St Antony, Forest Gate
Date: 17 June 2015
Note: On 25 May 2015 people from all over London with roots in the Caribbean island of Dominica met in the church of St Antony in Forest Gate (St Antony's Church, 56 St Antony's Road, London E7-9QB) to celebrate a mass in honour of the feast of St Isidore, patron saint of farmers on Dominica. The choir leader, Merline Odisla, invited Klaus to play the organ for this festive occasion. The music consisted of the Missa de Angelis ('a bit of a tongue twister' said one member of the choir), hymns, the national anthem of Dominica and a special song in honour of St Isidore sung by two members of the choir, and for which only the text but not even a written version of the tune turned out to be available 30 minutes before the mass when the text was suddenly produced by the two singers. Some weeks later (after the festival of St Antony had been celebrated, with a different organist), Klaus received the following e-mail from Merline in lieu of a testimonial.
Klaus Bung played at St Antony's Church, Forest Gate, for the Dominican celebration of St Isidore on the 25th May 2015.
Since there was no score of the music of St Isidore's traditional song, he had a member of the choir hum it to him and jotted down the tune as best he could, just before the mass, and accompanied it beautifully from that sketch when the song was sung during the mass.
The choir really enjoyed his playing, and so did I. Klaus is always welcome to play for us here at St Antony's whenever we have a special mass.
Two days before the mass, Klaus came to the church to go through the music that would be sung. It was a pleasure to meet him. He gave me a lot of help and guidance, and I am grateful for that.
Klaus will make any mass enjoyable, no matter what the occasion.
- - -
Hi Klaus, that's your testimonial. Now let me tell you about the feast of St Antony, which has just passed, and about our organist on that occasion. He played so loud, I had to tell him to pipe down because I couldn't hear the choir singing. He told me, 'BIG CHURCH, BIG ORGAN AND BIG NOISE.' Could you believe that?!
The church was full, it was so packed that communion bread and wine ran out.
But it was a nice occasion.
Hope you are well, and I hope you like my testimonial.
Take care, kind regards,
Merline