Too Many Tenors

'Dateline, the in thing back in 1979, couldn't have selected a more perfectly matched couple, or so we thought.' Hotfoot from honeymoon, Alison and Rick settle in Yarchester, where Rick sings in the Cathedral Choir. With their shared love of music, they anticipate perfect harmony, but Alison quickly discovers that singing in choirs is not entirely sweet. Relationships fall apart in the face of philandering, musical rivalry, and the anti-social hours of the cathedral regime. Subsequent defections and stresses nearly destroy the St Cecilia's Singers. Humour and heartache go hand in hand as Alison struggles to preserve her marriage. Dealing with Rick's mood swings proves to be 'like scrunkling around near a bottle bank in flip-flops.' Yarchester Cathedral, with its Close. its Choir and its school is ever present. The two choirs are not just an arena for the goings on among the singers: the conflict between personal and public loyalty is pivotal. Should art or family come first? Thirty years on, a choir reunion brings perspective. While musicians will delight in the underlying musical references and in-jokes that abound among 'quires and places where they sing', anyone can relate to the tangle of relationships and conflicting loyalties inherent in tight-knit groups.