A concert in Wells Cathedral

Tags

Hassler, Jacquet de Mantua, Morales, Pepylling Wynde, Peter Leech, Renaissance, Sheppard, Spem in Alium, Striggio, Tallis, Tallis Voices, Wells, Wells Cathedral, Wells Museum

Last Friday I sang with a large group of musical friends from near and far, calling themselves Tallis Voices, in a rather special concert in Wells Cathedral. It was to celebrate ten years of having done so, just once a year, usually on just a day and a half of rehearsals.  This time we had two whole days to rehearse, a real luxury. The main work was Tallis’s wonderful 40-part ‘Spem in Alium’, to which were added works by Striggio, Morales, Hassler, Jacquet de Mantua, and Sheppard, all renaissance masterpieces.

We met mainly in Wells Museum’s meeting room, but we spent a few hours in the Cathedral itself, and I managed to dash around and take a few photos before, and even during that time.

It was a grey afternoon as I firstly wandered around outside.

Vicars’ Close

North door

Here are some general views inside.

From the west end

The famous ‘scissors’ were added a century or so after construction to stop the tower falling in.

From behind the altar

The organ and half the choir stalls

Sorry about the musicians’ clobber

The famous steps, leading up to…

… the Chapter House

Some details.

A clock in the north transept even more splendid than the one outside

Singer’s eye view

This half of the choir sang the Morales in the south transept.  My half sang the Jaquet de Mantua in the north transept.

Our conductor, Peter Leech, showing us something on his score of the 40-part Tallis piece.

The instrumentalists, Pepylling Wynde,  played in some of the works, and performed on their own as well.

The sun came out at the end of the afternoon.

No pictures of the concert for obvious reasons. Thank you Chris, Sue, and Peter for a thoroughly enjoyable two days.