Evensong (Anglican Church Office). Defend us from all Perils and Dangers of this Night

For me, Evensong is the most intimate, the most poignant and personal, of church services. Unsurprisingly, it was the inspiration for many of England's greatest composers of church music.

The Documentary

Here is a lovely, gentle, if idiosyncratic BBC "Everyman" documentary featuring Winchester Cathedral Choir. It first aired on 6th December 1992. It centres on the personal reflections and reminiscences of Dame Betty Ridley, a former Church Estates Commissioner of the Church of England. She died in 2005 aged 95.

The Office of Evensong

Choral Evensong (Sung Office of Evening Prayer) derives from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. Is widely acclaimed as a treasure of Church of England and the wider Anglican liturgy. Its particular choral style is uniquely characteristic of the Anglican Church and draws its origins from the sung liturgies of monastic communities of the early centuries of the church’s life. The service is characterised by musical settings performed by clergy (as cantor) in plainsong, choir and organ, comprising verses from scripture, psalms, biblical songs (canticles) hymns, and an anthem.

Music for Evensong

Evensong was initially sung entirely to plainsong. Musicians gradually created polyphonic settings of its music, especially of the Magnificat.

The first musical setting of the Book of Common Prayer, by John Marbeck (1510 – 1585) provided a simplified version of traditional chant settings. It remains unclear whether plainsong remained a common feature of evensong in the Church of England after the sixteenth century. Metrical psalms and Anglican Chant were also developed as alternate methods of singing the psalms and canticles.

In choral evensong, all of the service is sung or chanted by the officiating minister and a choir. In cathedrals, or on particularly important days in the church calendar, the canticles are performed in elaborate settings. In churches where a choir is not present, simpler versions of the psalms and canticles are usually sung by the congregation, sometimes with responses and collects spoken rather than sung. Said evening prayer services with the musical setting omitted are also sometimes referred to as evensong.

A number of composers have contributed settings of the canticles. These range from High Renaissance composers such as Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, through Victorian composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford, Thomas Attwood Walmisley to later masters of the form such as Herbert Murrill, Basil Harwood, Herbert Howells, Michael Tippett, Giles Swayne, and Arvo Pärt (who composed a Magnificat and Nunc dimittis at different times).

With grateful acknowledgement to YouTuber Peregrine Tomkins, who somehow excavated this from the BBC Archive.

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