23 June 2010 at 4:00 pm
Choral Evensong this Wednesday 23 June will be broadcast live from Westminster Abbey by BBC Radio 3.
This service of English choral music, on the Eve of the Birth of John the Baptist, includes music by former Organists of Westminster Abbey.
The Choir will sing a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis by Edmund Hooper (c1553–1621). Hooper held the post of Master of the Choristers from c1585 and in 1606 may have become the Abbey’s first Organist regularly-appointed by patent.
This is the record of John, for soloist and full chorus, begins the service. This setting of the well-known Gospel passage in which John the Baptist declares himself the voice ‘that crieth in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord’ is possibly the most famous verse anthem by the composer Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625). Gibbons had worked with Edmund Hooper at the Chapel Royal, and two years after Hooper’s death followed in his footsteps as Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey.
The service also includes music by William Byrd (c1540–1623), one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance.
The evensong will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (90–93 FM and online) on Wednesday 23 June at 4.00 pm. You can also listen to it via the BBC iPlayer for seven days following the service.
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