Fret not thyself, because…

Salome Slim O'Crutch MA reports on the chants of a lifetime at All Hallows.

PSALM singing in a variety of forms was the order of the day at our January meeting.

Held at All Hallows', Almondbury, the evening was presented by The Huddersfield Friends of Church Music and followed a lively pattern researched, devised and directed by our member Jim Cowell.

Jim, of course, has been director of the Friends for some time, after the tragic death of founder Ralph Garside and he has maintained the aims and traditions of the choir with admirable skill.

This presentation was no exception and we learned much about the origins of psalm singing.

Examples included Plainsong, Responsorial, Taize, not least Anglican Chant and the many varieties of pointing and at the end were were encouraged to join in a taste of "interactive" psalm singing, culled from a new edition from General Synod and yet to be published!

The choir &endash; and our audience members &endash; were in enthusiastic voice and we entered into the spirit of it all with some gusto.

Malcolm Hinchliffe at the organ managed to flit from style to style with apparent ease and provided the best of accompaniment.