In the afternoon we went to Evensong at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. This was Bruce Neswick's last service as Organist and Director of Music before leaving to join the music faculty at Indiana University. The choir is on holiday so they have guest choirs in to sing Evensong. This large choir was from a parish church in London, and the program listed some great music: more Charles Wood and Purcell, a double chorus Mag and Nunc by Thomas Weelkes. Oh, dear! Nothing good to report, but they were very excited to be there! Bruce is, by international acclaim, one of the world's great improvisers, and he vamped before and after the service and played the hymns. The cathedral's organ is, possibly, my favorite of all organs, and Bruce's final musical gesture as cathedral organist had to have been one of the finest moments in that organ's long and distinguished history. Truly heaven and earth were joined in a soulful and ecstatic utterance. Douglass Hunt, another one of our own, is the Curator of Organs at the Cathedral and at Saint Bartholomew's Church.
He was unhappy about the "summer tuning" in an enormous unairconditioned building. I thought the organ sounded absolutely magnificent. More on the organ later. Parishioner Terry Eason was there, and it was great to see him in a different - and appropriately grand - space. We went to a surprise reception for Bruce, and had a great time visiting with a fun assortment of people that I didn't realize sang in the cathedral choir. Then back Downtown.
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