PENICUIK VAULTS SINGING

 

Inspired by the Taizé Community

Roger Shutz came to the village of Taizé in Burgundy in 1940 with plans to found a monastery.  The son of a Swiss Protestant father and a French Catholic mother, Brother Roger harboured Jewish refugees during the military occupation of France and founded the Taizé Community with a mission to reconcile and to promote dialogue and peace.  The brothers commit for life to material and spiritual sharing, to celibacy, and to great simplicity. Today, the community is made up of over a hundred brothers from various backgrounds and many nations.  At the heart of daily life in Taizé is the empowerment of togetherness. The brothers live by their own work and don’t accept gifts or donations for themselves.  Some live in small groups – fraternities - among the very poor.   Over the years, thousands of young adults from many countries have found their way to Taizé to experience sharing meals and singing reflectively together.  The harmony of the Taizé approach, with spaces of silence contained by simple repetitive chants, can open sources of inspiration and refreshment from deep within.

 

 

Taize                                 Penicuik

 

Around Edinburgh in ancient Vaults

We are not connected with the Taizé community.  Ours is an informal group open to all that sings unaccompanied every Sunday in and around Edinburgh in ancient vaults that lend themselves to the heritage of simple vocal harmonies.  Nearly twenty years ago in Penicuik some Friends and others accustomed to shared silence began meeting in each other's houses to sing some of the Taizé chants recreationally in a very secular shared enjoyment of voices in harmony.  These small gatherings became a weekly highlight and someone suggested we try the timeless chants in the damp silence of the crypt at Rosslyn Chapel close by.   The effect was electrifying.  Singing together in such powerfully enclosed stone space gradually became the mainspring of the group’s time together, and led us to seek out other places with similarly sympathetic sound and silence. 

For well over a decade and a half now we have been singing every Sunday afternoon in rotation in the medieval spaces of Rosslyn Chapel crypt, Crichton Chapel, Seton Chapel, in Dunfermline Palace undervault and Craigmillar Castle great hall, with kind permission and encouragement from Rosslyn Chapel Trust, Crichton Church Trust, and Historic Scotland. The group has also met for evening singing in Penicuik garden houses. We sing on Sunday afternoons not for any religious reason but because it’s a time when most of us are free to sing together.  During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2006 and 2007 we sang chants on weekdays at the Fringe Venue at St Mark’s, Castle Terrace, and some in the Old St Pauls Fringe Venue in 2007 and 2008.  In 2011 we took part in Previously: The Scottish History Festival, singing at Dunfermline and Crichton.

People come and go, the vaults and the singing are our constancy.  Our small group continues over the years, sharing an affection for the spaces we have grown to love, the cool, damp ancient places which have wonderful acoustics and qualities of silence for the meditative chants we sing.  People attach themselves to our group from different backgrounds.  We are neither directed nor trained, and only one or two of us can read music.  We listen to each other and to the surrounding space.  Our choice of chants, the way they begin and end, and the silences that follow them all come from within.

The spaces that we sing in are all very special.  Three are the built-for-voices collegiate chapels endowed by prominent Scots, Crichton, Seton and St Clair, more than 500 years ago so that men and boys could sing for their souls for all time.  Rosslyn chapel crypt's cool dampness, scalloped vaulting and recesses produce a depth of sound and silence to calm some of the media-led busyness of visitors above.  Crichton chapel, in sight of Crichton castle and carefully restored by its own small Trust, has a high vault and a wonderful ambience, and is clearly made for voices.  Seton chapel, simple, empty and airy, has an approach by woodland walk and walled garden that seems to prepare the soul to sing.  The great hall at Craigmillar castle, where Mary Stuart sought refuge, is a solid high-sounding stone chamber reached by a winding stair and overlooks the south of the city and the flanks of Arthur's Seat.  Dunfermline palace was built for Anne of Denmark, who came from a land where fashionable homes were fed with music channelled from singers and instruments kept out of sight in an acoustic chamber.  The tiny acoustic undervault at Dunfermline is approached across a stone bridge, down a tightly winding stone stairwell, beside erstwhile lawn and peacock and finally by threading among ruined foundations.  Birdsong is never far away in these places, except in the dark hours of night.  Not one of them is easy to reach.  Unlocked at the furthest part of a building, or at the end of a long road, a path, a garden, a stairway, they can refresh our spirit with peace and harmony if we open our hearts to share it.

 

Penicuik Vaults Singing around Edinburgh - Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  

 

 

Crichton Collegiate Church

Penicuik Vaults Singing Edinburgh - Craigmillar Great Hall

 

Dates have followed the same sequence year after year after year since the late 1990s.

 

Please note that because one or two Historic Scotland site staff in mid 2010 thought the chants could be religious and therefore inappropriate, they no longer admit us after more than a decade of singing every four weeks at Craigmillar Castle.  We are not a religious group and never have been.  We enjoy using our voices to make and share sounds of  universal cultural heritage in old stone spaces. We continue to sing at other vaults in the care of Historic Scotland at Dunfermline Palace and at Seton, and in the vaults at Crichton and at Rosslyn in the care of individual conservation Trusts. When possible, an extra monthly sing at Rosslyn will stand in for Craigmillar Castle meantime.  But eventually the Scots tradition of harmony singing, which with the support of reformer Regent Moray was kept alive in 16th century great houses after it was banished from Scottish churches, will be permitted to resume its rightful historical place at Craigmillar Castle.

 

2013

6 January 2013 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt extra week  –

13 January Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

20 January Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

27 January Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  every four weeks throughout the year

3 February 2013 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  extra week –

10 February Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

17 February Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

24 February Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  every four weeks throughout the year

3 March 2013 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt extra week –

10 March Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

17 March Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

24 March Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  every four weeks throughout the year

31 March Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  extra week –

7 April 2013 Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

14 April Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

21 April Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  every four weeks throughout the year

28 April Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  extra week  –

5 May 2013 Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

12 May Crichton Collegiate Church: we sang for Rose Scott and 3 groups of listeners who claimed it was most beautiful

 

Rose Scott, who first started our taize singing group 20 years ago, died on Wednesday 15 May 2013.

Rose was once organist at Rosslyn chapel.

 

19 May Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  We are asked this morning not to sing because other things will happen today at Rosslyn Chapel.  Future singing arrangements for Penicuik Vaults will be subject to approval by the new visitor centre managers.  No future dates can be confirmed at this time, but the group has submitted the forms requested and we will post here as soon as we have clarification.

 

We will be helping to celebrate Rose Scott’s life at 11:30am Friday 24 May 2013 at Rosewell Woodland Cemetery, Carnethie Street, Rosewell and later at the Flotterstone Inn. See this link to map.

 

26 May  Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

2 June 2013 Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

9 June  Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

16 June Crichton Collegiate Church a week later than usual

23 June Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

30 June Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

7 July 2013 Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

14 July Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

21 July Rosslyn Chapel Crypt ?

28 July Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

4 August 2013 Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

11 August Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

18 August Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

25 August Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

1 September 2013 Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

8 September Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

15 September Rosslyn Chapel Crypt ?

22 September Seton Collegiate Church every four weeks through the summer

29 September Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

6 October 2013 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

13 October Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

20 October Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

27 October Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

3 November 2013 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

10 November Rosslyn Chapel Crypt ?

17 November Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

24 November Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

1 December 2013 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

8 December Rosslyn Chapel Crypt ?

15 December Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

22 December Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

29 December Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

 ?

2014

5 January 2014 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt ?

12 January Dunfermline Palace undervault   every four weeks through the winter

19 January Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks throughout the year

26 January Rosslyn Chapel Crypt  ?

2 February 2014 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt ?

 

 

Seton in its garden is only open in summer ; in winter Dunfermline Palace’s marvellous acoustic undervault takes its place

Times are 3.15-4.30 but we sing earlier at Dunfermline from 3.00 to 4.00 because this Vault closes at dusk

Note that Rosslyn & Crichton remain 3.15-4.30 all the year round.

Although our access as singers to Craigmillar Castle was temporarily withdrawn by onsite staff from end July 2010, we hope this will be resolved in due course.

 

St Triduana’s Chapel, Restalrig, is a favourite damp vault for our voices and special for its ophthalmic associations with St Treadwell’s northern hermitage at Papa Westray. We enjoy singing there by special arrangement, usually on weekdays.

 

Penicuik Vaults singers is a group open to all to take part and meets under the aegis of Penicuik Community Development Trust, registered charity SCO37990.

The Trust is open every day from Mondays to Saturdays 10am-4pm at its Penycoe Press, 7 Bridge Street, Penicuik, Midlothian. Telephone 01968 673767.  Penycoe Press is where the music of The Corries was printed.

Penicuik Vaults singers can also be contacted directly through Roger Kelly at Valleyfield House, 17 High Street, Penicuik EH26 8HS   tel 01968 677854  roger.kelly1@virgin.net ; roger@kosmoid.net

 

Google with the words: penicuik vaults

Website: www.kosmoid.net/penicuik/vaults

 

Penicuik Vaults Singing around Edinburgh – John Street Garden House 2004

 

Penicuik Vaults Singing – St Marks Castle Terrace Festival Fringe Venue 2006

 

 

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