Deerhurst

The rain more or less held off for our visit to St Mary's Priory at Deerhurst this morning. This wonderful church was the setting for a concert by the unaccompanied Wellensian Consort: looking back at this year's Festival, I confidently expect it to be amongst the highlights. I shall remember their Purcell in particular.

A school contemporary of mine, Giles Swayne was present for the performance of extracts of his Missa Tiburtina, dating from 1985. (I hadn't seen him for 50 years, so it's hardly surprising I didn't recognise him.) I don't know Giles' music, and I'm not sure - after today - that I much like it, unfair though it is to judge on such slender evidence. Granted that he has revolted against his Catholic upbringing, what is the merit in picking apart the words of the mass, to make of them some sort of musical scrabble?

My sanity was restored by a gaze upwards at the Deerhurst Angel: in real life, you don't see it like this, but I thought it would be fun to see what could be done using Lightroom's Vertical Transform tool.