There was a run on tenors in our church choir today. The professional lead resigned last week, and the promised pinch hitter never arrived. so it was just me, helped out by the bass lead in solo parts. One of our anthems was Elgar's setting of the "Ave verum corpus," but the more fun and demanding was Malcolm Archer's 2002 setting of "And I saw a new heaven" from the always trippy Book of Revelation. Five flats?! I guess John's vision is supposed to be full of amazement and joy, and this version is chipper indeed, soaring over a dancing rhythm. We tenors - well, bass lead and me - got to sing the famous words "And God shall wipe away avery tear" at the tippy tops of our registers, unable to manage a mp on a dizzying high F. But the words that gave me pause came two pages earlier. In the new world, SATB sang, "there was nooo more sea, and there was nooo more sea." Why not?
