BBC4 CE with Lucy Worsley

[ardcarp]

I think this was a repeat, but an interesting (if over-simplified) account of the transition to The Book of Common Prayer evensong.
Choir of The Chapel Royal featured.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0992l4j

[subcontrabass]

Previously broadcast in October 2017 and January 2020.

Gross over-simplification. Key omissions: (1) in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I all services in the Chapel Royal were (as far as I can ascertain) conducted in Latin; (2) the choral aspect of Choral Evensong as we now know it was largely a nineteenth century invention (reconstruction ?) pioneered by the Revd Canon Professor Sir Frederick Gore-Ouseley and others.

[Simon Biazeck]

Previously broadcast in October 2017 and January 2020.

Gross over-simplification. Key omissions: (1) in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I all services in the Chapel Royal were (as far as I can ascertain) conducted in Latin; (2) the choral aspect of Choral Evensong as we now know it was largely a nineteenth century invention (reconstruction ?) pioneered by the Revd Canon Professor Sir Frederick Gore-Ouseley and others.

Could you elaborate, please? Do you mean that there was more text spoken than sung?

SBz.

[Vox Humana]

Key omissions: (1) in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I all services in the Chapel Royal were (as far as I can ascertain) conducted in Latin;

No they weren't! This is a common misunderstanding, partly fuelled by those who don't realise that (three or four early dubia excepted) Byrd's motets are not church music. Her reign did see the publication of a Latin translation of the prayer book—Elizabeth was educated and had no objection to Latin per se—but there is no evidence of it being used in her chapel and, apparently, very little of its use elsewhere. Probably it was used mostly for personal devotions in private.

(2) the choral aspect of Choral Evensong as we now know it was largely a nineteenth century invention (reconstruction ?) pioneered by the Revd Canon Professor Sir Frederick Gore-Ouseley and others.

I'm not sure about that either, though I stand to be corrected. There is plenty of music by English baroque composers, which shows that choral services were kept alive in the cathedrals—although there is evidence that the standards of performance could be very poor (and, one suspects, were nowhere great), at least hundred years after Handel's death. The parish tradition was, however, very different and it's true that Ouseley (no hyphen) played a prominent part in the eventual adoption, even if only on special occasions, of similarly choral services by parish choirs. I honestly can't recall what the Oxbridge colleges were doing during these times. I must read Timothy Day's book again.

[ardcarp]

Surely 17th C. verse settings of the Mag and Nunc were intended for Book of Common Prayer evensong services? Though very probably not in Parish Churches!

[cat]

Indeed, all the aspects of choral evensong as we know it, from anthems to antiphonal psalm singing, have been present in cathedrals since Elizabeth’s time.

Not so in parish churches, where the practice of copying cathedral worship by having a surpliced choir in the chancel was first seen in Leeds in 1818. A reaction to the west gallery singers who were increasingly seen as irreverent, it soon became widespread.

[ardcarp]

A reaction to the west gallery singers who were increasingly seen as irreverent

As happened in Thomas Hardy's Under the Green wood Tree, subtitled The Mellstock Choir. There is some real historic detail in this 'light' read.
A village hall near me (in Hardy country) has on display a few of the original instruments used in the local church's 'gallery choir'.