The service of Evensong is one of few within the church that continues to attract new congregations and maintains an almost 'cult' following. At the mid-point between active day and restful night, Evensong gives listeners time for contemplation and continues to inspire some of the greatest church music ever written.

Evident from BBC Radio 3's continued Wednesday broadcast of the service, Evensong attracts its audience through an invitation of 'being'. Being in sound and in communion with sound. As a member of the congregation, there's little to get 'right' or 'wrong'. Being both free of charge and free of religious commitment, Evensong's following includes atheists, and believers of all religious traditions. Richard Dawkins even once professed his 'certain love for Evensong'. 

Either side of the service's New Testament readings are the evening canticles, the core repertoire of the Evensong - Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. One, the Magnificat, is a song of a young woman, Mary, rejoicing at the prospect of her child's birth. The ensuing Nunc Dimittis is the voice of an old man named Simeon, reflecting on meeting Jesus and accepting his own death. Composers have set these two texts for centuries, but the 20th century produced some of the most important settings we know and hear today. 

Alongside these well-known canticles, many exist that haven't yet entered into the standard repertory, either due to being written so recently, or due to their composer's gender, race or faith tradition. Introducing five classic settings that move me, it became clear I needed also to introduce the five that my research uncovered to me. Settings that some may have heard of, but certainly need greater celebration.

Five classic Evensong settings

1. Charles Villers Stanford in G

Contributing an extensive collection of evening canticles, Stanford's name cannot be avoided when exploring classic Evensong settings. It is generally accepted that it is thanks to Stanford that the settings of the church are recognised in the way they are today. The G major service reflects the songs of Mary and Simeon through exuberant solo writing, using treble and bass solo voices respectively. Written in 1902 for Royal College of Music colleague and organist of St Paul’s Cathedral, Sir George C Martin, the G major canticles remain alongside Stanfords B flat and C settings as some of the most popular choices for choirs and were brilliantly described by Gramophone's Michael White as being distinctively 'school of Fauré'.

2. Herbert Sumsion in G

Organist of Gloucester Cathedral in the latter part of Elgar's life, Herbert Sumsion is a name not known by many outside of the church music circle, though he made an impressive contribution to chamber music, especially towards the end of his life. The evening canticles in G are popular choices for choirs today and I have chosen my favourite recording by the choir St John's College, Cambridge. This could be a contender my favourite of all Evensong settings, mostly due to the fascinating harmonic structure and wonderful organ accompaniment. 

3. George Dyson in D

Another RCM tutor, Dyson is probably best known for his oratorio The Canterbury Pilgrims, but the evening canticles in D and F also receive frequent performance. Written during an extended stay in Dresden in 1907, these canticles completely inhabit the glory often associated with D major and showcases his knowledge of the power of unison singing. 

4. Herbert Howells: St Paul's Service

It was between the St Paul's service and the Gloucester service when I was examining which of Howells's settings to include. This setting has a particularly strong resonance and seems to capture the scale of the space for which it was written. Howells set the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis a total of 20 times, reflecting his dedication to church music, the St Paul's service written for the cathedral in 1950. Another Royal College of Music connection, Howells studied with Stanford, the connection inspiring a new generational contribution to Anglican church music.

5. Gabriel Jackson: Truro Service

Gabriel Jackson's music is a contemporary example of extensive and committed church writing. Among a collection of Evensong settings, arguably the best is his Truro service, commissioned in 2001 by Truro Cathedral's then Director of Music, Andrew Nethsingha. Alternating solo, plainchant-style sections with homorhythmic passages for full choir, this music possesses an understated emotional intensity and harmonic resonance. 

Five evensong settings you might not know

1. William Henry Harris in A major 

William Henry Harris's dates (1883-1973) place him right within the boom of Anglican church music. Another graduate of the Royal College, Harris is best known for his two anthems for unaccompanied choir: Faire is the heaven (1925), which is a setting of Edmund Spenser's poem 'An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie'; and Bring us, O Lord God, a setting of a poem by John Donne first heard in Windsor on 29 October 1959, and which was sung at the Committal Service of Queen Elizabeth II at St George's Chapel, Windsor on 19 September 2022. The setting in A major is one I came across accidentally but was immediately moved by. 

2. Dobrinka Tabakova: Truro Canticles 

Another dedication to Truro Cathedral's magnificent building and choir, Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova's Truro Canticles appear on disc alongside others of her works for choir and received a Gramophone critic's choice in December 2019. Truro Cathedral began accepting girl choristers in 2015, and Tabakova's Truro Canticles formed the centrepiece of the first live BBC Radio 3 broadcast by Truro Cathedral Choir with its girl choristers on International Women’s Day 2017.

3. Roxanna Panufnik: St Pancras Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music and first performed by the Choir of St Pancras Church at the festival in 2014, Roxanna Panufnik's mag and nunc break the mould in being written both a cappella and using the Latin text. They are wonderfully sonorous and take us to a new space in church music, the lack of accompaniment doesn't compromise the broad six-part texture in this recording made by Ex Cathedra in 2017.

4. Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

Written in 2017 for Peterborough Cathedral Choir, Cheryl Frances-Hoad's canticles also begin with an unaccompanied Magnificat, allowing for a degree of rhythmic freedom. The ensuing Nunc Dimittis begins with an ethereal drone deep in the bass which rises to create a great blanket of sustained sound with the later addition of organ who has the last word with an F major chord which slowly dies away.

5. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in F 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's music has been rightly championed in recent years, following many years of unfortunate neglect. Much focus has been put on his array of chamber music, songs and piano music, but Coleridge-Taylor's RCM and Elgarian connections saw contributions also to church music. The fascinating contribution of his F major canticles were written in 1899, and certainly hearken to a romantically-influenced, 'Stanford' compositional style. I hope they become part of the standard repertory for church choirs going forward.