Evensong at the cathedral

This afternoon the Redeemer University College Choir sang at the choral evensong service at Christ Church Cathedral, downtown Hamilton. To say that it was a transcendentally beautiful experience would be something of an understatement. As usual, director Chris Teeuwsen produced a wonderful sound from his youthful ensemble. What I found remarkable was that they sang Psalm 145 to a familiar Anglican chant (familiar to Anglicans at any rate) as if they had been singing this genre all their lives. It flowed so naturally and beautifully that one would hardly imagine that the vast majority of the singers come from quite different liturgical traditions.

The service was taken from evening prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. The liturgy combines the ancient rites of Vespers and Compline from the canonical hours celebrated in the monasteries in the western church. This means that both gospel canticles, the Magnificat (Vespers) and the Nunc Dimittis (Compline), were sung.

I could listen to this sort of thing every week.