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A light-hearted guide to a serious subject
Tim Popple has worked in cathedrals since he was eight years old, from being a chorister at Durham to his current position as alto lay clerk and music & liturgical administrator at Bristol.
Tim even got married at Bristol Cathedral and when it came to find a good position in the cathedral garden for the photograph at the top of this page, Tim knew the best position as it is where he had his wedding photos taken.
Although then he was wearing a suit rather than a t-shirt sharing his love for Bach in the style of AC/DC.
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The co-founder of Bristol Bad Film Club, Tim, who lives in Shirehampton, is also the man behind Quires & Places (“niche choral merch since 2020” such as his Bach t-shirt) and now a published author.
Evensong – Notes from the Choir has been described as “laugh out loud funny” by composer Sir John Rutter.
Its aim, according to Tim, is to be able to be enjoyed by those, like him, who are steeped in the Anglican choral tradition, but mostly as an accessible introduction to those less familiar with Evensong, the daily service sung almost entirely by a cathedral or church choir that has existed almost unchanged since the 16th century.
Tim calls Evensong “the Church of England’s best-kept secret” and to say he is passionate about it would be to do him a disservice.
Tim has drawn on experience from my whole life singing in cathedral choirs to write Evensong – image: Quires & Places
Bristol Cathedral can trace its origins back to what was here before, the Abbey of St Augustine, and Tim follows in the tradition of musicians being brought in to help give the music the monks were singing more welly.
As the music and liturgy officer, Tim’s office is in the abbey’s former gatehouse between College Green and College Square.
But back to Evensong and Evensong, with Tim, 44, having been a member of the choir and therefore singing in thousands of Evensong services at the cathedrals of Durham, Carlisle, Newport and now Bristol.
“A lot of people do come for the music and then perhaps, through the music, find something more,” Tim explains.
“There’s an exceedingly nerdy analogy that I use in the book to describe this. You can go to Evensong, you can enjoy the music, you can just be musically interested in it, and get everything that you need out of that experience.
“Or, if you do have faith, then you get more. But if you don’t have it, you’re not missing that.
“And I liken it to the 2009 Star Trek film, the reboot. You can watch that as a person who’s never seen a moment of Star Trek and fully enjoy it.
“But if you’re watching it as a person who’s already consumed all of the Star Trek universe, there are little bits in there, little references, little Easter eggs, that you can go, ‘Oh, I see what they’ve done there. A little reference to the Kobayashi Maru or whatever.
“And you’re not feeling like you’re being excluded for not having that knowledge. But it’s a bit extra.”
So is the book for Trekkies or noobs?
“It has a sort of two-pronged approach,” Tim explains. “In that if you are someone like me and you know the world, you will read it and go, ‘This is really familiar, I recognise these universal experiences in what I’ve done’.
“If you’re someone who has maybe heard a bit about choirs, heard a bit about choral music, you’ve listened to Classic FM, you’ve heard Tallis’ Spem in Alium, you’ve watched Carols from Kings at Christmas, you’ve got a little bit of knowledge and you’re a bit curious, maybe you’ve been dragged along, maybe you know someone, it’s an introduction to that.”
Tim Popple (centre) singing in the Bristol Cathedral choir – photo: Bristol Cathedral
The book goes through the Evensong service, with the chapter structure following the structure of the service, so each section taking you through the life of a choir and what happens at various points during the year.
Tim also takes you through the life of a choir, with his own journey taking him from a tiny new chorister hitting all of the high notes to singing countertenor today, still singing much higher than you would expect a man to sing despite his quite deep speaking voice.
There is even a section in the book devoted to the best pubs near cathedrals, with the Hope & Anchor on Jacob’s Wells Road the watering hole of choice for Tim and his colleagues, who have been known to break into song in the beer garden.
Much of what Tim writes is from his own experience but the book is also very well-researched, with Tim’s dry sense of humour coming across in the footnotes.
“I put a lot of myself into the book,” says Tim, who published the book through his Quires and Places side-hustle, having approached numerous publishers and agents who told them they had enjoyed reading the book but that the subject matter was too niche.
Tim unsurprisingly disagrees with this: “There is an audience there… It’s a light-hearted guide to a serious subject.”
You can buy Evensong – Notes from the Choir from www.quiresandplaces.com/products/evensong-notes-from-the-choir
Main photo: Martin Booth
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