CAROLLING: St Andrew's Church director of music Catherine Macdonald (left) conducts the choir in their final rehearsal before Sunday's Lessons and Carols service. British organist Ian Miles accompanied the choir at the rehearsal, and will play for the service. He will also present two concerts, on December 21 and 28. Picture supplied
Thus runs the old carol Unto Us Is Born A Son, and thunder the organ does under the capable and experienced hands of British organist Ian Miles, ready to accompany an inter-church service of Lessons and Carols to be held at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Sunday.
With his wife
Alison, Miles landed in Gisborne on Thursday in time to accompany the final choir rehearsal. The 20-voice choir, inspired by such enthusiastic accompaniment, had no trouble “rending the air asunder” with the well-known carols in which he and they will lead the congregational singing.
The service creates a gratifying time out from the demands of a commercial Christmas season, said St Andrew's director of music Catherine Macdonald.
“The Christmas story is told in a series of readings, and sung in carols, which can date back as far as the 15th century but still resonate in the 21st. In fact, many of our traditional carols were collected and published in the 19th century.
“Right from the haunting opening with the 15th century Matin Responsory, sung from the back of the church, through the traditional solo verse of Once In Royal David's City, and the spine-tingling pomp of the procession of choir and clergy during the congregational singing of the rest of the hymn, the service offers a satisfying blend of old and new, the expected and the surprising, and, especially, the opportunity to sing the grand old carols in a splendid acoustic with a thrilling organ accompaniment.”
