Choir Notes

Before the first practice of term, the choir had a firm suspicion that a busy term was ahead; there was much new music in the folders, and everybody was aware that this was the term with the Ripon Festival, the St. Peter's Day Service in York Minster and Commemoration added to the routine services in the School Chapel.

For the first Sunday service of the term, Easter memories were revived with the traditional Carol, "This Joyful Eastertide", and very soon we were in Ascensiontide, with the Weekday Sung Communion, at which the Merbecke and Darke in F settings were combined.

On Whit Sunday the School joined the choir to sing Stanford in B6. This marked the beginning of an era in which the School appeared to take a far more vociferous part in the services; at the same service, the choir sang the Whitsun Anthem—Come Holy Ghost, arranged by T. Attwood, in Which A. B. Reed sang the solo for the first verse.

On Trinity Sunday, the School again joined the choir for Haydn's great hymn of praise, "Creations Hymn", and later in the same week, the choir sang at the Ripon Festival, together with six other choirs from the York-Leeds area. After a long practice, the rendering of Stanford in C and Expectans Expectair, by Charles Wood, was a remarkable effort, and a tribute to Mr. Waine in binding these unknown choirs together.

The choir outing to Scarborough provided mental, physical and musical refreshment to the choir, who returned to begin practising for the special St. Peter's service in the Minster, which after considerable hard work, reached its climax on the day, with the Palestrina anthem "Tues Petrus", sung by the combined choirs of St. Peter's and St. Olave's.

From now to the end of term, the choir practices were taken up with practising for the Commemoration service, together with the term's chief anthem, "0 for the Wings of a Dove", in which R. M. Wright sang the solo, with exceptional confidence and feeling.

At the Commemoration Service, the School ventured into the realms of Harmony, with Stanford in B6. This baffled some, but provided all with an opportunity to sing "flat-out" during the congregational practices. The anthem at this service was dedicated to the Chaplain and the School, and was an arrangement for choir and school of the hymn tune "King's Lynn" by Coleman.

On 9th July, seven members of the choir, R. M. Wright, D. J. Judson and A. W. Hodgson (T), 0. G. Hodgson (A); J. R. W. Thirlwell (T), R. L. Harrison (B.) and D. J. Barker (B2), sang at an R.S.C.M. service in Ripon Cathedral. They joined with similar numbers from other choirs, to give everybody experience in singing a "typical cathedral Evensong", the Anthem, "Beati Quorum", by Stanford, was considered to be of a very high standard, as were parts of Walmisley in D minor, but the Psalms fell well below the standard to be expected from a cathedral choir. Those concerned in this service very much enjoyed the singing of unaccompanied responses, and it is felt that this would be a welcome innovation in the School Chapel.