Members of the public are invited to join the congregation for Choral Evensong, for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Joined by the brass of the BBC Concert Orchestra, at the heart of the service is Hubert Parry’s large-scale verse anthem, Hear my words, ye people. Written for the Festival of the Salisbury Diocesan Choral Association in 1894, Parry’s original scoring for brass, organ, timpani and choir has largely been forgotten, which makes it all the more special to hear this arrangement by Grayston Ives for the same forces, after the edition from musicologist Jeremy Dibble from Parry’s autograph score.
The service opens with Reena Esmail’s We Look for You, taken from A Winter Breviary, which sets a new text by poet Rebecca Gayle Howell for the canonical hour of Evensong, whilst the music maps the Hindustani raag for the same hour (Raag Hamsadhwani).
Salisbury Cathedral remains thematically present throughout the service with works by Owain Park and Richard Shephard that were written for the Cathedral before Paul Walton’s rousing arrangement for brass and organ of Herbert Brewer’s Marche Héroïque.
Image: Owain Park
