Tour Reports 2017

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Blackburn - February 2017 

The Beatles’ 1967 song  A Day in the Life contains the famous phrase “Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.”  On our weekend visit there the OUCC managed to plug just one hole - in the cathedral’s music list - whilst their choir were on half-term holiday.

It is the first time we have tried a ‘mini-tour’ by meeting on just the Saturday and Sunday, although many of us felt keen to try it again.  Incidentally, should we still call the twice-yearly trips “tours” even though we have moved on from visiting several churches in an area during the same weekend?

Although we were listed by the cathedral as the OU Chamber Choir, the clergy and staff didn’t recoil in horror at the sight of 37 singers, but were extremely welcoming. In particular, their Assistant Director of Music, Shaun Turnbull, not only acted as our accompanist but also guided us through the ‘domestic’ arrangements and made us tea and coffee at critical times!

It was good to see some new faces as well as a few friends from the Lydian Singers (a group also directed by John Naylor) who filled in some holes in our line-up to give a better balance of voices. John’s selection of music worked well, and he was able to include some psalm chants by John Bertalot, who is now Organist Emeritus at Blackburn.

The cathedral is a Georgian building which has benefitted from some more recent changes, resulting in a wonderfully spacious building which is a pleasure to sing in. The adjoining café served excellent food which did more than just fill a hole, and along with Wetherspoon’s and the café at Morrisons provided alternatives to the hotel’s small breakfast room.   Most of us didn’t have time to explore the rest of the town, but one non-singer who did brought back good reports of the local museum. Other parts of Blackburn could be thought of as, well, a bit of a hole really, but the close proximity of the railway station, cathedral and Premier Inn made this an easy venue for a short break.

Thanks of course to skilful preparation and hard work by John, Ester and a few others, the administration seemed to flow effortlessly - although the concentration of rehearsals made it a bit tiring for some.  Most, if not all of us did, I am sure, enjoy the (w)hole experience!

Bill Butler

OUCC Tour to Liverpool - April 2017 

This was altogether a very special weekend.  Approaching Liverpool on the train where the station before Lime Street was for John Lennon airport made one realize straight away how much the Beatles are still such an important part of this city.  Parts of it are very run down and in need of repair but the overall feeling was of much friendliness and cheerfulness.  For those coming by train we were lucky that our hotel was so close to the station; those coming by car apparently had some difficulties accessing the car park.

Both cathedrals were within easy reach of the hotel and for those of us who found walking difficult the taxis were incredibly cheap.

After a brief acquaintance with some of the music on the first evening we partook of an excellent dinner and were well prepared for a fairly early start at the Metropolitan Cathedral the next morning.  We were a large group, over 40 singers, and it was good to see how well we settled into singing together.  Plainsong seemed to present no problems and it was a particular delight to sing the setting of Ubi Caritas by Ola Gjeilo which was new to us. We were much helped by the organ scholar when singing Mass on Friday as the priest was completely inaudible and it was difficult to know where one was in the service.

Singing in three different places over three days presented some challenges, not to mention the unexpected changes of hymn on Sunday!  Although the Anglican Cathedral is large and somewhat dark, many of us felt it was a hugely powerful place and the organ at times was enough to make one jump out of one’s seat!

It is always good to meet up with old friends on these occasions and it was a particular pleasure for me and my friend as we celebrated 30 years of singing with the OUCC, having started in October 1987 in Oxford.  How the choir has grown and changed since then!

Audrey Williams 

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford - August 2017 

30th Anniversary Tour 

Although I have been an OU student for the best part of thirty years, I am ashamed to admit that I was unaware of the existence of the OU Chapel Choir until last year, when I came across a posting by Sue Elliott on the MA Music Introductory Forum, listing it among her interests.  I lost no time in contacting Sue to get full details.  In due course, my husband Ian and I were invited to join the choir for the trip to St. Alban’s.  (On a personal note, this was almost the first choir that I had been allowed into on my own credentials, rather than being grudgingly allowed to tag along behind a bass!)  Since then, we have been privileged to take part in all OUCC’s subsequent trips.

This time, in Oxford, more than forty singers met for the first rehearsal in the Oxford Spires hotel.  Although it was easy to lose one’s bearings, the hotel was otherwise most accommodating and coped well with our large party.  It was also conveniently placed for the town centre, either for those of us with bus passes or for more intrepid walkers who braved the rain to find interesting and picturesque routes into town.  The main rehearsal venue was similarly convenient both in the facilities it offered and its closeness to the Cathedral and other tourist spots and amenities.

Once again, Ian and I were impressed by the dedication of singers, who had clearly put a lot of work into learning new pieces and revising better-known ones for the four services that we were to sing – three Evensongs and the Sunday Holy Communion service.  Our repertoire contained some well-known music such as canticles by Gibbons and Watson, anthems by Blow and Mendelssohn and the Communion service by Sumsion.  We were in slightly less familiar territory with Rutter’s Christiana Canticles, although they had been sung before, while Todd’s anthem “Blessed are the Peacemakers” and some of the more contemporary psalm chants were completely new to most of us.  But perhaps the most frightening part for we older participants was having to sing Merbecke’s setting of the Nicene Creed to the Common Worship text rather than the one from the Book of Common Prayer that some of us had been singing for well over fifty years!   It was fitting, though, that we sang the Preces and Responses by John Benson, which had been specially commissioned and written for our Musical Director, John, and the Lydian Singers, some of whose members sing with the OUCC.

As we numbered forty-three singers, we filled the choir stalls of what is purportedly the smallest Cathedral in England, but, what a privilege to sing there.  It was even more gratifying to learn that Choral Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral is regarded as a Tourist Attraction in Oxford, especially during the period that locals call the ’Summer Surge’.  This centuries-old liturgical tradition is highlighted in tourist literature and figures in commentaries heard on tourist buses in the city.  In consequence, the Cathedral was full for these services, welcoming well over 100 to the congregation at each service.

Another interesting tradition is that Evensongs at the Cathedral are advertised as taking place at 6-00 o’clock each evening.  However, the services start at 6.00 o’clock Oxford Time, that is: 5 minutes and 2 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time!  Christ Church also observes Oxford Time when, each evening at 9.05 pm, the famous bell Great Tom rings out 101 times.  This tradition dates from the foundation of the college in 1524 when the curfew bell sounded once for each of the college’s original 101 students, warning them to be back inside the college before the last chime sounded and the gates were locked.

It was worth taking time to study the Cathedral’s monuments.  What other building can boast memorials that reflect the wide scope of Anglicanism, from tablets recording the ordination of both Charles and Samuel Wesley as Anglican priests, before they branched out to found Methodism, to that of Edward Pusey, one of the best-known leaders of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement?  For more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at Christ Church, Pusey is buried in the cathedral.

As for the social side of the trip, the highlight was undoubtedly the Anniversary Dinner celebrating 30 years of the OUCC.  Not only was the food and the organisation up to the high standard that had been set on the previous two evenings, but the choir was pleased to welcome several honoured guests, the most important of whom was Phil Baxter, founder of the choir.  This occasion was clearly enjoyed by longer-standing members of OUCC, but newcomers found it equally entertaining and heart-warming.

Over the past couple of decades, Ian and I have sung in over twenty British Cathedrals with various choirs, but this trip was undoubtedly the best.  Not only were the Cathedral staff helpful and welcoming, hospitably laying on a ‘Fizz’ reception for us after the Sunday Communion service (and inviting us to go back for refills) but they even made the processing in and out not too much of an ordeal.  Even better, John allowed us some unscheduled sightseeing time, so we could explore the more accessible parts of the city and University.  It was here that our OUCC badges proved to be worth far more than their weight in gold, giving us free entry into several parts of the college – such as the Picture Gallery - and earning us compliments from members of staff and interested enquiries from other tourists. 

Having lived in Cambridge for several years as a child, initially I had to quash guilt feelings about being in Oxford at all, let alone singing in one of its most famous edifices.  However, we would dearly love to go back and sing there again.  Our thanks go to Ester and her team and to John and William for making it possible and for giving us such a memorable weekend.

Christine Hanby 

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