legends · 4 min read ·
Attendance Register
A choir's attendance register lists an unnamed bass whose voice fills the space left by those who do not come back.
**St. Aldric's Parish Choir · Attendance Register · Autumn Term**
**Conductor:** Miss Joan Marsh · **Venue:** St. Aldric's Church Hall, Thursdays 19:30
- **Name · Voice · Sept 4 · Sept 11 · Sept 18 · Sept 25 · Oct 2 · Oct 9 · Oct 16**
- Alice Brand · Soprano · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
- Ruth Kemp · Alto · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
- Tom Vane · Tenor · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · — · ✓
- Frank Osei · Tenor · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
- Helen Pryce · Soprano · ✓ · ✓ · — · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
- Dennis Holt · Bass · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
- Peter Ames · Bass · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
- *(no name)* · Bass · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓ · ✓
*Note from conductor: the bass recorded as "(no name)" has signed in on every Thursday since September. The signature is a small, neat tick. No one has seen him arrive. He is always already in his seat when the doors are unlocked.*
· · ·
**Rehearsal minutes (Thursday 4 Sept)**
Present: 7 (plus one in the bass line). Pieces: *Lux Aeterna*, *Ave Verum*, the Stanford. Conductor reports the bass section is "unusually strong this year." Asked the unnamed bass to step forward and identify himself for the register. He did not respond. Continued rehearsal.
· · ·
**Rehearsal minutes (Thursday 16 Oct)**
Present: 7 (plus the bass). The tenor Tom Vane was absent on 9 Oct and has not been seen since. His music has been left on the stand. Dennis Holt says Tom went out to the car park in the rain to fetch a scarf, and didn't come back.
The bass section sang the descant to *Ave Verum* alone, while the altos were still in the vestry. The sound filled the hall. Nobody in the choir had heard the line before. It is not in the score.
· · ·
**Parish council letter (Rev. Frank Osei, to Miss Marsh, 18 Oct)**
Dear Joan,
I've been asked by the parish council to look into the register. It appears the church has no record of a Tom Vane being on the electoral roll, although he has signed the choir book every Thursday since 1994.
I checked the 1994 entry. It's in your hand. Under "Tenor," where he signed. The space beside it has a small pencil mark, made by someone who was counting. I'd like to know who.
· · ·
**Conductor's reply (Joan Marsh, 19 Oct)**
Dear Frank,
I don't know who Tom Vane is. I've always thought he was Dennis's cousin. But I've been looking at the register, and I can see him there in every row, always in the tenor line, always with a tick. Every time he's absent, the bass line gets louder.
I think the unnamed bass has been singing Tom's part. I think he's been singing it since 1994. And I think the reason we can't see who the bass is, is that we're all looking at the wrong end of the choir.
· · ·
**Rehearsal minutes (Thursday 23 Oct)**
Present: 6. Absent: Ruth Kemp (no reason given), Helen Pryce (said she was going to fetch her coat). The register shows both as present.
The unnamed bass was in his seat. The conductor asked him to sing the opening phrase of *Ave Verum* alone. He sang it perfectly, in a voice nobody in the room recognised, and at the end of the phrase, the altos' seats, which were empty, gave a single soft sigh, as if relieved.
· · ·
**Final register entry (Thursday 30 Oct)**
- **Name · Voice · Oct 23 · Oct 30**
- Alice Brand · Soprano · ✓ · ✓
- Ruth Kemp · Alto · — · ✓
- Tom Vane · Tenor · ✓ · ✓
- Frank Osei · Tenor · ✓ · —
- Helen Pryce · Soprano · — · ✓
- Dennis Holt · Bass · ✓ · ✓
- Peter Ames · Bass · ✓ · —
- *(no name)* · Bass · ✓ · ✓
*Conductor's note: the choir disbanded at the end of October. The register went back to the parish office. The office reports eight names in the bass line and seven in every other section, and the church's heating bill has fallen by a third.*