Canterbury Prologue

Well, it isn't April, and no sweet showers are piercing the droughts of anything - but we are going on pilgrimage, nonetheless.

Schola Cantorum on Hudson will be choir-in-residence at Canterbury Cathedral for Evensong from Monday evening through Thursday evening, next week. Yes, that Canterbury - the one where Thomas Beckett was martyred by four ambitious knights thinking they were doing Henry II a good turn, and where the Wife of Bath and the Miller and the Parson and all Chaucer's others colorful piligrims went to visit his shrine.

We will be arriving in London and transferring pretty immediately to Canterbury, where we will stay until we return to London a week from Monday to fly home. Considering that we'll be traveling by air-conditioned motor coach, and not on horseback, and that we'll be staying at the lovely Cathedral Lodge and not small and dingy inns along the road - it's hard to see that part of the trip as pilgrimage in quite the same way - although I'm sure there will be plenty of tales told to pass the time at the airport and on the flight, and on the bus, and over ale in the pubs of an evening, after rehearsal.

For me, it will be a bit like a retreat or a workshop at Holy Cross, in that a friend and I will be attending Matins each morning, in addition to singing Evensong. As in the monastic community, our day will be framed by prayer and music. It is easy to lose sight of that, in the frantic rush of preparation and rehearsal, and yet it is only by holding fast to that that we can hope to do what we are going there to do: to lead the people in prayer and praise to God.

It is hard, also, for those in the choir for whom the daily office is not (yet) as familiar and comfortable as their favorite pair of slippers. It is my hope that by the time we come home, they will have a chance to develop a love for that peaceful, steady rhythm of the day that the office provides.

I'm a little alarmed at how well organized I am; I'm terribly afraid that means I've overlooked something obvious which I will only discover when it's far too late to fix it. I was in fact so very organized that I had time this afternoon to go out for a bit and do some just-for-fun singing with a couple dear friends - a perfect send-off.

That had better be about all. One last check of all the lists, and we're off to the airport!