I am in Seattle this weekend because the Compline Choir is celebrating a streak of 65 unbroken years of Sunday nights singing the last monastic office of the day. I felt special to be included in the festivities, starting with a buffet dinner on Saturday at “Chez Hallock,” the former home of Peter Hallock, now owned by Mary and Mel Butler, Peter’s immediate successor.

Tonight there was an alumni reception in Bloedel Hall, which included a special video where every Compline Choir member was interviewed about what part he sings and what Compline means to him. The newest member had only been with the choir since September 2021, and the longest-serving member was Ken Peterson, who has sung with the choir since 1964.

That means that Ken was part of the Compline Choir which came to Hawaii in 1979 for the Region IX American Guild of Organists convention.

Before the pandemic, the choir numbered 24 men. Soon, though, because of restrictions on number of people allowed to be indoors, that number dropped down to 16, then, 12, then 8, then 4, then 3, and at the most restrictive time, only 2 men were in the service, and they never were allowed to sing together.

My husband Carl sang with the choir every time he visited Seattle, which was just about every year. He also went on tour with them to Russia in 1997 and to England in 2000. So it was bittersweet when tonight at the beginning part of the service, they read the names of the men who died — and among the names called out was Carl Crosier, in addition to Peter Hallock.

When the Compline Choir went to England in 2019, an all-women’s Compline Choir sang in their absence, and were tremendously successful. However, the two choirs won’t ever be combined, and the Compline Choir will still be primarily all-men.

Let me tell you how special it was to be in that building, in that most reverberant , cavernous acoustic, with the gentle voices of the choir floating as on a cloud. The anthem was “Jubilemus” for men’s voices and five cellos by Peter Hallock, who never counted practicality to his compositions!

After Compline we stayed for the short organ recital played by Michael Kleinschmidt. He played “Apparition de l’Eglise Eternelle” by Olivier Messiaen, “Phantasmagorie” by Jehan Alain, and the famous “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was absolutely marvelous hearing this piece on the mighty Flentrop organ.

Wow! It’s been a super busy day with seven events, six of which were at St. Mark’s! It started with the morning Eucharist, followed by a quick lunch with Michael Kleinschmidt and Marc Aubertin back at the nearby home of Charles and Maria Coldwell. We rushed back to the Cathedral for the choral reading session, then went back to the house for a short break. At 6:00 pm, I went to the alumni reception for the Compline Choir, then went to a 7:00 pm quiet Eucharist in Thompson chapel at which Charles played some meditative solo recorder music. We went back into the nave for Compline, then climbed upstairs to listen to the organ recital.

Oh, by the way, I know some people were looking for me, and Mark Russell back home sent me this screenshot from the morning Eucharist livestream.

Whew! Home tomorrow for only three days before I get onto a plane again.