After
negotiating this narrow aperture, I shall always sympathise with any
camel attempting to insinuate itself through the eye of a needle. In a
small, low-roofed chamber, where there is barely standing-room for
twenty people, it is difficult even for a highly trained choir to do
itself justice. The low roof tends to deaden the pitch, and in so
confined a space the singers cannot get into that instinctive touch
with each other which makes the difference between a good and a bad
choir; still, people in the church below told me that the effect was
lovely. On one occasion, owing to force of circumstances, it had been
impossible for the men to rehearse the carols, though the boys had
been well practised in them. We sung them at sight unaccompanied;
rather a musical feat to do satisfactorily.
I would not have missed for anything my two years' experience with
that church choir; every Sunday it was a renewed pleasure.
During 1915 and 1916 one got used to meeting familiar friends in
unfamiliar garbs, and in a certain delightful club, not a hundred
miles from Leicester Square, which I will veil under the impenetrable
disguise of the "Grill-room Club," I was not surprised to find two
well-known and popular actors, the one in a naval uniform, the other
in an airman's.
Pages:
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332