Choir Ceremonies etc...

Michaelmas Term starts on Monday and I am both nervous and excited about it all. I have spent the day packing in some last minute non-academic reading, (mostly Wilde and Tolkien). Today I was reading my 1943 edition of Adrian Fortescue's The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described. I enjoy reading this book because one of my interests is Church ceremonial and Liturgy. I was reading his section on the Quarant' Ore, but then turned to the chapter on Choir Ceremonies. I was reminded to do so because something was irritating me. I then came across this delectable quote:

''All text books of ceremonial insist on certain obvious points of deportment in choir. It goes without saying that the members of the choir should know what they have to do beforehand, so as to be ready to act at once when the time comes. Although their part of the ceremony is comparatively small, nevertheless they have a part in it. They must know this part, as the servers know theirs. They should kneel, stand and sit straight, behaving always with such reverence as to give edifying example to the people in church. They should not spend the time in choir reading irrelevant books, even pious ones. They should not, for instance, say their Office during Mass nor anticipate their own Matins during Vespers.

''They should attend to the public service at which they assist, making this their prayer. When they recite or sing any text of the service they should mean what they say; Orabo spiritu, orabo et mente: psallam spiritu, psallam et mente (I Cor. XIV,15). Otherwise their attendance would not be really an act of religion at all, and they would deserve the words: This people honours me with its lips; but its heart is far from me (Is. XXIX, 13).'' (Adrian Fortescue, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, Chapter V, The Choir and Assistants at Ceremonies, p 29).

I wonder, does this admonition against reading ''irrelevant books, even pious ones'' extend to doing other things in Choir?

The above image depicts the wonderful Choir stalls from the parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Astley, Warwickshire.