The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

It's been a rather odd week in Chapel. When the current organ was built for the Chapel in 1993, the Choir had to make certain sacrifices and alterations to the usual running of things in terms of choosing music. We even made a couple of recordings in another Chapel, down at Jesus (Gibbons and Tallis, both for Chandos). This was all planned in advance, but this last week we've had a few surprises, as, no doubt, have members of the congregations. For on Thursday the motor which powers our main organ went bust – a particular shame on that night as Caius Choir were with us for Evensong and we had to forfeit Howells's Westminster Service and Britten's Te Deum in C in favour of Tallis and Parry; very fine composers of course but people were looking forward to a bit of a sing. A weekend of rather large, accompanied music was also in the firing line. In keeping with the spirit of the Choir, however, we just had to make some changes and took the opportunity to sing unaccompanied Psalms – Cyril Rootham would have approved...

We hope to have the organ up and running again by next week.