Bach, booze, buses and “beaucoup de l’orgue”!
On Saturday, 9th June all the St Mary-le-Tower Choral Scholars had an outing to Oxford. The purpose was to experience the wealth of college chapels that Oxford has to offer, play and observe at close quarters four different organs and to hear a mammoth Evensong at New College chapel.
The Morning
We all met up at Ipswich Train Station to travel to Oxford, via London, and the journey went incredibly smoothly. So smoothly, in fact that we arrived in Oxford half-an-hour early, allowing us to visit the river. After that rather enjoyable de-tour we went to have lunch at Merton College. This lunch was notable, because it was obvious that most of the students there had been out on the p*ss the night before. Apart from the students, the lunch was good and we all set off with renewed spirit for a quick tour of the Oxford colleges.
The Afternoon
We quickly visited the chapel of Merton, but we were unable to get up close to the organ. Next was a visit to Christchurch College, of which the chapel doubles as the Cathedral of Oxford. We met the junior organ scholar, who showed us the organ, a 4-manual Reiger. Although we were unable to play it, it was fantastic being close-up to such a brilliant instrument. Next we moved quickly to Queen’s College, which has a baroque-style 2-manual Frobenius organ – ideal for playing Baroque music. We met the organ scholar, who played us some of the Bach variations he was preparing for his Finals recital, before we were able to have a go. William played some Buxtehude, I played a Bach chorale prelude and Philip played Trumpet Voluntary. After this quick session, we moved on to Jesus College, where Dr Nicholas had been organ scholar himself. This had a classical English organ, and William again played his Buxtehude, I played a Stanford Prelude and Philip played another piece. We then moved over the road to Exeter College which has a French-style organ. I was for the first time able to hear a Dupre piece on a genuine French organ. William played some Durufle, before we headed out of the chapel. All three organs were contrasting and excellent to play.
The Evening
We headed to Blackwell’s book shop to have a cup of tea and shop for books. After 45 minutes, we crossed the road to the music shop. Many people brought items, including “Puff the Magic Dragon” and the “Honda Civic Advert for 6 Choirs”! This was a really good music shop, and we departed to head down the road to hear evensong at New College. This evensong featured a Bach Cantata “Jesu, Meine Freunde” as its anthem, and the choir were on top form. On the way out we encountered some drunk students running up to a bouncy castle, and they had already “trashed” the streets with flour, eggs, tomatos and feathers. We walked back to Oxford station and got the train home.
The Journey Back
After taking the train from Oxford to Paddington, we had to get the tube to Redbridge, bus to Ilford (where we encountered some drunk yobs), train to Shenfield, train to Ipswich. All this meant that we were back at midnight!
It was still a fantastic day, and thanks to Dr Nicholas for arranging it, Liz and Mary for coming with us and all the people at Oxford for meeting us and allowing us to play their organs.