This Wednesday’s Choral Evensong broadcast comes from Bath Abbey. Someone from the Abbey told me that there had been broadcasts from there before, but the last one was in 1984. Certainly I cannot remember ever hearing one. A number of venues disappeared from the evensong broadcast circuit when the second weekly broadcast was dropped; these included St. Clement Danes church, Paisley Abbey and various Roman Catholic foundations. Perhaps Bath Abbey was also a victim of this.
I see that the programme includes Ascribe Unto the Lord by S. S. Wesley. At one time this piece used to be hashed up on a more or less annual basis in broadcasts, sometimes by choirs which were usually very good (the treble/alto verse section especially used to defeat them). In particular, it was the anthem on what I think was the worst evensong broadcast I can remember. However, I heard Bath Abbey girls and men perform it towards the end of last year and feel confident they’ll do it well. I shall be listening in and hope it may lead to further broadcasts.
One thing on the Bath Abbey website rather disappointed me. There is now a page for visiting choirs which invites them to sing on a Sunday or a weekend, but the possibility of doing an isolated Saturday Evensong isn’t raised. I do hope they aren’t being phased out.
(Sun 22 Jan) I think I second Jenny’s comment below. In fact there was a visiting choir at the Abbey yesterday which I went to hear, conducted by the conductor of the Exultate Singers! It was an RSCM regional ‘Cathedral Singers’ choir. I was pleased to see that they’ve now found a use for former girl choristers in some of these choirs, as women and girls were singing sop/alto. When I asked a few years ago about joining one, the organist at the church I then went to said ‘It’s all male!’ and that was that.
I thoroughly enjoyed this performance from Bath, and i hope they will be asked again. First class service!
The evensong I attended and referred to above conducted by David Ogden wasn’t advertised on the Abbey’s website. Conversely, the website advertised choral evensong at 5.15 today, and I turned up to find nothing. It makes it very difficult to attend these services if the information about them is so unreliable.
On other occasions the Abbey has put its pewsheet for the week online, but on Saturday you find the pewsheet for the following Sunday, and so can’t tell whether there is a Saturday evensong. Bath Abbey isn’t alone in doing this; at Wells Cathedral the music list on display on a Saturday usually doesn’t tell you that day’s music. If the lists can’t be changed on Saturday after evensong, perhaps they should begin with Saturday’s music?
Evensong broadcast on June 10th 2007 will be from Bath Abbey again (girls and men, according to the Abbey website – which is still linking to Lent/Easter services on the homepage!)