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 denominations and 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 prayer together. 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 take part in meetings of prayer and reflection. The harmony of the Taizé approach to worship, with spaces of silence contained by simple repetitive chants, can open a source of refreshment from deep within.

Taize Penicuik

Around Edinburgh in ancient Vaults

Unconnected with the Taizé community, ours is an informal group that sings unaccompanied every Sunday in and around Edinburgh in ancient vaults that lend themselves to the sound of simple vocal harmonies. About twelve years ago in Penicuik some Friends and others familiar with silent worship began meeting in each other's houses to share some of the harmonic Taizé chants. These small gatherings became a weekly highlight and someone suggested we bring the timeless chants to the damp silence of the crypt at Rosslyn Chapel close by. The effect was inspiring. Singing together in such powerfully enclosed stone space gradually became the mainspring of the group’s time together, leading us to seek out other places with similarly sympathetic sound and silence.

For nearly 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, Dunfermline Palace undervault and Craigmillar Castle Great Hall, with permission and encouragement from Rosslyn Chapel Trust, Crichton Church Trust, and Historic Scotland. The group also meets for evening singing in Penicuik garden houses. We sing on Sunday afternoons not for any religious reason: it’s a time when most of us are free. During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2006 and 2007 we sang on weekdays at the Fringe Venue at St Mark’s, Castle Terrace, and some of us also joined Clarelynn Rose in the Old St Pauls Fringe Venue in 2007 and 2008.

People come and go, the vaults and the singing are our constancy. Our small group continues over the years, sharing an affection for the five medieval spaces mentioned above and other cool, damp ancient places which have wonderful acoustics and qualities of silence for the meditative chants we sing. People attach to our group from different religious backgrounds and from none. 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 special. Three are the purpose-built Collegiate Chapels endowed by prominent Scots, Crichton, Seton and St Clair, more than 500 years ago so that singers would 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. Craigmillar castle's great hall is a solid high-sounding stone chamber reached by a winding stair and overlooking the south of the city and the flanks of Arthur's Seat. Dunfermline's acutely acoustic tiny palace undervault is approached across a stone bridge, down a tightly winding stone stairwell, beside 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.

But please note that because some Historic Scotland site staff began in mid 2010 to judge our singing quasi-religious, they can no longer accept us at Craigmillar Castle. So be it. As a group all we do is enjoy and share the sounds of our world heritage in old stone spaces. We cannot imagine excluding religious individuals. 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. Rosslyn and Crichton are standing in for Craigmillar Castle meantime.

2012

1 January No singing: Rosslyn sing postponed to 8 January

8 January Rosslyn Chapel Crypt Craigmillar Castle Great Hall temporarily discontinued

15 January Dunfermline Palace undervault every four weeks through the winter

22 January Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks and more throughout the year

29 January Rosslyn Chapel Crypt every four weeks and more throughout the year

5 February 2012 Crichton Collegiate Church Craigmillar Castle Great Hall temporarily discontinued

12 February Dunfermline Palace undervault every four weeks through the winter

19 February Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks and more throughout the year

26 February Rosslyn Chapel Crypt every four weeks and more throughout the year

4 March 2012 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt Craigmillar Castle Great Hall temporarily discontinued

11 March Dunfermline Palace undervault every four weeks through the winter

18 March Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks and more throughout the year

25 March Rosslyn Chapel Crypt every four weeks and more throughout the year

5 February 2012 Crichton Collegiate Church Craigmillar Castle Great Hall temporarily discontinued

12 February Dunfermline Palace undervault every four weeks through the winter

19 February Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks and more throughout the year

26 February Rosslyn Chapel Crypt every four weeks and more throughout the year

4 March 2012 Rosslyn Chapel Crypt Craigmillar Castle Great Hall temporarily discontinued

11 March Dunfermline Palace undervault every four weeks through the winter

18 March Crichton Collegiate Church every four weeks and more throughout the year

25 March Rosslyn Chapel Crypt every four weeks and more throughout the year

1 April 2012 Crichton Collegiate Church Craigmillar Castle Great Hall temporarily discontinued

8 April Seton Collegiate Church

15 April Crichton Collegiate Church

22 April Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

29April Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

6 May Seton Collegiate Church

13 May Crichton Collegiate Church

20 May Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

27 May Crichton Collegiate Church

3 June Seton Collegiate Church

10 June Crichton Collegiate Church

17 June Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

24 June Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

1 July Seton Collegiate Church

8 July Crichton Collegiate Church

15 July Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

22 July Crichton Collegiate Church

29 July Seton Collegiate Church

5 August Crichton Collegiate Church

12 August Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

19August Rosslyn Chapel Crypt

26 August Seton Collegiate Church

2 September Crichton Collegiate Church

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 3.00 or a little before to 4.00 because it closes at dusk

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

Access to singers at Craigmillar Castle withdrawn by onsite staff from end July 2010 : we’ll try to resolve this in future.

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.

Contact: Roger Kelly, Valleyfield House, 17 High Street, Penicuik EH26 8HS tel 01968 677854 roger.kelly1@virgin.net