sunday

We sang our choral evensong yesterday. The Copland piece, In The Beginning, is the Genesis text of creation. Instead of singing all seven days through as written, the cantor from the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation chanted that particular day's text in Hebrew at the beginning of each section, and then we sang it.

The bass section has one melodic line that was especially fun to sing, a rolling section about God creating whales.

The Chichester Psalms was commissioned by that cathedral's late dean, Walter Hussey. Hussey also commissioned a Chagall stained glass. The entire cathedral is full of contemporary work that the dean commissioned or encouraged. He was a great believer in bringing new art into the Church. Britten's Rejoice In the Lamb was also commissioned by Hussey for a parish he served at prior to becoming dean at Chichester as well as a Madonna and Child statue by Henry Moore and a painting by Graham Southerland.

Bernstein wrote the text in Hebrew, and despite the difficulty in singing some of this text, it was a treat to hear it all put together.

Unusual choices for choral evensong, but it is hard to fault the arc of this service, at the end of day, as the sun sets, where texts are set to music, and the participant listens and reflects on the words, awash in music and thought.