layclerk.org

Extra service

The employment contract for the cathedral is very clear... there are a set number of services to sing each week, plus a list of named additional services during the year - at times such as Christmas, Holy Week, Ascension, and so on.  But I don't remember there being any mention of today - particularly as today's no more special than being the first Friday after Pentecost.

Any yet, there's the extra sung service today of Compline, which should last all of... erm... about 20 minutes.  And according to the afore mentioned employment contract, this should be classed as an 'extra engagement', which should in turn demand an additional fee.  Hmmm...

Singing lesson

I had a singing lesson last night with a new teacher. I've not had many lessons before; only three, in fact, about 8 years ago. And so, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Was I expected to have prepared a piece to sing? Would I be expected to talk with great authority about fancy things like coloratura (a word I find difficult to pronounce, never mind understand), or know how to compose a tierce de picardie (yes, I just had to look up the spelling)?

Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about any of that. We just ran through a few simple exercises to do with breathing and voice production. And she gave me some general advice about what I should be doing between lessons, when I'm singing at home or in the cathedral.

I guess I already knew some of the stuff that we talked about. It's just that I hardly ever remember to put the good technique into practise. For instance, I know that I should always be supporting my breath from the diaphragm (so that when I breathe in, my belly moves out rather than my chest), but when I'm in the middle of evensong - perhaps performing an unfamiliar piece of music - thoughts of good technique tend to escape me, because I'm too busy worrying about singing the right notes.

Luckily, when I admitted this last night, she said that I'm no different to everyone else. In fact, she likened it to learning to drive a car. At first, you're very conscious of the three pedals, mirrors, steering wheel, and gear stick (not to mention the other cars), and when stressed you sometimes forget what to do. But eventually it all becomes second nature and you don't even think about it. Well you should think of me as being someone who's just had their first driving lesson, and is still potentially a danger to other musical traffic.

Full choir

We managed to field a full-strength choir on Sunday, for the first time in quite a while. 

Normally we get by with just a few voices per part - indeed on some days the ensemble is deliberately limited to just 2 to a part, which can be great fun (if a little scary).  But it was even better to see the choir stalls groaning with bodies on Sunday, because we had quite a lot of big two-choir music to do.

We even managed to field four tenors, which is a real luxury as we currently only have two full-time tenor layclerks (and for a while before Easter there was only one).  Thankfully our deps are top-notch, and are coming in regularly over the rest of this term to help fill in the gaps, until two more tenors arrive in September.

In my previous parish church existance, with an amateur choir, getting enough people to show up to do big music was always a problem.  The director of music could have put in months of preparation, but at the end of the day, he would be at the mercy of whether people could be bothered to get out of bed on a Sunday morning.  And so, many's the time in the past that we struggled through a piece with key people (and sometimes, entire sections) absent.  But you just got on with it - hoping all the while that it didn't get so bad that you had to cancel or change pieces at the last minute.  And with a few decent voices you can just-about get by.

But that kind of approach isn't obviously good enough for a professional cathedral choir.  The singers are paid to turn up, and if they can't make it, are expected to find someone else to deputise for them.  Which is quite refreshing for me - as I no longer have to worry about being asked to sight-sing the bass line at a moment's notice.  I don't have to worry about whether other singers are going to show up, and instead can concentrate on my own part.

BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong

If you're not from a church music background yourself, and you're curious to hear the kind of music I would do in the cathedral, then I suggest you tune in to Choral Evensong, which is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 4.00pm on a Sunday.

I can't listen live myself, of course, because (like just about every other layclerk on the planet) I'm busy singing my own evensong at the same time.  But if you miss it on the radio, you can listen online from the BBC website any time during the following week.

The BBC only moved the broadcast of Choral Evensong to Sunday afternoons a few weeks ago.  Before then (and for as long as I can remember) it used to go out on a Wednesday at 4.00pm.  This was a much better arrangement, because it didn't clash with any other cathedral services - which, on a weekday, tend to start some time between 5.15pm and 6.00pm - meaning that other interested church musicians like me could tune in.

I've sung on a number of different broadcasts of Choral Evensong over the years - mostly when I was a treble.  However, my latest broadcast was back in summer of 1999 on the day of the total eclipse of the sun in Britain.  I remember the day very well.  We missed the actual eclipse itself, because we were inside Beverley Minster rehearsing.

Wednesday

Today's the end of the singing year for the girls' choir. Following this afternoon's evensong I believe there's some kind of leavers' presentation and a bit of a party, and the lay vicars choral have been invited along to witness the carnage, along with the girls' parents.

It seems awfully early to be marking the end of the term. Easter was only a few weeks ago, and the end of the school year must be at least a month off. So I'm not quite so sure why the girls are finishing so early. I'm guessing that it might be something to do with avoiding school exam time, but I'm not really sure.

But as for the rest of us, we've got another seven weeks to go till we finish for the summer. Our last sung service of the year is on the 8th July, and there's a lot of music to get through between now and then. Indeed, we've got some pretty exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks, including two brand new compositions that we'll be premiering. One is a commission from a local eminent composer, and the other is the winning entry from a music composition competition. Both are exciting works, and also quite challenging to perform.

In the beginning

Hi there. My name is Richard, and I'm a new cathedral lay clerk. I've been singing in various parish church and chamber choirs for more years than I care to remember, but since about mid April this year, I'm now a member of a cathedral choir. It's quite a challenge, and a very definite step-up in the effort required and expectations placed upon me. I'm now singing five services a week, and getting paid a salary to do it - which I guess makes me a professional musician - although it feels a bit strange writing that.

The journey as to how I ended up as a lay clerk - or rather (to use the correct job title) a lay vicar choral - started pretty much on a whim. A friend of mine had started a new layclerkship last September, and seemed to be enjoying himself. And I guess I started to wonder whether I could do that as well. So I ended up trawling through the jobs pages on the Church Times web site; on the look out for something suitable. And about a week before Christmas 2006, I spotted my current position being advertised, but didn't do anything about it at first. I mulled it over through the holiday period, and eventually sent in my application on New Year's Day. I then auditioned in January, and was offered the job a week later, to start just after Easter.

At this point, it suddenly dawned on me what I had let myself in for. I had to pack up my entire live, move to a new city, find a new home, and a new day job. And most importantly, the new day job had to be compatible with my new singing duties; allowing me to slip out the office during the week in time for Evensong.

But here I am, several months later, having made the move.  I've packed (and subsequently unpacked) my life into lots of boxes and moved it to a new city, and I've (thankfully) found an agreeable day job that fits in well with my singing.  And more importantly, I'm now singing in a shit-hot cathedral choir five times a week - and enjoying every minute of it.