Recording session

It's quite a story. Last July, in a créperie in Binic, Brittany, we had lunch with three generations of McIntoshes and three generations of Raoults, during which our friend Yves, who is a Breton speaker, asked Mr Blethers if he could make an arrangement of a tune which he was sure we'd know, using the Breton words which he had scribbled on a bit of paper. There and then, over the crépes and the bolets de cidre, he sang it to us.

The tune was Amazing Grace, the words a Marian hymn. When we were home again, Yves sent us the file of him singing the words for us. (Breton ain't easy. The way Gaelic ain't easy). Mr B wrote down a phonetic version, and this week he finished making a four-part arrangement of the tune.

This afternoon, after a quick rehearsal with the soprano and tenor, we let ourselves into Holy Trinity Church and recorded it in the empty, stripped church. It was cold and damp and already felt unused, but the acoustic with the stone flags exposed was wonderful, and the recording made. We were just in time - this coming week the church will become a building site and we will not be allowed in at all - and happy to remind ourselves of what we have in this building. Soon we shall send the recording to Yves, and the mission will be accomplished - and I may get round to putting the result on YouTube.