Choral Evensong
The BBC celebrated 100 years of broadcasting Choral Evensong in October 2026. Evensong is a church service traditionally held near twilight and focused on choral singing of psalms and other biblical canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), a much-loved part of the great Anglican church music tradition. Evensong is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline; its modern name derives from the Latin word vesperas, which evolved in Old English as æfensang.
The first national radio broadcast of Choral Evensong took place from Westminster Abbey on 7 October 1926. Over the past century, Choral Evensong has carried the sound of cathedral, collegiate and parish choirs into millions of homes, creating one of the most enduring traditions in British broadcasting. Here's a BBC article celebrating this enduring tradition. It's widely acknowledged as the longest-running outside broadcast in the world.
For the past fifteen years, the Archive of Recorded Church Music has been assembling a collection of BBC Choral Evensong broadcasts. More than 2,500 recordings have now been collected and catalogued, creating an extraordinary record of the changing sound of the English choral tradition. You'll find the archive here (link opens in new tab)
The charity Cathedral Music Trust works hard to ensure the continuation of opportunities for boy and girl choristers and is leading a campaign to secure Unesco status for English sacred choral music.
The celebrated pianist Stephen Hough, wrote in his book, Rough Ideas [published by Faber, ISBN: 9780571350483], about the 'wondrous phenomen' of Evensong, :
Occasionally I like to attend Choral Evensong, the Church of England's evening service, adapted after the Reformation from the monastic hour of Vespers. It is a wondrous phenomenon. Even the word "Evensong' Is poetic, and it seems to chime in practice is so sus-perfect harmony with England's seasons: autumn's melancholy, early-evening light; the merry crackle of winter frost; spring's alicism's awakening, or the lazy, protracted sun strained through the warmed windows of a summer afternoon ang
Evensong hangs on the wall of English life like an old, familiar cloak passed through the generations. Rich with prayer and Scripture, it is nevertheless totally non-threatening. It is a service into which all can stumble without censure - a rambling old house where everyone can find some corner to sit and think, to listen with half-attention, trailing a few absent-minded fingers of faith or doubt in its passing stream.
Most religious celebrations gather us around a table of some sort. They hand us a book, or a piece of bread, or speak a word demanding a response. They want to 'touch' us. Choral Evensong is a liturgical expression of Christ's Noli me tangere - 'Do not touch me. I have not yet ascended to my Father' (John 20:17).
It reminds us that thresholds can be powerful places of contemplation, and that leaving someone alone with their thoughts is not always denying them hospitality or welcome. Furthermore, the singing from the choir involves us yet leaves us free; we don't have to enter into it if the music has entered into us. The connection is made. It needs no name. We are known. We are accepted.
Look out for a future Fullscore printed sheet music book publication (in the Songs without Words series) of choral music arranged for piano. Two classic choral anthem tasters, arranged for solo piano, have already been published (free downloads until the Songs without Words book is published):
[Click for download product page - opens in new tab]
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