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Choristers' Page
Here are some descriptions of what it is like
being a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral, written by the children themselves:
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My Life in the Choir
- by Lydia Lallemant
Every
school day morning - except Wednesday, of course, (our day off) - the
girl choristers rehearse at Eastgate from 8 o’clock until 5 to 9. I
always enjoy morning practices because they are fun and delay the time
until school starts!
Because we have
to get up early, (7.00am for most of us), our voices aren’t at their
best until we’ve sung the warm-ups. Our conductor, Mr P, accompanies
these with improvised chords which, though wonderfully jazzy, don’t
always work!
The warm-ups
include a variety of vocal and physical exercises, some of which are
very amusing. Well, some people find them amusing. Well, I find them
amusing ….
The vocal
exercises range from various tongue-twisters to humming or ng-ing
noises, all on descending scales, such as, ‘see blue car’, (not very
challenging), ‘floppy fluffy puppy’, (increasing difficulty), or
‘particular stickers attract active vicars’, (impossible)!
After morning
practice, the girl choristers at the senior site catch the minibus,
where Rollin, the best bus driver ever, takes us to school. Throughout
the day, everyone accumulates a lot of homework. Choristers aren’t let
off, but being a hardworking, diligent group, we can cope ….
On a Monday and
Thursday evening, the girls sing Evensong. This means the Senior School
pupils are allowed to leave school fifteen minutes early! Choral
evensong is a service which includes responses, two readings, magnificat
& nunc dimittis, two hymns, a prayer and an anthem. Before the service,
we have an hour’s practice, but evensong itself only lasts 3 quarters of
an hour. My favourite part of the service is when the Precentor tells
us to turn to page 6 in the buff-coloured book. It’s not buff; it’s
beige!
Throughout the
year, we sing almost all of our repertoire and learn a few new pieces
each term. We have an expansive collection of songs in our choir
library, which is ever-increasing. Although the girls know most of the
pieces here, there are still a lot we haven’t learnt.
There are so many
pieces I can’t wait to sing this Christmas. It will be especially
important for me, as this will be my last year in the choir. I’ll
really miss it.
I’ve learnt so
much by being in the choir. It’s greatly improved my singing and music
knowledge and my ability to work as part of a team. Before I joined,
I’d never had a singing lesson and I didn’t know what vocal chords were,
but after 5 fantastic years, I’m still learning!
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We also find the time to have fun



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Life in the Stall
by Sophie-Dominique Waddie
" I joined the choir of Lincoln
Cathedral in September 2005 as a girl probationer. At first, it was very
difficult to settle in, but with the other choristers to help me, I soon
felt more comfortable. I like singing lots of types of cathedral music,
but my favourite at the moment is to sing the psalms. Not every one of
the girls agrees with me about psalms! I have to agree with them, a lot
of the other music is brilliant as well. A lot of the music we sing
comes from the bible, which is why I like some of it so much. When I
joined the choir I was not allowed to sing everything in the services,
but as I progressed I was allowed to join in more and more. Also as I
sing more in the services, it becomes more enjoyable for me.
As probationers, the others and I had
special singing lessons with the assistant organist, tours of the organ
loft and the cathedral, as well as visits to the Precentory to learn
about the services and we even had chocolate cake once!
I have wanted to join the choir ever
since I first saw the girl’s choir come into the Cathedral when I was
four! I told my parents that was what I wanted to do but they didn’t
believe me at first. But here I am! The time I walked into my first
service I felt all shaky but happier than ever. I was thinking “Here I
am where I have always wanted to be and I have fulfilled a dream.” I
don’t get the shakes anymore!
Some people don’t like the early
morning starts, but the morning rehearsals are very good for me because
I always get up about half past five anyway! We practise early, as we
sing at evensong on Monday and Thursday and we sing at weekends,
Saturday and Sunday too. We have also sung in other places and for the
radio and the television sometimes. We are very busy at Christmas and
Easter, singing a lot. On Christmas Eve we girls sang midnight mass,
even I was not up at half past five on Christmas day!
The main thing is I like to praise
God and this is a way for me to do it.
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A Day in the
Life
An important
development in recent years - at Lincoln as at many other
Cathedrals - has been the introduction of a girls' section. What
follows is an account of this development and also an account by
two of the senior girls of what it is like, day by day, to do
the work of a chorister.
A
typical Monday starts off at quarter to eight in the morning. We
arrive at quarter to for an eight o’clock rehearsal. First we
all get out our music stands (we each have one with our name on
it), then music from our pigeon holes, they too have our name on
to avoid confusion as to whose music belongs to whom!
We then do some warm-ups, some of which are rather amusing, like
trying to sing ‘do-ray-me-fa-so-la-ti-do” backwards, which is
surprisingly hard. We rehearse the music for the service that
day and if there’s time we do music for other days. Sometimes we
want to make time for this as we do some very cool pieces, my
favourites were the Jazz mass (by Chilcott), and an assortment
of James Bond! This may all sound rather boring but the
choirmaster’s constant puns and jokes make it all very funny and
everyone in the choir has a great time. Amazingly, we still
manage to learn all of the music to a very high standard; this
is also due to our excellent choirmaster (and us, of course!!!).
At the end of rehearsals the choirmaster often starts to play
the piano, quite often the accompaniment to Joseph! The
choirmaster’s impressions of characters are always very funny.
After our practice, we hop onto the school minibus driven by our
mate, Rollin. We have limited radio stations and always somehow
end up listening to 80’s pop ballads. We always (try to) sing
along (even if we don’t know the words!). Rollin drives us over
to our part of the school where we start our lessons.
Being choristers, we are happy to participate in musical
lunchtime activities throughout the week. We do Concert Band,
Orchestra and Chamber Choir. We sing and perform a variety of
groovy music (this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all disco music
from the 70’s). At the moment, the Chamber Choir are learning,
and are about to perform, the complete opera of Dido and
Aeneas by Purcell. Nearly all of the main roles are sung and
acted by current or ex-choristers. The choreographing/directing
is done by Clea Tappin (very well, in fact, absolutely
fantastically). The conductor is Aric Prentice. He is also the
choirmaster and the Director of Music. The storyline is a tragic
tale of woe. It’s basically about two people (called Dido and
Aeneas) who fall in love, fall out, and get killed by evil
witches. (In other words, bad conquers good, and they don’t live
happily ever after…… But it’s all great fun!!)
We leave our last lesson at 3:45 (which is quarter of an hour
before the end of school. He he!). Rollin drives us back over to
the cathedral where we have a break for about half an hour.
Sandwiches and drinks are provided if you are peckish! Then we
are collected by Mr. Prentice. He walks us up to the song school
where we change into our cassocks (robes) and start the
rehearsal. We practise for about 45 minutes (don’t worry, it’s
not all
practising!) then we have a five minute break until we line up
for the service of evensong. Evensong takes about 45 minutes. We
sing the responses, the psalm, canticles and an anthem.
After the service, we
get changed, put our music away and go home! (This is the end of
our day.)
Written by Avalon and Lydia
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Hi! My name is Greg
Barber. I am a Cope in Lincoln Cathedral choir. The day-to-day
schedule is quite tiring but it is really fun.
Being in the choir
is really good because your colleagues are like brothers and
sisters to you. The musical experience is amazing and it should
help you in later life. I think that being in the choir has
changed me because it has helped me to become a nicer person.
Greg Barber
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For me, being
involved in the Cathedral choir plays a major part in my life.
When I applied to become a chorister at the Cathedral I felt
quite apprehensive, but after only a day I was so proud to be
classed as one of the gang. Being in the Cathedral is also good
for the future too. It enables you to gain a lot of musical
knowledge which could be useful in the future. Because the
choristers spend so much time working together you make some
brilliant and, I hope, lifelong friends. Everyone is very
supportive of what you do.
The best part of my
year I have to say has got to be Christmas Day. Yes that’s
right I said Christmas Day. Believe it or not, being surrounded
by some of your closest friends on that special day of the year
is a magical experience.
I have been in the
choir for only two full years but have learnt so much in that
short space of time, how to read music, how to deal with
pressure and improve my organisational skills. I’m sure my mum
would agree!
Being in the choir
gives you so many different experiences, such as our trip to
Holland last year. We were able to perform beautiful music in
some beautiful places and our presence over there was highly
enjoyed by all.
The experiences I
have had with Lincoln Cathedral choir will remain with me for
the rest of my life. Perhaps you too will become part of our
team
Thanks from Alice xx
Alice Jones
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