Ramblin' Woman: Ely Cathedral

We took a day trip to Ely Cathedral, about an hour drive north of London, to give a morning concert in the Lady Chapel, a space renowned for its 7 second reverberation, something very uncommon and unforgettable. Most of us also took a tour of the cathedral, as per usual. The chapel was quite chilly, but that did not affect our sound (I don’t think!) The cathedral itself is a huge Norman building with a unique octagon tower. Their concerts are normally given later in the day, but we had to be back to London to sing at St. Paul’s, so ours was earlier, and sparsely attended as a result. It didn’t really matter, though, as our brave (they had to get up very early in order to come) entourage appreciated the incredible sound. I look forward to hearing the recording (as well as our St. Paul’s and St. Giles recordings) as it is hard to know what the group sounds like to the hearers from within the singers. We were taken to Mastings for a buffet lunch before leaving for London. Although most of us trekked around London fearlessly, using the “Tube” without hesitation, the fact that the day we went to Ely was the 3rd Thursday after the bombings and the 1st after the attempted bombings was a bit of relief. Fortunately, nothing happened in London while we were gone, and nothing since.

Ely is so huge we had to get far back to get most of it in one picture. You can't do this at St. Paul's without getting run over, and you can't do it at St. Giles at all, at least not from the front, and the side view is obscured with scaffolding at the moment.