Thursday, July 8, 2010

Evensong at King's College Chapel

I know I've already raved about the beauty that is the Chapel, but let me rave once more. This evening I had the chance to see (hear?) Evensong in the Chapel, which occurs most nights of the term and is finishing up at the end of this week. According to the King's College website,
the Choir [the one that sang in the Evensong service] owes its existence to King Henry VI, who envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel. This remains the Choir's raison d'ĂȘtre, and is an important part of the lives of its 16 choristers, who are educated on generous scholarships at King's College School, and the 14 choral scholars and two organ scholars, who study a variety of subjects in the College.
and these boys were AMAZING. Two in particular stood out, a little redheaded boy whose voice was SO high and an older boy, probably in his late teens, who had a high voice as well, all the more impressive for his age.
My cursory internet search turned up no results for a recording of the Evensong service itself (which the BBC seems to sometimes stream live online), but I did find a lovely recording of the choir singing something else here.
As "students" of the college, we also got special treatment, meaning we got to skip the line and go in early, as well as to be some of the first people to leave the chapel when the service was over. We even had preferred seating--I was directly behind one half of the choir and so could hear their voices clearly. Things got a bit uncomfortable during the very religious moments, but other than that, it was a lovely way to spend 5:30-6:30 PM and I'm sad that I probably won't ever witness it again.

It's finally the weekend (man, what a grueling three-day week this has been, with a walloping six classes) which means that tomorrow I'll be going to tea (how British am I!--incidentally I just ate a scone with some jam, yum!) in the afternoon, Saturday I'll be heading into London for my first time and seeing a show at the Globe (Henry VIII, I believe), and Sunday I'll be going for tea again, this time at The Orchard in Grantchester, which will be really fun.

The other day I was at the Gap and I walked out of the changing room and handed a pair of jeans back to the guy and took a pair with me, and I say thanks and he says "cheers" and then I didn't know what to say back. What do you say in response to "cheers"? "You too?" "Cheers too!" "Right back at ya!"

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