The town itself is very small, and it really is walled by a big stone wall with iron gates. You literally have to be home by a certain time or you'll get locked out for the night. We're staying in th
e dorms at Sarum College, which is just across the lawn from the enormous Early English Gothic cathedral, which is celebrating it's 750th birthday this year (and this is partially under a ton of scaffolding and being cleaned up). The pictures don't really give you a good indication of the size of the thing, except for the fact that I literally can't fit the whole thing in one shot with my camera without a wide angle lens, even standing in front of the college (and it takes a good 5-minute walk from the cathedral doorsteps to the college doorsteps). Say what you will about the Anglicans, but they kick the Catholic's asses in art and music every time.Speaking of music, we had our first performance that night, an evensong service, which is the type of service we'll be doing for the bulk of the trip. Evensong is basically the Episcopal equivalent of Evening Vespers; that is, an evening prayer service that occurs each night at most cathedrals, and usually once a month or so at most parishes, and can be spoken or sung. When it's sung, it's suuuuuuuuung. They sing everything. And like Vespers, it's very old-timey and typically full of lots of archaic language and high-church music. Think Benedictine monks, but Anglican chanting is in 4-parts.
At any rate, we kicked some major ass. As you can imagine, the singing in an enormous space like that echoes for days, and we brought lots of huge, screaming choral music to do in that space. Totally awesome. That night, we went for dinner outside the walls - there's nothing really inside the walls except for the church and school and some residences - then back to one of the suites for some drinks and merriment since we had to get home before we were locked out. The rooms are such a vast improvement from the scout lodge - very modern, brand new bathrooms, real beds with TWO pillows! My favorite part actually are the keys to the rooms, which are old-timey skeleton keys - awesome (see left).
I'm in my own little single room, which is such a nice little reprieve, and I'm enjoying it now while I can. I needs my space, I does. The party was down the hall in a suite two people were sharing that had a kitchen and a separate sitting room. We had a great time, laughing and shouting way too loud for the amount of singing we'd have to do the next day. We also listened to a bit of the recording from that evening (I brought my mini disc and plan on recording every service - clips to follow when I get home), and generally imbibed too much (got rid of quite a bit of the Maker's Mark from JFK), but had a good time. I also went out and took some shots of the cathedral lit up all dramatical-like at night, which was pretty sweet. I was asTOUNded by the silence out in the courtyard that night. I don't think I've been somewhere so peaceful and serene...well, ever.I paid dearly for my merriment on the bus this morning, though. We took a daytrip to Bath, an ancient Roman settlement about an hour and change northwest of Salisbury, and you can imagine the combo of whisky and long bus rides was not good. It was pretty sweet though, and well worth the pain. It's the site of naturally-occuring hot springs, over which a Roman bath and temples were built. At first, I was not really into, especially since I was queasy and moving slower than the hordes of little old ladies present, but my architecture
/history/musuem nerdery finally kicked in and I enjoyed it muchly. I especially enjoyed the room in which they had done a very 21st-century-museum-style video projection on the walls to simulate men coming in and out of the baths in various states of dress. The europeans sure love their naked men!Tonight was the night of my big solo in one of the settings of the Magnificat & Nunc Dimitis we'd brought, also at Salisbury cathedral (the Mag & Nunc are standard at choral evensong - there are thousands of settings by famous composers). I was somewhat nervous, just because, well, we hadn't rehearsed it since June, if not earlier, actually. That and the organ console is above us, so I had no eye contact with the organist, and just singing a solo in a freaking grand 750-year-old space like that is humbling. And slightly terrifying. It went well, though, I think I nailed it from what I can tell from the recording. It was good to get that one out of the way earlyish; I have two more solos, but they're solo trios so it's not the same when you're singing with two other people. There's always that thought in the back of your head that if you fuck up, maybe the audience was listening to one of the other people at that moment. Afterwards we did the whole photo shoot thing here, which was a nightmare as the kids were REALLY wound up after the service and really could not stand still long enough for photos. Honestly, though, that was the first time that the kids were really obnoxious; it's been pretty smooth so far. This might be because they're usually off in their little chaperone groups, so the only times we're really all together at once is when we're singing. Lord knows I don't envy those chaperones.
Tomorrow we're off to Wells, but we're coming back and staying here in the Salisbury dorms one more night. I'm taking it easy and staying in tonight - I'm having no repeats of this morning's hangoverosity. Plus, this bed is so friggin comfy I just don't want to get up. I'm sure the others will get along smashingly without me!
222 photos so far!
1 comments:
Suddenly my two week vacation to Yellowstone doesn't seem all that spectacular! :) I just saw your mother on Saturday and she didn't remind me, don't people understand how my brain works?!!
Glad to hear your first performance went well, keep us updated and keep taking those pictures!!
Lita
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