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September 09, 2019

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Singing from the chancel steps. I assume your choir has had experience of this and all is well acoustically. Within the last couple of years I've attended several secular concerts in churches where small choirs have been so positioned. Yes, there is greater visual immediacy but more than once this has revealed an acoustic "dead spot" where the volume drops away alarmingly. In some cases the range was also attenuated. This is particularly noticeable if the choirmaster and/or priest makes announcements in front of the choir. Strange, really. One might have expected such a nominally central, "nearer" position to be acoustically optimal but sound can behave strangely in churches.

The worst experience was listening to Emma Kirkby, lute accompanied, in nearby Dore Abbey. Admittedly we'd been postioned in cramped conditions in the right transept and the lute player was both totally invisible and mostly inaudible. But when EK turned to the right her volume dropped by half.

I love the energy in these pieces .... so vibrant !
Glad that the choir is singing in full voice and willing to take chances -
Here are hugs for you and Jonathan - with love

Lively, free pastels... I do rather miss singing in choir, though ours has diminished a good deal...And I am glad that you have a mode of navigation that leads you through the shoals and breakers...

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Who was Cassandra?


  • In the Iliad, she is described as the loveliest of the daughters of Priam (King of Troy), and gifted with prophecy. The god Apollo loved her, but she spurned him. As a punishment, he decreed that no one would ever believe her. So when she told her fellow Trojans that the Greeks were hiding inside the wooden horse...well, you know what happened.

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