RSCM Report: Final Thoughts

Evensong, and a technical note on Psalmody

From last year:

I told [Debra] how I came undone when I heard Kyle's voice, looked across and saw her singing [the solo on the final pages of “Like as the hart.”] "You think it gets you," she said, agreeing with me. "Think what I felt like: that was my kid singing it."

This year, it was my kids at the Saturday Evensong: Mark and Mike, along with Saul, singing the opening stanza of “Promised Land” and again as part of the quartet from the Walmisley Magnificat. I came entirely undone, thinking of all the years we have had together in choir, a time that has now ended.


Last year, we had no setting of the Preces and Responses, and the Psalm was done in plainsong by a semichorus of teens and adults. The choir directors had some offseason e-mail discussion about this. Some thought that it is impractical to achieve a high level of performance in psalmody with a large group, especially with trebles who may or may not watch the director. I expressed the importance of the psalmody, precisely in order to teach them to watch and listen. The discipline of psalmody is essential to the development of good choral singing, to say nothing of its spiritual benefits. The attention demanded by a choral setting of the Responses is equally important, and brings an intensity to Choral Evensong that carries over into the other music. Whether my words had any influence I do not know, but we did this year have a fine set of Responses by Stephen Carletti, written for Mr. Ashby's former choir in Capetown and based on South African models. And we sang a Psalm to Anglican Chant, all of us.

I was granted an insight during our rehearsal at the Presbyterian Church and in the subsequent liturgy: Ensemble in Psalmody, especially in a large choir, depends on watching the director, but depends much more on watching and listening to each other. We had some difficulty in synchronizing a verse sung by tenor and bass in unison, with the two sections spread widely across the chancel. I found that if I watched Mike at the far end of the row, I could synchronize my syllables with his better than I could by simply watching Mr. Ashby; when the full choir was singing, I could watch both Mike and Bryn, likewise at the far end of the choir from me.

In the other music as well as the Psalm, I found that I could anchor my pitch by tuning to Kyle (two seats to my right, singing treble) and Meara (behind us, singing alto) – fifths, thirds, octaves, unification of vowels. Their absolutely reliable singing did much to make us the fine choir that we were this year; it certainly made me a better singer.


The Chaplain and the Director

The weekday Evensongs at Todd Hall are as important to me as the final Evensong out in the community. Evensong gives a focus to the day's rehearsals; it gives the new choristers experience in the service before the weekend; most of all, it is an opportunity to sing and worship together. When I sing Evensong back home, usually by myself, I always feel its connection to the RSCM Evensongs and the First Sunday Evensongs in our parish.

This year, Michael K. was our Chaplain, a role filled in the past by Br. Vincent. By living in the Big House, I was able to watch Michael and Mr. Ashby plan the services and work together. Michael's sermons were excellent, including one on a part of the Passion account that was appointed in this week's Lectionary. One might think that these bloody and painful passages should be skipped over for children; that would be entirely wrong. We adults would like to think that the life of children is all sunshine and roses. No, they experience all the pain, fear, grief, and darkness that are known all too well by adults. The only way to understand these things as a child or an adult involves people mocking Jesus, spitting on him, crowning him with thorns, and finally nailing him to a cross, as we heard in the lesson and as Michael unpacked in his sermon.

Now, Michael is capable of being as goofy as Br. Vincent; he displayed this in our final time together as a choir in a dance with Eddie that might be on YouTube by now. But he also proved himself of being as serious in his devotion to Our Lord as Br. Vincent. And that is saying much. He is a postulant, and will be a terrific priest someday.

Our musical director, Garmon Ashby, was at his second St. Louis Course. I loved his manner of work with the choir: well-planned, fast-paced, focused on the places that needed work, with plenty of questions for the choristers, and a better understanding of vocal production and care for the voice than we have sometimes seen. Our rehearsals were calm, in spite of the fast pace, and I do not think that any of us were anxious about any of the music at any point. He certainly did not seem to be, and that carried over to the choir. By the weekend, we were fully prepared and sang the services with confidence.

I did not want to intrude on him in our shared quarters, for he used much of his free time in planning the next rehearsals. But I nonetheless consider it a privilege to have gotten to know him a bit better. I hope he will be back at Todd Hall at a future Course.


That they may be one...

… that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee... (St. John 17:21)

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD... that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD... (II Chronicles 5:13)

It is always hard to leave the Course. In our week of singing together, we became as one. At our midweek Eucharist at Todd Hall, the priest expressed his wish that we could all stay and be part of his parish. Many of us would love to do that, to sing together all the time. But we cannot: all of us have responsibilities elsewhere, and people who are dear to us.

This desire, this longing to keep singing together, is part of something larger; it is a desire that is shared by Our Lord, and which shall find its fulfillment in him. The day will come when we are parted no more, but are one, even as he is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost:

On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
and cast a wishful eye
to Canaan's fair and happy land
where my possessions lie.

Oh, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land,