Technical trials

Yesterday evening I went with Clare to the Fountain School Community Choir practice. Despite my often lengthy absences, she's keen to get me singing whenever I can. I'm not sure if my voice or my sight-singing is up to it. My lower register has certainly diminished in recent years, and my upper register improved somewhat, so I'm more of a light baritone than a bass in old age. I wasn't quite as rusty as I feared I would be, perhaps singing a few times with the St George's choir in Malaga did me more good than I realised. But now, I have to work on rescuing my lower range notes, with a few daily exercises.

Father Mark dropped off the audio adaptor cable last night for my to test this morning. I went to St Catherine's to celebrate the midweek Eucharist, and after the service the girl-friend of the deceased young man called in for a trial run of the music for tomorrow's funeral. The adaptor fitted into one of the floor sockets for microphone cables, with a phone mini-jack at the other end of a light 30m cable. I plugged it into my phone, and selected Catrin Ffinch playing the Goldberg Variations. It worked perfectly for all of ten seconds, then gave up altogether with a loud crackle. Somewhere in that 30m line there's a short circuit. Impossible to commit to working with unreliable kit in the day. 

Before leaving home I tested my phone with another cable attached to a portable radio/CD player, and knew this would work in church, with one of the substantial radio hand mics to distribute the sound through the church sound system, so I was able to reassure the girl that we had a solution. But things are never so simple. She showed me her phone and started to play me one of the tracks they wanted to use at the service. In fact she had a phone in each hand, one piggybacking on the wi-fi of the other to stream music from an internet site. Streamed from one device with its own internet connection would carry a degree of unwelcome risk going live at a funeral, to my mind. 

The phone signal in church is quite strong, though not uniformly so, and if there's any sudden local demand, the signal can drop and sabotage the streaming process. Therefore, tracks downloaded and then played on a single device attached to the sound system is the least risky thing to do, I explained and begged her to go and get help to organise this side of things properly, and get the device to me well before the service, to test and adjust sound levels. Printer's proofs for the service leaflet arrived by email from the funeral directors approval, then later in the evening, the family eulogy arrived by email, and all I needed for tomorrow was ready to go. It's going to be a very well attended service, so naturally we do our best to ensure everything works as intended on the day,

Digital workaround

A Mass to celebrate with the children from Tredegarville and a lunchtime funeral at St German's today. There wasn't enough time in between them to return home, so I spent extra time in the Day Centre, as well as preparing for the funeral. 

As is often the case these days, we're asked by bereaved families if it's OK to have secular recorded music for the entry and exit from church, usually meaning some kind of pop music. We're happy to go along with that, even if there are often problems playing music from CDs incompatible with twenty five year old CD players installed as part of the church's sound system. Sometimes people bring their own devices, other times it's up to us to see what we can do with material provided. 

On this occasion, I was emailed three separate MP3 files to use. There was no way to attach a digital to the St German's PA system, but I figured out a work-around solution using wireless microphones and the Sony portable CD playing device I gave Clare for Christmas. As well as playing standard CDs this will also play other digital media CDs created on a computer from downloads. Reluctant to put this to the test for a first outing, given the physical problems of controlling it whilst officiating at the service, played the MP3 files from my Nexus Tablet - all visible to switch to on a single screen. A cable from the headphone jack to the line-in socket on the back of the portable CD player produced a good quality of sound, which could be distributed around the church by the PA system's amplifier and loudspeakers.

Setting the sound levels just right and distortion free was easy, with a little patient attention to detail, and best of all, I could keep the tablet close at hand without it attracting attention. All I had to ensure then was that batteries powering microphones and tablet were fully charged for the half hour of use in the service. I was particularly pleased with the rendering of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Pie Jesu', set at the right level to take advantage of St German's beautifully pure acoustic. With everything easily under my control, I was able to relax and give my my best, without feeling I was juggling bits and pieces.

We were treated to a shower of hail as we were leaving church, but the weather was quite different at Thornhill just four miles away when we arrived for the interment. It was cloudy, but sunny and bright, which made it possible for mourners to linger and chat in a relaxed way when it was all over. Later I had an appreciative text message from on behalf of the family the son of the deceased. Pleased to know it helped them. Sometimes, whatever effort you make, nothing seems to help alleviate the burden of loss for people at that time, but making the effort when people are suffering is what counts in the end.