Choral Evensong

A busy weekend, with a choir party and a bring and share meal on Saturday, the last church service for our choir on Sunday before the summer break, followed by a birthday lunch in a Pancake restaurant in The Hague and Choral Evensong in the Hooglandse Kerk in Leyden on Sunday evening.

Worth mentioning is the Choral Evensong. There was a guest choir, well versed in the Anglican tradition. Here is the musical order of service:

Introit: Ave Verum by William Byrd (1543-1623)

Preces and Responses: William Smith (1603-1645)

Psalm 66, Jubilate Deo, on a triple chant by R. J. Ashfield, a modern composer.

Canticles: Charles Wood (1866-1926)

Anthem: Psalm 100 by John Rutter

Byrd, beautifully sung by the Tallis Scholars

All was well sung, but also spiritually uplifting. Very often Choral Evensongs in Holland, in non-Anglican churches, are too stylized and spiritually just empty shells. For me Choral Evensong is a beautiful and very meaningful form of worship, not a concert. It need not be flawless, although of course the aim is to give our best in worship to God, but it should be meaningful, a way to open our hearts to God.

The hymns were traditional and joyful, and I loved joining in.

NEH 178, 't Is Good Lord to be here

NEH 374, How Sweet the name of Jesus sounds, with its beautiful melody

NEH 427, O Praise ye the Lord, and

NEH 368, Guide me , O thou great Redeemer

Although I had to hurry to get there in time and so had no time to cycle but had to take the car and pay for a parking ticket, it was well worth going and it filled me with happiness. It was the perfect end to a Sunday. And an antidote to the morning service, which lasted for almost two hours, twice as long as Evensong. But - for me at least - not twice as uplifting. On the contrary...! 

Rutter; A sharp contrast with Byrd and the Tallis singers!