Vespers

O Pastor, O Cruor, O Virgo, Caritas, Hodie

All our rehearsing, all our prepping, all our phrasing and drone honing came together for a lovely evening service at First Presbyterian. The service was intimate, attended by about 30 very interested and honestly moved members of various congregations. The atmosphere was hushed. It was a perfect Prima Vox moment. Pastor Dawn read Hildegard's words so authoritatively and passionately.

The church was wonderful to sing in. We practiced and practiced in the balcony with fine but forced results. Then we tried something novel — we pushed aside our shyness of people looking at us when we sang, and sang from the CHOIR area at the front of the church. Like, the place where singing is meant to carry up into that beautiful dome and spin around, turning many voices into one. Lesson learned.

During the post-singing analysis (thanks, Mom and Jon and Joe and Scott for indulging us), we found the ad for the service in the paper.

And laughed so hard that it was placed
right between ads for bar bingo and haunted hayrides.

Then, in a flight of spontaneity, we headed to the observatory at the university see a Prima Vox fan, an astronomer who was busy with a public stargazing event had to miss the service. After a long, cold, windy walk over a gravel path in our dresses and high heels, we arrived in time to gaze at Jupiter, the Ring Nebula and stars, stars, stars. Further spontaneity struck and we sang "Caritas" under the red lights of the observatory: "Divine Love abounds in all things, From the depths to the high above the highest stars."