St David's 2013: Part 2

Another couple of delightful days.  A drive up the Gwaun Valley and over the Prescelli Hills one day and one of our favourite walks from Solva the next. And the icing on the cake for both days? Singing Choral Evensong in the cathedral both evenings.

Elvis has left the building. Actually, he was never in this cromlech but he, or rather St Elvis, did establish a church close by. St Elvis was the mentor of St David and lived in the sixth century. I bet he did a wonderful Choral Evensong (uh uh uh).

Who are you looking at? Woof, woof.

Apart from all this, enjoy your stay and have fun.

Neanderthals this way?

The sun on the sea. Views like this all the way back from the midpoint of our walk at Pointz Castle (a Norman motte, the vestiges of which are still visible - but not in this panorama, obviously)

Solva form the Gribbin. A sleepy tourist village now but a hive of industry in days of yore. Apparently in 1840 you could catch a boat from here to the USA for £4. Not First Class I would guess.

Unusual for this time of year - some late blackberries in the hedgerow.

I call this one the "hole in a gatepost with a bit of barbwire" shot.

I call this one the "We do like to be beside the seaside" shot. Two Shaggy Parasol fungi (Lepiota Rhacodes) enjoying the sun on the cliffs.

I call this one the "Plonker in Purple" shot.

(By way of explanation, our annual visit to St David's coincides with the East Wickham Singers singing in the cathedral when the resident choir is on holiday. I've sung with the EWS for about 8 years now and, believe or not, I am qualified to wear the 'cathedral choirister' medal around my neck. Yes, I find that amazing as well).

In praise of choral evensong

Choir stalls at St David's Cathedral

I'm ambivalent to the austere charms of C of E choral evensong when I hear it broadcast on the radio (Twice weekly on Radio 3, live at 3.30pm on Wednesday and repeated at 4pm Sunday). But when I see (or even take part in) this intimate performance live, it's an entirely different experience. The way voices carry within the transcendent architecture and massive acoustic of a mediaeval cathedral is nothing short of astounding; every note seems to shimmer with a halo of resonance.

Coming from a Welsh chapel background, I didn't grow up with the rituals of Anglican liturgy, so the mysteries of the responses and when you're supposed to stand up and sit down again are not familiar to me. But all of this seems inconsequential when you hear a choir's performance of a Stanford anthem or their sensitive singing of the Psalms and Canticles. I've heard them described as 'minor musical miracles in a gigantic space'. Hyperbolic language, perhaps, but I agree.

Once a year I sing a week of choral evensongs at St David's cathedral with the East Wickham Singers. I thoroughly enjoy being part of a centuries-old musical tradition and I look forward to the meditative and reflective moments the services allow me. If I lived in St David's, or close to one of our other great cathedrals, I think evensong would become a regular musical ritual for me. It's a living tradition that costs precisely nothing to experience live. The best free show in town!