Choral Vespers

The current BBC Choral Evensong broadcast from Westminster Cathedral is a good example of Roman Catholic Choral Vespers, which is an ancestor of Anglican Choral Evensong. (For those who wish to listen to it, hurry: it disappears from the Net tomorrow.)

As in Evensong, there is an opening dialogue (V. Deus in adjutorum meum intende. R. Domine ad adjuvandum me festina), then an Office Hymn (where we would sing the Phos Hilaron, “O gracious Light”), then Psalmody.

There is but one Lesson, followed by the Magnificat. In this service, a Homily then occurred, followed by the Lord's Prayer (sung by the choir), spoken intercessions, an Anthem, dismissal, and organ postlude.

Nearly all of the service was in Latin, and most of it in plainsong.

My impressions: I miss the polyphonic Preces and Responses. So far as I know, there is no Roman Catholic equivalent of the Smith Responses, or Ayleward, or any of the other settings. Instead, the Preces is in plainsong and the “responses” are spoken – in this service, they were in a litany form, with short intercessions each followed by the response “Lord, hear our prayer.” As I have written elsewhere, one must sing the Preces as a chorister with enormous energy; I liken it to thoroughbreds in the starting gate, bursting with excitement at the prospect of what lies ahead; in many respects, it is my favorite part of the entire Office. At the other end, what could be finer than the third Amen in Smith? Or its equivalent in many other settings?

Over time, I suspect that I would miss Anglican Chant. The psalmody in this service is splendidly done, with good shape to the plainsong tones and good pauses at the asterisk. But psalmody in Anglican Chant has its own virtues, without which we would be impoverished.

I miss the Nunc Dimittis. In nearly all of the Anglican musical settings, the Nunc Dimittis is a quiet counterpoise to the often more energetic setting of the Magnificat. On the other hand, the Roman version of the Office puts a greater emphasis on the Song of Mary, an emphasis that is not without its advantages. In the service from Westminster Cathedral, by the time one reaches the Magnificat, there has been nearly a half-hour of Latin plainsong, and now – Polyphony! It is like the return of flowers and sunshine in spring. In this service, the setting was the “St. Patrick's Magnificat” by the distinguished Scottish composer James MacMillan, a fine and challenging unaccompanied setting worthy of the long tradition of Latin settings of the Canticle. But I can think of a dozen or more Anglican settings of the Nunc Dimittis which are precious to me. Again, we would be impoverished without such music.

And, as much as I love the great and venerable language of the Western Church, I miss English, or at least the traditional “Rite One” English for which Choral Evensong is almost the final refuge. I hold many aspects of Roman Catholic liturgy, theology, and practice in high esteem, but I also espouse many of the Reformed concepts enshrined in the Book of Common Prayer, not least the idea of liturgy in the English language.

Roman Catholic Vespers is an honorable tradition, much older than what we have as Anglicans. But it may be that Anglican Choral Evensong is our finest gift to the larger Church. There is nothing quite like it in any other tradition.

[Footnote: I commend the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, which outlines the theology of the Daily Office and how it is to be conducted in the Roman Catholic manner. I know of no document equivalent to this in Anglicanism – can anyone suggest something?]