Most people know that I love to sing, but since October I have been doing something I haven’t done for over 40 years, that is to sing in a church choir. I offered my services some time ago to the choir in the church I attend regularly, but that offer has only recently been taken up. Happily the church has just re-appointed the choirmaster who was dismissed 5 years ago amidst a funding crisis. The man is an excellent all-round musician and choir trainer, and we’re very lucky to have him. So in the last month I’ve sung at Advent Carols, Christmas Carols and Midnight Mass.
This has been an unexpected joy in a number of ways. At school I sang in the choir and choral society, then in the choir of my Oxford college chapel in the scruffy and rebellious 70s, where choirs in small colleges were not the sleek, semi-professional public-school-extension outfits they are now, but open to all enthusiasts.
Then, when I took my first teaching job in the early 80s, I went down to my local parish church and offered my services as a tenor in the choir under the direction of an expert but highly-strung choirmaster who went on to achieve stardom as an organist on the international concert stage. This weekly singing through the church’s year was a great experience and introduced me to that discipline, not to mention my wife!
Once I was ordained in 1987 I had to give up singing in the choir for obvious reasons, but I kept in close proximity to choirs. Even before this, I was introduced to the vital, if sometimes fraught relationship between Vicar and choir, often at its worst when the Vicar is musical. Sarah, my wife-to-be, remembers a choir practice at her local church in the mid 1980s, which the Vicar interrupted, asking for the music for the coming Sunday’s anthem, ‘so I can know what it should sound like.’ Ouch!
I also am musical but over the years I have really tried not to let my appreciation of good singing spoil my relationship with the varied choirs in the churches where I have served. I have witnessed many organists and choir leaders, some of whom were good piano players and (un)willing organists who lead hymns and simple unison anthems for the few in their choirs. In one of my churches, the organist had no time nor inclination for the extra stress of a Christmas carol service, so, for a few years, I led the choir practices, even singing solo in a couple of pieces. Although it was much appreciated, I found it hugely stressful on top of the other demands of the Christmas season and not sure if it was worth it. It did however give me an insight into the difficulties of the job.
The pressure to produce a carol service with ‘all the trimmings’ can, in my view, sometimes be unhealthy (not unlike the pressure on a working mother of 4, unused to cooking roast meals, to magic up a Christmas day lunch), and a symptom of other people’s projections rather than the right thing. I have witnessed some church people hold on tenaciously to the task of preparing carol services as a personal possession, often creating stress and bad feeling at the time of ‘peace and goodwill to all’. Sadly I once had to step in to take the responsibility off one church couple, which was hard, but in the long run one of the best things I did at that church. Happily, when next December came round, they took their place in the choir under the new choir leader.
A carol service is not a thing that must be performed at all costs in a prescribed way, but a means of leading people to a deeper understanding of Christmas and the mystery of the incarnation.
This year it was, for me, in the words of the King’s Cambridge bidding prayer, ‘a care and delight’ to be a part of the Carol Service without leading it or stressing over it, and to take my place alongside some excellent musicians, including a brass ensemble. Our Vicar, curate and lay readers guided the congregation through the service with readings and prayers and gave a thoughtful message, leaving me and most people ( I suspect) refreshed,
IT was a special challenge for me to sing bass (the only one!), since there were already 3 tenors. Although I have always sung tenor, my voice has dropped of late to that of a baritone, aided, no doubt, by regularly singing to a guitar accompaniment where I can adjust the key to my range with a capo. I have enjoyed this challenge which involves a mental shift in reading music and gauging intervals, as well as a vocal adjustment.
I look forward to taking this kind of singing into 2026 (alongside the other – next Dylan show Portsmouth Cathedral Feb 27th), when I am not needed for priestly cover, and enjoy more ‘sweet singing in the choir.’
Happy New Year to all!
Hugh's Views 