Choral Evensong

The Choir of St. John’s, Shaughnessy will offer the traditional Anglican service of Choral Evensong.

• Introit: Richard Farrant, Hide Not Thou Thy Face
• Responses: Thomas Tomkins
• Canticles: Healey Willan, Fauxbourdon Evening Service
• Anthem: Orlande de Lassus, Amen, amen dico vobis

On the Second Sunday in Lent, we take a more subdued approach to our evening service offerings in keeping with the solemn and austere sensibilities of the season. Richard Farrant and Thomas Tomkins works are highly regarded staples of the English renaissance, and Healey Willan’s renaissance-inspired setting of the canticles draws us further back, steeped in psalm tone melodies over a thousand years old. Orlande de Lassus was one of the most prolific composers of the 16th century, and in his setting of John 5:24, we hear Jesus’ reassurance that, though we are surrounded by death, in him we can have life.

Come deepen your Lenten experience with music spanning the centuries, drawing us back to the time of the early church, and meditate on our still broken world that shares so much heaviness and grief with its former self. Come listen to the words of hope that spring up out of this world and draw us ever towards a more glorious one. Come breathe in stillness and beauty and find release from earthly toil and worry. Come share in the 400-year old tradition of Choral Evensong.