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Choral Evensong at St. James’ Anglican Church

Choral Evensong at St. James’ Anglican Church

Friday, August 9 at 5 pm | 303 East Cordova Street, Vancouver

St. James’ welcomes the 40-voice Choir from The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School (CRMSS) for Choral Evensong.

The CRMSS Choir will sing the Magnificat by Luca Marenzio, the Nunc Dimittus by Orlande de Lassus, and an Anthem by Andrea Gabrieli.  The sung Versicles and Responses are by William Smith, and Psalm 91 and Psalm 92 are chanted in the Anglican tradition to settings by Richard Woodward and George J Bennett respectively.  The service concludes with one of Charles Wesley finest hymns, “Love divine, all loves excelling,” accompanied on the majestic organ and in the glorious acoustics of St. James’ Anglican Church.

Click to watch the video on Youtube.

Whilst the warp and woof of Evensong is its music, it is how music and the spoken word are woven together in a liturgy that is not only enchanting, but gives respite from the busyness of our lives.  You are invited to come together at St. James’ at 5 pm on Friday, August 9 to experience a powerful sense of connecting past and present, to join in heart and mind with that community that endures through time and space, with whom in the Lord Jesus we are for ever one, and experience something much greater than ourselves.

 

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Music Notes for St. James’ Day — July 28, 2024

Verleih uns Frieden – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

 

Click to watch video on Youtube.

Felix Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) Verleih uns Frieden, this morning’s communion motet, was composed during the period following the composer’s first flush of public success with such undisputed masterpieces as the String Octet and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Between May 1830 and October 1831 Mendelssohn undertook a gruelling tour which included stops at Munich, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna, Pressburg, Graz, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Genoa, Milan and Geneva. By far the longest stay was in Rome, between November 1830 and April 1831, and it was there that he composed this prayer for peace, dated on the manuscript February 10, 1831.

This magical piece, originally scored for choir, two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, strings and organ, is a continuous, three-verse setting (the same text is heard three times) in four parts. The floated introduction leads directly into the quietly contemplative first verse set for basses and tenors alone. Only the last verse utilizes the full forces available, and does so with a generous warmth of expression that leaves one in no doubt that ultimate peace cannot be far away.

Lord God, graciously grant us peace
in our time.
There is no one else who can fight for us,
except you, our God, alone.

Gerald Harder

 

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