London — On a foggy afternoon in the days before Easter, about a dozen schoolchildren entered a side building of Rochester Cathedral and began their transformation.
Out went the jackets and backpacks, in came the burgundy cassocks and white surplices. Then they gathered in the church, opened their mouths and sang as one. The youth group had become a choir that gave voice to the tradition of choral music in the Church of England, which has remained largely unchanged for nearly 500 years.
Adrian Bawtry, the choir’s music director, said, “I think it’s one of the sounds of our country. All our cathedrals are beautiful, sacred places where you can come and just sit and you can be immersed, bathed, nourished, and in 30 minutes sent back into the world transformed by an experience.”
The symbol of that tradition is Choral Evensong, an evening service of psalms, hymns, and prayers introduced in 1549 by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of the Church of England. The service is performed by a choir, with the congregation participating only by listening.
But that tradition is under threat as the demands of modern life, declining church attendance and reduced funding make it harder to find and train the next generation of singers.
Enthusiasts are trying to reverse this, launching a campaign for the government to recognize the English Choral Services as an important part of UK culture under a United Nations program that seeks to protect “intangible cultural heritage” as well as historic buildings and natural wonders.
The UK government is seeking nominations for a nationwide list of cultural traditions – from Morris dancing to the craft of building dry stone walls – that should be protected. The government says it is important to protect such traditions to strengthen community identity and strengthen the UK economy as heritage tourism spends billions of pounds annually.
While many people have been introduced to English choral services through the angelic voices of singers in royal robes and Elizabethan ruffs singing at royal weddings and carol services, choirs perform every day in much more modest settings.
And many are struggling, according to the Cathedral Music Trust, which was founded in 1956 to reverse the decline of church music after the Second World War. Last year it gave 500,000 pounds ($661,000) to 28 cathedrals and churches across the country.
this may take several. Rochester, for example, spends about 250,000 pounds ($330,000) a year on music, a substantial outlay for a provincial cathedral but less than some.
The Trust hopes that recognition of the English choral tradition will attract attention and provide much-needed funding to the singers, which they say is an important training ground for future musicians, both religious and secular.
“Even though this happens every day, it’s really quite delicate,” said Jonathan Mayes, CEO of the trust. “It takes a lot of work and a lot of money to really get it done and it doesn’t come without effort.”
Preserving Evensong is historically important because the service was instrumental in the development and spread of the modern English language, said Diarmaid McCulloch, an expert on Christianity and an emeritus professor at the University of Oxford.
The service is based on the Book of Common Prayer, which was compiled by Cranmer to make English the language of the Church of England after it split from the Latin-dominated Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation.
The idea was to create services that everyone could be a part of.
“It’s very much a play, and it’s a play that has been performed by the people of England from 1549 to the present day,” McCulloch said. “It is a vehicle for demonstrating greater public consciousness than any of Shakespeare’s plays.”
And while a growing number of choirs, including Rochester’s, now take girls as well as boys, in other respects not much has changed since then.
“The service will actually be quite recognizable for Queen Elizabeth I as well as Queen Elizabeth II,” McCulloch said. “And that’s quite remarkable.”
Bawtry, director of music at Rochester Cathedral, is one of those working to preserve the tradition as he oversees the youngest singers aged 9–13, known as choristers, as well as a youth choir for older children. All backed by professional adult singers.
Bawtry said that he was attracted to church music after he first heard an organ play and a choir sing when he was about 9 years old. Now he wants people to know that services like Evensong make it possible for anyone, no matter their faith, to hear beautiful choral music.
“When I heard it, it was like big octopus arms came and grabbed me and said, ‘You have to be a part of this.’ So I guess I’m trying to talk to that 9 year old and say that actually this is something that most people, if not everyone, can talk about.
He added, “And because I had that experience, I want to share that with future generations and be passionate about it.” “We talk about the world of awareness and the power of music to change lives. This is an extraordinary area where that can happen.”
___
Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.
