Normandy
June 15–18, 2024
On Friday, June 14, we met at the airport in Charlotte and flew on Lufthansa overnight to Munich. We flew on to Paris on Saturday afternoon and were met at the airport by our courier, Nigel Shore, an Englishman living in Berlin. Professionally, he had been an oboist with major orchestras. He did a wonderful job seeing that we got wherever we needed to be and was a very pleasant guide and companion to the group. His French seemed as fluent as his English and German. He mentioned other languages in which he has some facility, since he has lived in several Europe countries. I think he studied Japanese just for the heck of it. A four-hour bus ride took us to our hotel in Caen, where we were fed supper together.
On Sunday we met the rest of the singers at another hotel for seven hours of rehearsal of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. The conductor was Jamie Meaders, a Mississippian who now lives in England, as founder and artistic director of Vox Anima London. His wife is the executive director, who keeps everything organized and operating.
Jamie did a remarkable job of putting the choirs together. Our group included choirs from Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, our Davidson UMC youth and chancel choirs, Gardner-Webb University, Mercer University, Oldham Choral Society in England, and Loiret’s Singers of Loiret, France. We were assigned seating, and as usual, I was surrounded by people singing other parts. Directors either trust me to find the right notes on my own, or else they are hoping not to confuse the second tenors with whatever notes I happen to be singing. I'm afraid to ask which.
To my left was a bass from Gardner-Webb, a recent graduate who hopes to stay in the Shelby area. To his left was a bass from Mercer. He was a very friendly guy, and I got to talk with him a bit, too. At a break I did get to speak with some of the students I had met when we went to Boiling Springs to rehearse for the concert we did together here in Davidson.
To my right was a wonderful first tenor from the Loiret group. I was able to rely upon him for the bulk of the piece where the tenors are not divided. When we did split, he sang a beautiful secure B-flat, a third above my highest squeak. At a break I commented to him that the tenors were the stars. His English was excellent, but he didn't recognize that usage of the word “stars,” so I mustered up enough French to say “les meilleurs.” He understood and smiled. Throughout the rehearsal and the concert, it was a privilege to stand and sing next to such an outstanding tenor section. (Cue the old joke about the farmer who entered his mule in the Kentucky Derby.)
The soprano section took longer to jell. Jamie did a great job of working them through this without ever yelling for them to quit wobbling. By the end of the day, they sounded like a completely different bunch. And in the acoustic environment of the abbey, the opening of the Sanctus was absolutely glorious. At one point in the abbey, he had just the back two rows of sopranos sing, for an especially ethereal effect.
At our lunch break we went out into the Sunday street market, some of us getting food from the vendors and some going to a pizza parlor. The market went on for blocks and blocks.
Joan of Arc
We had free time on Monday morning, so my roommate Don and I took a train to Bayeux to see the famous tapestry. His daughter and grandson were staying there and met us at the museum. We didn't have time to visit the cathedral, but we were able to see the exterior up the street. On the way is a poppies shop, with commemorative souvenirs.
We were not allowed to take pictures of the tapestry itself. You can see an online version here, but photos don't do it justice. Go see it. It is not really a woven tapestry, but needlework that tells the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and William the Conqueror, who became ancestor to the British royal family even until today. The presentation is excellent, with audio guides in your language that automatically describe the action on the section near you, all clearly numbered, as you go around the 244-foot curved case.
You can take pictures of the pictures of it in the museum.
I think this is where King Edward promised the succession to William.
This is a Viking ship. They were Normans after all. My Lee ancestors were supposedly Norman French. Tests of my Y-chromosome would be consistent with that, but doesn’t prove it.
The platform for the train back to Caen
Back in Caen Don and I put on our black concert attire, and we boarded the bus for the dress rehearsal with orchestra in the Abbey of Saint-Étienne.
We got lined up to practice our entrance. At the performance that evening we were seated in that order while we heard the other choir sing John Rutter’s Requiem for the first half of the program.
The Cavaillé-Coll organ from 1885 is in the gallery that was above and behind us. The organist had a video feed to see the conductor, and the sound delay getting to us was enough that he had to play ahead of the beat to sound with us. Kevin had originally planned to sing with us, but he was needed as a stop puller and to count beats and maybe some other things. The performance went very well, and it was a wonderful experience to be part of it. There is a chord progression in the Agnus Dei on the word “Requiem” that is so wonderful by itself would make singing the whole piece worthwhile.
Across from the abbey are the ruins of Old St. Stephen’s Church. When we arrived, our group was photographed with the Caen sign you can see.
The tomb of William the Conqueror is near the east end.
