The lectionary this week includes the reading from Revelation 21, ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away’.
The anthem at our Evensong service on Saturday May 14 at 5pm is the majestic setting of these words by Edgar Bainton. Owen Rees, Professor of Music at Oxford University, pays tribute to this masterpiece:
‘In Bainton’s justly loved treatment of this text … the vision of the world remade steals in with gentle mystery, the texture woven from independent arching lines in the four voices. The announcement ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men’ is presented as a triumphant fanfare for choir and organ, while the final section expresses the end of all tears with poignant intensity.’
Here is the Choir of Kings College Cambridge under Daniel Hyde singing this great anthem.
Source: Owen Rees, 2016, Program notes, Chandos, https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/SIG475.pdf.
Bible quote: New Revised Standard Version
© 1989, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Leave a Reply