Having braved sleeper trains and an ill-timed flat tire on the way from Truro town to the Airbnb the night before (“My life is a mockumentary”, ©️Jim Fellows, Luceat Director), the members of Luceat wrestled themselves out of bed, made their way to the cathedral and fueled up for the first rehearsal with baps and coffee in the cathedral restaurant. Several of the choir sported the eminently fashionable new choir hoodies - in blue and yellow, the team colours, and emblazoned with their team number, nickname and Instagram handle (kids these days).
Having sorted out cassock and music hire (see an incredibly organised Jack Culbert in Appendix A), we began our first rehearsal. Things were going well - our director only had to tell the tenors to shut up every few minutes, the “Peñalosa was a lot less painful”, and, on the whole, the choir had never sounded so good.
After getting lost in Tesco buying lunch, we headed to Loe Beach (braving just a few near-death experiences getting stuck on tiny, steep Cornwall roads in the process) for lunch on a beautiful rocky outcropping (before we quickly left that, as we were going to be stranded by the rising tide). Several of the more hardened choir members braved a dip in the freezing sea (“It’s actually not that bad!”), whilst the others were very boring and spectated/laughed from the shore.
Another rehearsal and a bit of faff over processions later, our first evensong was underway, with a varied programme of Jackson in G, Philip Stopford and many, many psalms (Jim Fellows famously loves a psalm). We received a lovely reception from Truro Cathedral (apparently they’d like us to come back), and would have been off to celebrate en mass, were it not for the fact that we had locked ourselves our of our house..
Thanks to several awkward phone calls on the part of the author and our Airbnb host’s friendly in-laws’ spare key, we found ourselves back in the house..and able to quickly depart (in peace) again for the pub. Most appropriately, dinner took place in an edgy burger restaurant in a repurposed church. Then it was back to Tesco (see Appendix B), and home for YouTube & chill - highlights included alternate Zadok (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWtvbXmWqz4) and the improvising monk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma028V0lR00). A quiet night and a perfect end to Day 1..
- Beatrix (“BEAti quorum via”, Soprano 1 & Marketing Manager)
Appendix A
Appendix B
