Singing Before Supper

Singing Before Supper

Choirs aren’t just for Christmas, but there’s no better way to summon the spirit of the season then to attend choral evensong inside a historic, atmospheric Cambridge College chapel.

Each week inside some of the city’s most architecturally illustrious colleges, voices vibrate up to the vaulted ceiling and uplift the audience with their soaring song. “It’s for people of all faiths and none,” says the Conductor and Choral Director of Queens' College, Ralph Allwood, of the 40 choral evensong services that are held in Cambridge each week. Visitors to the city don’t realise that everyone is invited, and that the services are free. “Don’t let the porters put you off! Walk with confidence and just tell them you are coming to evensong – no money changes hands.” He recommends sitting as near the choir as possible to hear some of the best young singers in the land. “It’s very undemanding,” Allwood says. “You needn’t pray or sit down and stand up. I like people to join in on the hymns, but you don’t have to, and there’s often an unusual or amusing Bible reading.”

Interestingly, while church attendance in general is declining across the world, attendance at cathedrals and chapels is going up. “We attribute that to evensong,” Allwood says. “While Sunday visits are declining, weekly attendance is rising.” You may find yourself sharing your pew with students, dons, lecturers, tourists, or local residents, while the singers are choral scholars or volunteers and the organists are from the music faculty.

“At King’s College, boys sing the top line, which they’ve done since 1440 because in the early church women were not allowed in the choir area, but in St John’s, boys and girls sing the top line.” The talent and dedication of the singers is formidable. To join these choirs, the children need to be able to read music from age eight, and the undergraduates have to commit to three years of singing, involving one hour of practice every morning from 8–9am, another practice every afternoon from 4.10-5.15pm, and then evensong from 5.30-6pm or 6-6.30pm up to six times per week. “But nobody’s ever said, ‘If only I’d done less singing, I would have done better’,” Allwood laughs.

Allwood himself is positively evangelical about the benefits of song for singer and listener alike, and his many musical commitments include running Inner Voices in Southwest London and the Pimlico Musical Foundation in Central London for children that would not normally have the opportunity to join a choir.

“Singing is about joy. Dementia sufferers still remember songs, even when they find speech difficult. When you sing, you breathe better – all meditations start with the breath. When you sing, you breathe in deep and breathe out slow, but you are breathing out to music. Singing is melodious conversation.”

Choral Evensong starts between 5pm and 6.30pm and lasts just over half an hour. Find live and live-streamed services in Cambridge and across the UK at choralevensong.org. To learn more about choral singing education, visit The Rodolfus Foundation.