Sewanee Church Music Conference 2022 – Links to Evensong and Eucharist

On Friday July 15 the 110-voice conference choir presented Choral Evensong in the lovely candlelit, incense-fragranced All Saints’ Chapel. The choir also participated in July 17 Sunday Eucharist with a professional brass quintet and timpani, and it was truly glorious. Below are Vimeo links to both liturgies. I’ve marked the specific times where the music is, in case you want to just hear parts of the services.

TO WATCH (ALL OR PART OF) CHORAL EVENSONG: Go to the link https://vimeo.com/user9481406 which will take you to Sewanee’s VIMEO page that has several videos that look alike, they all have the front of All Saints Chapel on them. Hover over them until you get to the one that’s 1:09:28 long. (It may be the third one down on the left.) Choral Evensong had its pre-Reformation origin in Vespers which was traditionally done near sunset. It is a sung office, which means what you would think: most of it is sung rather than spoken. At Canterbury Cathedral, Evensong has been sung every day without fail (so they say) through war, famine, pestilence, and plague since the Reformation (I’m skeptical and researching this a bit…) As you can see, there is a lengthy organ prelude, but the actual singing begins at 18:20 after the choir has processed in:

5:35 Prelude: Organ voluntaries – Thomas Tallis, Herbert Howells

14:32 choir processes in (it’s a huge choir and we’re not singing, so not much to see)

18:20 Opening hymn 35 – Christ, mighty Savior

22:03 The Invitatory and Psalter: Preces – Richard Ayleward (about as Anglican as it gets!)

23:18 Psalm 118 – Anglican Chant (this is a looooong psalm! I would just listen to part of it.)

34:32 Canticle: The Song of Mary (Magnificat in D) – George Dyson 

43:00 Canticle: The Song of Simeon (Nunc dimittis in D) – George Dyson

46:50 Prayers – Responses – more Ayleward

52:00 Anthem: Evening Hymn – Henry Balfour Gardiner (my favorite of the week)

1:00:29 Hymn: Abide with me, hymn 662 (this was quite moving)

1:04:38 Concluding organ voluntary – Choral, Opus 37, No.4  Joseph Jongen

TO WATCH (ALL OR PART OF) SUNDAY EUCHARIST: Go to the link https://vimeo.com/user9481406 which will take you to Sewanee’s VIMEO page that has several videos that look alike, they all have the front of All Saints Chapel on them. Hover over them until you get to the one that’s 1:34:09 long. (It may be the second one down on the right.) Watch for Wendy and me on the left. Here are times for some musical highlights and the sermon by the Rev. Barbara Crafton:

5:22 Prelude with brass quintet and organ – Feierlicher Einzug   Richard Strauss 

12:54 Opening Hymn with brass, timpani, and full  procession – O day of radiant gladness 

28:54 Sequence Hymn with brass – Be thou my vision

34:38 – Sermon by The Rev. Barbara Crafton

58:04 – Offertory Anthem – Put Your Trust in God – Jack Burnam (winner of 2020 Fyfe Composition Prize) 

1:15:31 – Communion Anthem – Locus Iste – Anton Bruckner 

1:20:31 – Recessional Hymn with brass, timpani – Love divine all loves excelling

1:25:53 Organ Postlude – Fantasia in G, BWV 572- J. S. Bach  (this is impressive and fiendishly difficult so no, don’t ask me to play it!)

HOPE YOU ENJOY THESE BEAUTIFUL LITURGIES!