Choral Evening Prayer from Buckfast Abbey, Devon 24.7.13

[DracoM]

Choral Evening Prayer from Buckfast Abbey, Devon
Exon Singers



Order of Service:



Introit: Te lucis ante terminum (Matthew Martin) (first performance)
Responses: Plainsong
Office Hymn: Creator of the earth and sky (Deus Creator)
Psalm: 119:1-38 (Plainsong)
First Lesson: Colossians 2: 12-14
Anthem: A Song of the New Jerusalem (Matthew Martin) (first broadcast)
Second Lesson: Luke 11: 1-13
Homily: The Rt Revd David Charlesworth, Abbot of Buckfast
Canticle: Magnificat primi toni (Agricola)
Lord's Prayer (Richard Bates) (first performance)
Motet: O nata lux (Richard Wilberforce) (first performance)
Final Hymn: Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go (Song 34 - Angels' Song)



Organ Voluntary: Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons, Op. 12 (Duruflé)



Jeffrey Makinson (Organist)
Richard Wilberforce (Conductor)

[jean]

I understand Buckfast Abbey are to have a new DoM very soon.

Perhaps next time they give us a Choral Evening Prayer it will be sung by a choir of their own

[DracoM]

Would break the summer tradition of some years, jean?
Have not the Exon Singers + a plainchant schola + boys and men choir sung this annual service for some time?

But I do agree - good to hear 'home grown.'

[Vox Humana]

I wonder if the pipe organ is back in action yet. I haven't been there recently, but for several months now it has been covered up while restoration work has been under way on the internal fabric. An electronic organ has been doing duty.

[weston752]

Draco, are you mixing the Exons up with Edington? As far as I am aware, the Exons have always been one mixed-voice ensemble.

[DracoM]

Almost certainly. My brain is not my own.

[DracoM]

Today @ 3.30 p.m.

[jean]

I had never heard of the composer Agricola before, but the Magnificat reminds me of English music of the period more than any other Continental composer I have ever heard!

[DracoM]

A very quiet service, some pleasant singing.

My only problem came with the cantoring of the plainchant - as if the cantor was singing impassioned lieder rather than intoning to generate responses. Hmm.