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March 18, 2008
Something special ...
There is something very special about a small all male voiced choir singing a plainsong setting in the Abbey. This is what the building was built to resonate to - and it does so magnificently. Last night Mausi and I attended Vespers. The men of the Chor Anglais, a local group of music scholars and singers who are normally the adult line in the Schola Cantorum at Tewkesbury Abbey, sang the office with a congregation of about eighty in the Quire. These were certainly the numbers of "the living" present, but there was a strong sense of a vaster gathering about us as this music soared around the vaulting.
Vespers is one of the monastic services the monks were required to say in the late evening before retiring to their cells until Midnight when Matins began the new day for their prayer round. It was a very fitting way to start our Holy Week and to finish St Patrick's day.
Dropping off to sleep last night I still had the soaring chants running through my ears. A peaceful night, and a blessed sleep at the end of a full day.
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 18, 2008 08:18 AM
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Comments
I love an all male choir. There is something about all those voices mixing that sound great.
Posted by: vw bug at March 18, 2008 10:19 AM