Oxford

[smallhobbit]

A few month's ago SM signed up to take part in a bring and sing at the Holywell Music Room as part of the Oxford Lieder Festival.  There's no charge, apart from paying for the accompanist and you get to sing two songs of your own choice in the music rooms where Haydn and Handel both played.  We decided to make a proper trip, travel up on the Friday, spend a bit of time in Oxford that day, stay over, SM would do his singing bit in the morning while I did my thing and we'd look round a bit more in the afternoon before coming home.

And then a week ago SM received an email.  The Lieder Festival Chorus were very short of tenors and basses.  Would he be interested in a day's workshop with some members of The Sixteen before a thirty minute early evening concert on the Friday.  The fee would be waived.  Clearly it was an opportunity not to be missed, so he left early on the Friday morning, and I arranged to come up by train.

I had thought I might take a few illustrations to go with my latest fan_flashworks ficlet Five Stations which reminded Lucas of his loneliness.  However, due to problems at Paddington, my train was cancelled, because there is no spare rolling stock if there are problems.  So, instead of a straightforward trip via Didcot, I travelled via Bristol and Didcot and arrived 50 minutes later than planned.  A brisk walk and I reached the venue for the concert with 20 minutes to spare, but this was not how I'd planned my arrival.  The concert was good and although I'm not a great fan of choral singing I enjoyed it.  The concert was held at the University Church of St Mary's:



The following morning SM went to rehearse and then perform his songs and I joined a walking tour, which I thought would be a good way to learn something about the colleges and the city.  We saw various places, included the Bodleian library and Hertford College.  We also went into the chapel of Harris Manchester College (no pictures).



I then met SM and after lunch we visited a couple of the colleges, Balliol College:



its chapel - with the lion feet on the lectern:



and lovely gardens:



And St John's College, which was quieter, and which I prefered:



After which we headed back to the bus to take us to the car park, pausing to look at the Martyr's Memorial.



It was Matriculation that morning, when all the new students swear an oath to the university, wearing the prescribed clothing including a gown.  It's an interesting tradition, but it does serve to re-inforce the way they have become part of a separate entity.  And it is quite a rarified atmosphere, very different from what many people would see as the real world.  It is also where the majority of our Prime Ministers come from, so a bastion of the establishment.  And through the difference in dress - men generally wear a white bow tie, women a black ribbon - the gender difference is maintained if only subtly.

I enjoyed our visit, and we shall probably go again.  But to me, it is a symbol of power and money.