Nicholas Freestone – young musician

Another year, another tour.  It’s barely believable that a full 12 months had gone by since Poland, but it had, and this year Ipswich School Chapel Choir headed back down south, this time to be resident choir at Salisbury Cathedral.

Sunday 25th October

We met bright and early on Ivry Street, ready for the journey down to Salisbury.  All was very well, and we checked into our lovely rooms in Sarum College mid-afternoon.  The keenest members of the tour (myself included) went to hear evensong being sung by another visiting choir.  I was struck by how little sound travelled down the nave; both of the choir and of the organ.  Still, at a weekday evensong most congregation sit in the quire, so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem for us.  We finished the evening with a warm-up rehearsal in the Cathedral, before heading back to the College Chapel to do some more singing.  A successful start, and everybody was looking forward to what promised to be an excellent tour.

Monday 26th October

This day began with another rehearsal in the lovely Sarum College chapel, which houses a small 2 manual pipe organ.  We ran through the day’s evensong music and heavily rehearsed Ben Parry’s new anthem, Heaven, as well, which was to be premièred the next day in the Cathedral.  Once this was finished, we had free time in Salisbury.  We (the Sixth Form music prefects) spent this time looking for staff gifts (organised or what?!) and having a lovely lunch in the Cathedral grounds.

At 3:30pm we gathered once more in the College chapel, robed up and processed to the Cathedral.  The rehearsal seemed to be successful, the choir quickly adapting to the acoustic, and a good sound was being made.  The music for evensong was Stanford in A canticles and the school’s previous commission, Laudate Dominum by Dabrinka Tabakova.  All went well in the service, apart from the Precentor announcing that the anthem would be in Latin, when it was in English, due to him not having a copy.  But if that’s all you can pick holes in, it is a pretty good service!

Rehearsal that night was cancelled, and instead I went to see Disney Pixar’s new gem of a film, Up!, in 3D.  It was fantastically heart-warming, and it improved my somewhat melancholy mood.

Tuesday 27th October

Again this day began with rehearsal in the college chapel, but today’s was shorter, as we were out on the road.  Firstly we visited Cholderton Church, where the roof had allegedly come from Ipswich School’s Great School.  However, when Mr Leach announced this fact to us in the church, their churchwarden stopped him: “You don’t know that!  All we know is that it came from Ipswich…”.  Still, Dr Blatchly believes it and that’s good enough for me.  We sang John Taverner’s O Wilhelme Pastor Bone there, and then a smaller group sang Thomas Tallis’ O nata lux.  Both sounded lovely in the church’s acoustic.  From there we headed to Longleat Safari Park.  I must admit that the trip round the safari park was a bit of a disappointment, as all the animals appeared to be afraid of our coach!  There was, however, a very inquisitive Tiger!  After that leisure interlude, it was back to Salisbury and to Sarum College to robe up for the day’s evensong, and this was a very important service.  Not only would Herbert Howells’ lovely Collegium Regale evening service be sung, but a new anthem by Old Ipswichian Ben Parry, Heaven, would be performed for the first time.  Lindsay Gray, director of the Royal School of Church Music, which is based in Sarum College, was in attendance for the service and I’m pleased to say that all went well.  Ben Parry’s stunning anthem resounded beautifully around the Cathedral, and I will never tire of singing any of Howells’ settings of the evening canticles.

The highly successful service was followed up by a rehearsal back in Sarum College chapel for the next day’s music that wasn’t quite so successful…  Yes, I took it, and the Mozart mass eventually began to fall into place for the next day.

Wednesday 28th October

Another rehearsal began this day, before we headed over to the Cathedral for a lunchtime concert.  We were not allowed to use the organ, because it would interfere with the tours of the cathedral, but we had access to the piano.  It was all a little shambolic at the beginning, with Mr Stansbury and my mother having to distribute programmes to the already seated audience (!), but the first item, another performance of my anthem, This Lowly Ground, went well.  However, my performance on the French Horn was somewhat less of a success.  I missed my entry coming in, and we had to start again.  Oh dear.  Things improved for the final choral items, spirituals arranged by Andrew Leach and the audience left happy.  I was still pretty embarrassed though, truth be told…  We then traipsed round the cathedral under the watchful eye of a tour guide, although in fairness our guide was very good.  The highlight, though, was him informing us that the organ had a 33′ pedal stop and that he had done the conversion from metres to feet himself…  Once that was done, it was a quick robe in the song school and rehearsal for that evening’s Sung Eucharist for the saints’ day of St Simon and St Jude.  We sang Mozart’s Mass in D minor and Bullock’s Give us the wings of faith, neither of which I particularly rate, but they seemed to go well nonetheless.

Back to Sarum College once more, and after a quick rehearsal it was time for the tour talent contest.  I didn’t enter, as I have no talent, but several others did (some of them didn’t have any talent either…).  Stand out for me was George with his fantastic political impressions, but some allegedly comedic song that I didn’t get at all won.  Never mind, it was still a way to pass the time (and Mark’s Simon Cowell impression was top notch too).

Thursday 29th October

This was a very important day: I was to be accompanying evensong that afternoon – the first time that I had played for a complete choral evensong service in any cathedral.  After breakfast, I headed over with Mr Saunders to set up the registrations needed for the service and have a bit of a practice.  There was little time for that, as very soon afterwards we dashed back to get a lift with Mr Galbraith to Arundel, where we were to be giving a lunchtime concert.  Arundel RC Cathedral is a truly picturesque building, with a stunning acoustic.  Our concert appeared to be a resounding (see what I did there?!) success, the highlight being the second performance of Ben Parry’s anthem.  I think it went even better than before.  After having lunch on the grounds of the cathedral, it was time to race back to Salisbury, once again in Mr Galbraith’s car, so I could have an hour or so’s time on the organ prior to the service.  The choir came in at 4:00pm, and there was an hour long rehearsal.  The music for evensong was Philip Moore’s Third Service and S S Wesley’s Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.  After all this music, the psalm and the responses had been polished satisfactorily, Mr Saunders (conductor for this service) decided to have a look at the psalm and hymns for the next day.  Sightreading those in a cathedral was incredibly nerve-wracking!  The service itself appeared to be successful, and I really enjoyed myself.  Many thanks to all for this fantastic opportunity.

We followed up the service with a night-time Ghost Walk through the streets of Salisbury, and I must say that I found the majority of the stories complete and utter tosh!  It was still very entertaining, however.  The tour was flying by – only one day left.

Friday 30th October

The final day of the tour, and we began by tidying our rooms and loading up all our stuff onto the coach.  It was then time to head for Winchester for another lunchtime concert.  Winchester is a place that I hold in very high regard: we were resident choir there in 2007 and I have many happy memories of the cathedral and the town.  It was great to be back.  After a brief bit of spare time (spent by visiting Shake Away with Dave), we returned for a rehearsal.  It was all going very well and returning to Winchester had given the choir a very noticeable lift (or maybe that was just me).  The concert was a huge success, beginning with Dobrinka Tabakova’s Praise, before a selection of solos from Mr Saunders, Katie, Imogen and Pheobe singing a duet and myself on the organ.  My performance on Boëllmann’s Toccata from Suite Gothique was the best I have ever played it, and I found the organ at Winchester incredibly easy to just play.  The whole choir then sang James Macmillan’s excellent anthem A new song and This Lowly Ground once more.  The concert ended with our final performance of Ben Parry’s Heaven on the tour, and it was another splendid performance.  A truly excellent concert, and my favourite concert from the tour.  I do love Winchester.  Soon it was time to head back on the coach to Salisbury ready for our final service.  This was an evensong in aid of Amnesty International and we were to be singing Howells’ Gloucester Service, Tallis’  O nata lux and the aforementioned Macmillan anthem A new song.  Although not as many people attended as I thought might, we sang very well and the service was again very successful.

It was a brilliant tour, one of the best I have been on.  Many thanks to all members of staff, Messers Stansbury, Galbraith, Parry and Crowe and Mrs Steensma.  But most of all we have to thank our organist Mr William Saunders and our fabulous conductor Mr Andrew Leach.  Thank you for all the opportunities over the years, and it was a great tour to bow out on.