Trust in the Lord with all thine heart

Once a year, our Youth Choir joins the Adult Choir for Choral Evensong. It is, in my opinion, the most musically important service of the year, for it is always a first introduction to Choral Evensong for some of the choristers – this year, ten of them, almost half of the Youth Choir and more than half of the trebles. I wrote of this at considerable length last year after the equivalent service,so I will not repeat myself.

Instead, I will say that I am very proud of them – the first-year choristers for making it through the service (which any practitioner of Evensong knows is not a trivial accomplishment), and the more experienced choristers for their leadership. Several times I saw them help the new singers find the next piece when they lost their place, and musically, it is these second-and-third year (and beyond) choristers who carry the sound and make it possible for us to sing this music.

And the adults. On this night, we had one adult tenor, joined by Max from the youth choir; two adult basses plus Tom (from the youth choir), four altos (and the Smith Responses are alto divisi), three adult sopranos. Their patience with this work – dare I say, their delight in doing it alongside their younger companions – also makes it possible.

And Jean L., who directed about half of the choral music and played the organ on the other half. She is a terrific musician and it is a pleasure and honor to work with her. And Rev'd Judith for her fine sermon, five minutes or so in length and thoroughly appropriate to the occasion and the hearers, many of them young.

I write this two days later, on Tuesday; I can still hardly bring myself to move on with preparations for next Sunday, for my heart is still in the Evensong.


There are several musical items from Sunday that are worth posting; my organ prelude for the Evensong went well, and for those who follow my piano improvisations, I will post that also. I might post the voluntaries and perhaps a hymn from Sunday morning's choral service. And I want to post the Psalm from evensong, which merits some consideration on its own account [Edit: I decided to not post the Psalm. But Psalm 18 does merit discussion someday]. But for today, I have two items from the choral music, each with its reason.

First, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis: the setting in A major by Herbert Sumsion. There are rough edges, for sure; but in my thoroughly biased opinion, once one gets past that, one can hear the Music. I hope that you will hear the choir's enthusiastic commitment to the sound.

One reason I post this would be that there are surprisingly few versions of it on YouTube. Here is one of the few, for an example of how it sounds with an excellent choir: Guildford Cathedral in a 1959 performance directed by a twenty-five year old Barry Rose, who later went from Guildford to St. Paul's, London for ten years, and much other significant work since then.

As for the other, it is our anthem: “The Doctrine of Wisdom,” by William Mathias.

I cannot find any recordings of this on YouTube, which is sufficient reason for us to remedy that. It was difficult for our choir, and (again) there are rough edges throughout. But I was determined that we sing it; the text fit the first of the Evensong lessons (Wisdom of Solomon 7:22—8:1), and I wanted very much for the choristers to know this verse, for times when they will need it later on:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths.

“Mr. Cassie, were you crying?” one of the choristers asked me at the reception. When they got to these verses, I was indeed.

[The photos in the clip are from last year's choir, for I do not have any pictures of this year's group. There are fewer adults nowadays, and many more trebles.]


Two footnotes:

I welcome Thomas Radnai and Judith Crossett as subscribers to the YouTube channel. Judith is my friend and fellow choral singer at RSCM courses for many years, as well as a Deacon in our parish and in my opinion the best preacher of any of our clergy.

Thomas Radnai is an organist in Hungary, and he has his own channel devoted to organ music, to which I have linked a few times in these pages. I encourage you to visit it.

I am old enough to be amazed by the manner in which the internet has brought people together from around the world. I do not speak or read Hungarian, and I do not know if Thomas speaks English. But we share a love of music, the King of Instruments, and especially the music of Bach.

Secondly: I have sometimes puzzled over why Choral Evensong is so important, and means more to me than (say) choral concerts, as wonderful as they may be, or even the Holy Eucharist, which by rights should be the most important of liturgies. Worries about this year's RSCM course have brought these thoughts to the foreground; our repertoire packet does not include settings of the Preces and Responses or the Canticles. I understand and accept that we are not by any means all Episcopalians – more than half of those who attend the Course are from other faith traditions, and these specifically Episcopal/Anglican items are of little practical use to them. So perhaps it is time for us to do something else at the evening service on Saturday, and that may be the direction we are headed this year. This is only a guess, based on the repertoire list (which is excellent; there is plenty of music that will be a joy to sing).

But I think it is precisely because of the Preces and Responses, the Psalmody, and the Canticles that Evensong is special, and why it is such a challenge to a choir, which in turn makes them a better choir than they would otherwise be. I will say more on this soon when I post Psalm 18, but for now, I note that these things require a high degree of concentration (the Psalmody most of all), attentive listening to one another, and spiritual focus – all in ways that concert music does not, nor the Eucharist.