Singing in the Durbar Court
Jan. 17th, 2006 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustMy brother Neil sings with a Sacred Harp group in London, one of whose number is Something at the Foreign Office, and a rather more senior Something than we had realised: he is about to leave to be Our Man Somewhere overseas. But before he left London, he asked the group if they would like him to host one last sing, and if they would like to do this at the Foreign Office.
Of course they said "Yes, please," and of course, as well as singing, they had a tour of the Foreign Office. It is, says my brother, four buildings grouped around a central court, each of those four buildings having its own court. And since they were in the India Office, this was the Durbar Court: Neil says it was built to impress visiting Indian princelings, which is not quite what it says here, but it clearly impressed him - a central well three stories deep, paved with marble and glassed over.
Given this space, what could they do but sing? "And you could still hear the last note reverberating ten seconds after we'd stopped," says Neil. I wish I'd heard it.
Of course they said "Yes, please," and of course, as well as singing, they had a tour of the Foreign Office. It is, says my brother, four buildings grouped around a central court, each of those four buildings having its own court. And since they were in the India Office, this was the Durbar Court: Neil says it was built to impress visiting Indian princelings, which is not quite what it says here, but it clearly impressed him - a central well three stories deep, paved with marble and glassed over.
Given this space, what could they do but sing? "And you could still hear the last note reverberating ten seconds after we'd stopped," says Neil. I wish I'd heard it.
