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| Exeter Cathedral |
Exactly three months after Easter
Sunday, our choir will embark on our 125th anniversary pilgrimage to
England, where we’ll sing as choir-in-residence at Exeter Cathedral and at our
namesake church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. I am honored to be able to take our choir on
this trip, and am counting the days until departure. I am very fortunate to have attended two
similar choral pilgrimages with the Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Erie PA;
these trips moved me deeply, and remain in the forefront my memory. I am eager to add to these memories this
summer.
We are rehearsing to sing six Evensongs
and one Eucharist in one week – that’s 27 choral pieces, not including psalms
and hymns. The musical preparations are
exhausting, but very much part of the journey, and just as important as the
actual services. Singing in a massive,
ancient Cathedral will be a powerful experience, but the routine of daily
Evensong will make an indelible mark on each of us.
A word about Evensong – this is
something that no other church has. Other denominations have similar services such as Vespers or Evening
Prayer, but Evensong is much more than a service. It is a culture. While the Church of England reports low
attendance generally, Evensong, especially in Cathedrals, remains attended, and
is broadcasted on radio and television. In
fact, a recent rise in Cathedral attendance is said to be directly related to
daily Evensong: http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/03/cathedral-choirs
There is much to be said about
this. Every Evensong, two canticles are
sung, the Magnificat (Song of Mary) and the Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon) –
I’m going to focus on the Magnificat.
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
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| St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London |
What weighty words Mary has given
us to pray! It’s the whole Bible in a
handful of verses: God, doing the unexpected, turning the tables on the
powerful, exalting the lowly. Everything
that we know about the world is wrong – the rich get nothing, the poor get
everything. God’s ways are not our
own. There is something deeply mystical
about singing the Magnificat every day for a week. At our church, singing Evensong only once a
month, the Magnificat takes a tone of joy and praise, a loud cry of exultation. When sung every day, it becomes a powerful
rhythm, so slow and so deep that we can barely hear it. This rhythm has pulsed every day for
centuries, for millennia even. It pulsed
from the earliest stories of Genesis, in the Exodus from Egypt, through the
resurrection of Christ, and continues to pulse today. It pulses whenever we find God in a way we
didn’t expect, doing things that we didn’t expect to happen. I was first able to hear this unfathomable
rhythm only after a week of singing the Magnificat. The implication of the words becomes quieter,
but much more pronounced, when this is a daily routine; you begin to notice
things you didn’t see before when Mary’s words continuously swirl in your head. I genuinely hope that everyone on our
pilgrimage will pick up on this rhythm, and follow its beat for the rest of our
lives. Once you’ve heard it, you begin
to hear it everywhere.
A few
more thoughts – it’s easy to look at this trip as a pleasure-tour, seeing the
sights and singing in an exotic space. This tour will be great fun, and we will be sight-seeing. But at the same time, during our residency,
WE will be the Cathedral choir. We will
be the mouth of the church, proclaiming God’s earth-shaking message through Mary’s
words. Maybe the church will be filled, and
maybe we’ll be singing for a dozen souls. Either way, God will be with us, using our voices to feed others and
ourselves – we can expect that God will
work in ways we don’t expect.
- Erik Meyer, Music Director
St. Martin's Chancel Choir sings Evensong monthly, on the first Sunday of the month, from October to June. The music sung at the spring Evensongs is being prepared for the Choir's Pilgrimage in July in honor of St. Martin's 125th anniversary.
The final two Evesongs of the season will be held at 5:00 p.m. on May 4 and June 1. On May 4, join us immediately following the Evensong for a Silent Auction fundraiser in support of the trip. More information and a list of items may be found here. On June 1st join us to wish the choir well as we commission them for their journey. The pilgrimage will take place July 19-28, 2014.
