Evensong in Oxford
A sung evening service, and a way to hear some of the country's best-known choirs in the setting they were founded for.
What is evensong?
Evensong is a church service traditionally held near twilight, built around the singing of psalms and biblical canticles, usually in the Anglican church music tradition. It is loosely based on the old canonical hours of vespers and compline. The word comes from the Old English æfensang, a rendering of the Latin vesperas. The Book of Common Prayer, produced by the English Reformation, supplied a version that abbreviated the medieval vespers and compline.
In choral evensong, the whole service is sung or chanted by the officiating minister and a choir. In cathedrals the canticles are set to elaborate music. Composers of canticle settings include Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Charles Villiers Stanford, Herbert Howells and Arvo Pärt.
The three choral foundations
Magdalen, New College and Christ Church are the three choral foundations in Oxford: each has a choir written into its founding statutes. Cathedrals and a number of university college chapels, Oxford's among them, offer evensong regularly. Choral evensong is usually sung in term time; outside term it is often sung by a voluntary or visiting choir, or replaced with said Evening Prayer. Check the relevant chapel's website for the current service list before you go.
Christ Church Cathedral
There has been a choir at the cathedral since 1526, when John Taverner was organist and master of the choristers. The main choir has twelve adults (six lay-clerks and six academical clerks) and sixteen choristers, boys aged 7 to 13 from Christ Church Cathedral School. The Cathedral Singers, a volunteer choir, are usually in residence outside term time, when the main choir is on holiday. The cathedral is one of the smallest in the Church of England. It is part of Christ Church.
Magdalen College
Magdalen's chapel has services, said and sung, daily in term. Its choir consists of twelve academical clerks, two organ scholars and sixteen choristers who hold scholarships at Magdalen College School. Check the college's chapel pages for the current service times before you go. The same choir sings from Magdalen Tower on May Morning.
New College
The Choir of New College is part of the collegiate foundation established by William of Wykeham in 1379, and consists of approximately 16 boys and 14 men. It is regarded as one of the leading choirs of the world and has won two Gramophone Awards.
Girls' voices
Since May 2019, Frideswide Voices, a group created to give girls the chance to sing in the chapels of Magdalen College, New College and Christ Church, has been part of the cathedral's choral foundation.
Hearing it elsewhere
The BBC has broadcast a weekly service of Choral Evensong since 1926.
Before you go
Service days, times and any seating arrangements vary by chapel and by term. Check the official pages for Christ Church Cathedral, Magdalen and New College.