118  How shall I sing that majesty?

 

The melody and harmonisation of this much-loved hymn was composed by ML Davies. The descant on v.4 was added by my predecessor Mr Pope.

 

A true story about this performance in 1992. The BBC was broadcasting the Sunday Morning Service live from Chapel. Microphones inside led to a van in the playground where several recording engineers worked, and transmitted the programme via a tall antenna to the Leeds studio. Everything was timed to the second. We had to finish within 30 seconds of 9.45 having started at 9am.

 

On paper, the service was about 75 secs too long and we cut v.3 of the four verses in "How shall I sing". The choir knew, the school knew, visitors knew and Mr Selway, the organist knew.

 

I was given a pair of headphones in the choir so I could start the service on a cue from the van. That was all they were used for - the start - so I took them off. Towards the end of the service, in the quiet prayers, I heard a voice in the headphones "If you can hear this, we are under-running. Put v.3 back in! Don't try to answer  ..."

 

I couldn't say anything as we were live, so I crept into the organ room to tell the organist. I grabbed a piece of white card and wrote in big letters "SING ALL 4 VERSES". I showed it to the choir before taking it round Chapel, with my finger to my lips, before returning to conduct. All the while, the service continued.

 

The last hymn started. At the end of v.2, if you listen carefully, you'll hear a frisson from the school as heads come up, they grin broadly and start to sing v.3 "Enlighten with ..". I was told afterwards that the engineers in the van cheered as they realised their message had been heard and acted upon!

 

In 158, Mr Kent corrected late-running in a 1981 BBC Service. I could see from the timetable that he started to preach 2 mins later than scheduled. He knew too, and somehow managed to trim 3 mins off his sermon "on the fly" to finish 1 minute early. He does speak slightly more briskly than usual but somehow managed without compromising what he wanted to say. Not many people know that!