My main memory of the service yesterday (other than a key on the swell which dropped, never to rise again - luckily with no cipher) is the fact that someone in the choir was in a hurry.
For some reason the hymns got faster and faster. Now this started to happen before I realised and I felt a little foolish. It is my job to establish and maintain the tempo and not follow the singers: I've known this since I was at school. I did my best but it wasn't my finest hour. I think this is because it has happened so rarely to me that I wasn't prepared.
It happens that the choir were also speeding up during the spoken parts of the service too which were not as dreadful as they can be in some churches, but still rather ragged.
The communion hymn is sung by the choir with soft organ accompaniment; in unison as far as I could tell. In this, one chap was very loud and he ran out of breath on the long notes. So, when he reached a three beat note he ignored the dot, took a breath and ploughed straight on.
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