Musical pilgrimage

Spent today in Forfar.  I was wafting towards Coupar Angus on a tide of Scott Joplin Piano Rags –  Elite Syncopations with a wonderful stomping bass – and wondering whether I could get my MP3 playlist to reach Elgar Pomp and Circumstance with Land of Hope and Glory as I passed Glamis Castle where the Queen Mother grew up.  And then realised that I had forgotten Pray as you Go from the Jesuits.  Apart from a phone call in the middle, it was very good.  The lady doing the reading was rather good and gritty but the other voice was a little precious.  Which encouraged my mind to stray as it does to thinking about what kind of voice is best for leading worship – too little personality as bad as too much.  And so to Goldilocks and the search for what is ‘just right’.  And at the end of all that, I had a good day with our congregation – a little visiting of parishioners, a visit to one of the local schools and a visit to a factory.  It encourages me – I hope it encourages them too.