Also to be titled, My First Performance in York Minster!
Tonight as I was singing, worshiping, praying, and thinking "oh my God...this is so cool," I was also admittedly thinking up clever Facebook statuses and Tweets that could sum up my experience in 140 characters or less, but the possibilities just kept piling up, at which point I thought, thank God I have a blog!
I was greeted at the Minster this evening by my director's husband, whom I had never met before. Upon meeting him, however, he asked my dear friend Angela and I if we were sopranos, or, if we could read music *cue laughter. I replied quite quickly that we were one of each, and this fun tone continued to permeate throughout the rest of our lovely night. The music in the service was far from perfect, but it was perfect for me and what I needed to experience to feel spiritually and musically fulfilled during this Advent season. I got to the Cathedral for an early call, just as Evensong was finishing up. I accidentally captured the last 'Amen' from the choristers on video while I was walking around taking pictures and feeling special in the roped off areas which were closed to the public. Here is that moment for your viewing/listening pleasure: Advent Evensong At York Minster
While I was wandering around the Minster waiting for the rehearsal and service to begin I noticed one of my brilliant Masters supervisors, Peter Seymour, sitting alone, reading in the choir stalls (also roped off by this point), so I went and sat with him and we talked and joked a while, which was really unexpectedly sweet and nice. I had to cut it short to head into a small chapel where everyone involved in the logistics, etc...of the service were congregating for prayer. At this point we were directed to branch off into small groups to pray for various pieces of the logistical-spiritual puzzle. I noticed the gentleman who turned to form a prayer group with me and two others was wearing some lovely vestments, and then suddenly realized that this was because he was the Right Reverend Cyril Ashton, Bishop of Doncaster, and featured speaker of the night. We laid hands on him at a point, after which he turned to say that it would be our fault if he didn't do well this evening. What an awesome man. There are times in life when you know you are in the presence of greatness and wisdom; I felt that tonight in an overwhelming way, and it was such a blessing to stand there praying in such an intimate way with him, long before the service had even begun. It was equally nice to be standing alongside and sharing this with Angela, a great woman and Tudor historian, who's become one of my most precious friends across the pond.  |
| Happily wandering, as I so often do, before the Service |
After this we processed in to our places, to a gorgeous, freezing cold congregation of upwards of 2,000 people. That was pretty fantastic to look out into. It was a few minutes yet before the service started, and I noticed the Very Reverend Keith Jones, Dean of York Minster, was sitting just in front of me. Ask me how I feel about vestments sometime and I'll happily indulge you. But for now I'll just say I love them...a lot...and he looked really awesome (and much warmer than we were) in his long, billowing cape. Soon after I noticed him there he got up and walked over to me and a few other sopranos, and looking straight into my eyes he smiled and said, "I hope you've worn your warm undies tonight!" ......Last thing in the entire world I expected to hear from the Dean of York Minster just before the service began...but I hope I never forget that moment for the rest of my life. When we informed him we hadn't but wished we had he continued on to offer his. Oh my. SUCH a good night. Just after this the lights went down and off we went, and off I went into Minster bliss. The nearly two-hour program was built around carols, anthems, dramatic sketches by Riding Lights religious Theatre Company, scripture readings, and two talks/sermons by the Bishop of Doncaster, but it was anything but exhausting. I didn't even notice how freezing I felt until it was time for me to take up my lantern for the choir's recessional. This was the highlight of my entire experience, but when my lantern was passed to me I suddenly became aware that my hands were frozen and I could hardly feel them. It was so cold! Friends in the audience/congregation said that I looked especially serious and focused when I stood up-the concentration was entirely due to the fact that my internal dialogue was "Don't drop it, Nia. DO NOT DROP IT. You can feel your hands, you can feel your hands..." And I didn't drop it. I carried it in a long, beautiful line to the back of the Cathedral, and as soon as we started singing all of my concern was swept away. I couldn't stop myself from smiling, was almost laughing it was so exquisitely beautiful to be part of.
When I reached the end I turned around and saw the rest of the choir following behind, and I realized that we looked exactly like the deleted scene, The Passing of the Elves, in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. Sam says to Frodo, "I don't know why, but it makes me feel sad" when he sees the elves singing, lanterns in hand, passing into the West. Tonight I was with them, and we were passing into a Heavenly realm, and Sam, it was everything but sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment