We began the day back – once again – at the cathedral cafe for poached eggs, tea cakes and other breakfast fare. The morning’s rehearsal started off well – until the choir and Jim reached an impasse over the consonants in the phrase ‘quae non auferetur’ in the Peñalosa mass.. ‘Quae non auffereeturrr. Auffereeturr. Auferreturrrr…’
The rest of the day was, in short, based around food. If you would like to know in what capacity, read on.. In lieu of lunch, a group of us headed the Lily’s of Truro Cafe for our first cream tea of the Cornwall trip. Before you ask - an Instagram poll has confirmed to us that the Devonian method (cream first) is that preferred by the majority of the population. After a second lunch in an M&S café (a particularly good M&S café at that), we explored the cathedral shop (delighted to find our very favourite Stopford anthem playing in the background there). Some choir members chose postcards to send to their loved ones, whilst others contemplated the Rutter-based CD collection on offer with glee and debated the respective merits of different volumes of ‘Organ Party‘.
The evening’s seshy (technical musical term) evensong repertoire was, to our conductor‘s relief, performed with suitably ‘fiery consonants‘, and the congregation was bowled over (the sopranos and tenors hope) by the top As central to both Howells‘ Gloucester Service and Mendelssohn’s Ave Maria. Then, it was time for the eagerly anticipated Luceat Annual General Meeting of 2019. Jim‘s State of the Union address – only slightly less ad hoc than other choir members’ addresses – was received with mirth and admiration for all the group has achieved in the past year, and the many exciting things we have planned. Watch this space..
Afterwards, the choir would have retired to the pub..were it not for the fact that the AGM itself had taken place at the William IV pub. Everyone had been wondering when the day‘s car-related disaster was going to occur – and it arrived in the form of us leaving our Secretary, a Mr Jack Culbert, at the pub and driving back to the house..
The evening‘s entertainments consisted of a round of What Do You Meme? (think Cards Against Humanity but with memes – essentially, the world‘s most millennial game) followed by a game of Irish Snap (both the most stressful thing the choir had ever experienced and an aggressive slapping exercise that quickly drove away our incapacitated conductor with his healing arm). A good night‘s rest was needed to recover from our exertions..
- Beatrix (Sop 1, Director of Marketing & Publicity)