully committed to the rehearsal and service – even when she was unable to sing – as she had been at the RSCM course this summer. By so doing, she showed the younger choristers how it is done. And that is a very great gift, one that I cannot give them.

We were far from perfect. There were plenty of wrong notes, and there were places that with more combined rehearsal would have been more confident. But I believe that every chorister, from youngest to oldest, brought their full commitment to the music and the liturgy. I could hear it in their sound, and so could everyone in the congregation.

Afterwards at the choir’s pizza supper, I spoke again with our youngest chorister. She had learned another lesson; the service seemed shorter than the rehearsal. “They always do,” I said. When it comes time to sing, or play, it goes by so quickly. She liked the Evensong very much; she also spoke of RSCM, and said that she wants very much to go back next summer.

So do I.

But we have something special right here in our parish. There are moments, nowadays, when singing or accompanying this choir, especially the combined choir as we had tonight, is every bit as good as being in the Chapel at Todd Hall, or the Basilica.

Thanks be to God.
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We finished the service with the hymn “For all the saints.” I wanted the youth choir to know this hymn, for it is no longer sung in some places, and rarely with all eight stanzas even here in our parish. I assigned the youth trebles to solo out my favorite stanza, which is a good summary for tonight:

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia.

There was some good music today; I have been listening to the recordings while bringing order to the choir room and working on next Sunday’s bulletins. I might post some more YouTube tracks, but for tonight, what I want to share is my piano improvisation from the 9:00 service. Like much else today, it was not adequately prepared, but it turned out all right. It has been a challenging week at the church, and next week will be no easier, not with a funeral on Tuesday. There have been two or three times when I have not seen a way forward, and always, always – too much work, too little time. “We feebly struggle, they in glory shine…”