Take from the Choral Evensong Trust...

The History of Evensong

BBC Radio 3’s “Choral Evensong” has been the longest continuously running outside broadcast in history, since it begun in 1926. It is broadcast live each Wednesday (with repeats on Sundays and availability on BBC Sounds) from countrywide locations. The combination of beautiful music in exceptional buildings, together with the opportunity Choral Evensong affords us to pause in our busy lives is surely in part responsible for its enduring popularity.

You do not need any particular religious belief to enjoy Evensong. Richard Dawkins once said, "I have a certain love for Evensong". The nature of the service allows people to engage with it in their own way. There is very little for the congregation to do: sit, stand, say the Creed if desired, maybe sing a hymn. That’s it. The choir do the rest: it’s what they are there to do nearly every day of the week.

The origins of Evensong can be traced back to Christ himself, in his fellowship with his disciples which later evolved into Christian scripture, poetry and doctrine, at a time when Jews would pray at certain times of day. One of the most effective aspects of Evensong is the way it effortlessly weaves in so much history into an elegantly simple 45 minute form.

As an English language service, Evensong dates back to the time of the Reformation, using elements of the old monastic Offices of Vespers and Compline. The liturgy (a fixed set of words and ceremonial features) that the Church uses to this day was laid out in Archbishop Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer, the first version of which appeared in 1549. The music took shape a few decades later, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, with great composers like William Byrd and Thomas Tallis developing exquisite polyphonic choral music specifically for this new service, and in each subsequent generation new composers have continued to add masterworks of classical choral music to the repertoire of Evensong. This has inspired a unique 500-year-old unbroken tradition of choir school foundations across Britain and Ireland responsible for the high standard of choral singing maintained to this day.

Cranmer created the liturgy of Evensong with the general public in mind, motivated by its condensing several monastic offices into one short service.

Evensongs long evolution brings with it a powerful sense of connecting present with past, of tapping into something much greater than ourselves. As we come together in a church building at the end of the day we join a vast community enduring both through time and in the same place, by acting in the same way as countless people have done before us for over a thousand years.

Evensong may also literally "en-chant" our land through chant, the music to which psalms are sung. The concept of perpetual choirs has been around for millennia, and some choirs in Britain come close to this ideal by singing Evensong each day of the week, throughout the year, every year. Thinking another way, the global choral evensong tradition may function as one large perpetual choir, "enchanting" the world.

When you attend Choral Evensong you will find it almost always follows the wording of the Book of Common Prayer. Although the definitive version was published in 1662, it includes much of the original 1549 version, including the translation of the psalms by Myles Coverdale, which precedes the version in the King James Bible of 1611. Many church services apart from Choral Evensong are now conducted in modern English. For a directory of churches that use the Book of Common Prayer in their services, see the website of the Prayer Book Society, which promotes its use and understanding.

The interspersing of these varied musical forms amongst passages of beautiful spoken liturgy and moments of contemplative silence lends a balance, completeness, and complex psychology to the form of the choral evensong service.

The high proportion of music in Choral Evensong is arguably what distinguishes it from other church services. You do not have to pay to come to hear this choral music, performed live to a high standard. The music carries us beyond the limitations of human words towards those things we cannot articulate. The Magnificat is a joyful song, the Nunc Dimittis a sung plea, the Psalms pure praise. Music's communication of these feelings is immediate.

Whatever we may believe, Choral Evensong is a beautiful tradition just waiting to be witnessed that can give respite and inspiration during our busy modern lives.