Chorister

Once I was a choirboy - from the age of ten to fourteen. There were practices on a Friday evening, ready for our participation on Sunday - morning and evening services.  Our chorister outfits hung on pegs in the vestry at the rear of our village church - Holy Trinity.

The three items required were a cassock, a surplice and a ruff. The cassock was black with sleeves and it hung down to the floor like a ball gown. The surplice was plain white with wide sleeves and hung down to your thighs. The ruff was white and pleated and was buttoned around your neck. It took about three minutes to get these items on.

I enjoyed the singing but not the interminable sermons nor the dull prayers and Bible readings. Almost ten years ago, I blogged about being the soloist at a Christmas service. Go here.

Mostly what I wanted to say in this particular blogpost is that many of the hymns I sung in that period remain seared into my brain. Maybe the devil does have the best tunes but in The Church of England's songbook there are some memorable and tuneful hymns often with dramatic words too. 

I was thinking about this as I listened to Steven Knight's song choices on BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" this morning. Steven Knight was the writer behind "Peaky Blinders" and this was one of his eight chosen songs: "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" which we certainly sang at Holy Trinity:

And now looking back through this blog, I notice that I published a very similar post back in June 2021.  Well, we can't remember everything can we? It was simply titled: Choirboy. At least I have shared a different hymn this time.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/De4IfTl