Jacobean secrets

Back to Weston Green, to the church on the lake, Saturday past, to hear some Jacobean secrets from the Ripieno Choir, including some pieces by one Orlando Gibbons whose memorial we had come across when we visited Canterbury Cathedral back in February - and who wikipedia now tells me died of a stroke at the early age of 41, back in 1625. A death so sudden that the poor chap was opened up for a confirmation of death of what was then called apoplexy.

A church built in 1939 and which is far more handsome, inside and out, than the pictures at reference 1 would suggest. The same chap who did Guildford Cathedral, another handsome place but one which, we read, is in trouble because the council won't let them flog off some of their land for houses in order to pay the bills - which seems a curious attitude when we are so short of houses. In the interval we discovered a chapel in the southeastern aisle, just beyond the bell pull for what we supposed was just the one bell. There was an impressive amount of industrial bore copper piping, but couldn't get a proper look as someone was praying there. However, we did get a proper look at some of the wooden furnishings in the chancel and we wondered whether they had been brought in from somewhere else, not looking quite of the same time as the building.

Music very serene and rather good, if a bit samey; maybe because it was written before the time when dance music got taken into the classical mix and loosened things up a bit. Latin motets and English anthems, all, I think, ecclesiastical in tone and/or subject matter.

We were sitting near enough the front to be able to see the faces of the members of the choir and I was struck by the way that a couple of dozen of quite different people - although there may have been at least one mother and daughter combination - came together to make music as a team, with everybody singing from the same song sheet. A phrase from the world of work which suddenly acquired a bit of tangible, not to say, audible meaning.

PS: the church cleaners were not so thorough that the chair in front of me did not contain a program from the choir's last outing, back in early January. One which we missed ourselves on account of some prior engagement.

Reference 1: http://www.allsaintsweston.com/.

Reference 2: http://ripienochoir.org.uk/.