Prompt #10: Evensong at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's

It seems I died in July of 1720, leaving behind a loving bookish husband, Thomas (see the gravestone spotted by Ryan Pyles at Westminster Abbey, below). I’ve always idealized “tragical romances”; now I can live vicariously through this other Elizabeth Moore and hope for a far less tumultuous reality.

Westminster Abbey is a magnificent but cluttered sacred space, with more graves and memorials than I could count. St. Paul’s Cathedral, on the other hand, largely confined its memorial spaces to the large crypt beneath the nave. I explored both cathedrals in advance of Evensong, a traditional Anglican worship service held in the early evening each day.

The Friday service at St. Paul’s Cathedral and Monday service at Westminster Abbey used nearly identical liturgies. Yet both services felt unique in their own rights. In the Anglican tradition (and the Catholic tradition from which it emerged), liturgy is designed to turn worshippers to God through mysticism. Corporate recitations, divine light and architectural spaces, choral harmonies, and foreign language are all important tools used in worship to cultivate spiritual connection to God in traditional worship services. St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey each used a different group of tools to slightly different effect. I preferred St. Paul’s!

A choir of men and boys (and a few young girls) sang at St. Paul’s Evensong service. The high, bright timbre of the young choristers' voices, supported by the tenor/baritone/bass parts, created a full, overwhelmingly beautiful sound. The quire abuted a colossal dome. As the choristers and men sang, the sound projected into the dome and reverberated. The architecture of the space made for a wet sound. Though some of the lyrics were unintelligible in the large echoey space, I thought the effect was transcendentally spiritual. (See below for photos I took of the nave and quire at St. Paul’s!)

The Westminster Evensong differed in that only adults (men and one woman) composed the choir, which sang in a more enclosed built environment. Their sound was far more direct and trended lower than at St. Paul’s. Though the choir sang mostly in Latin, all lyrics were clear and intelligible. Several contra tenors and the female singer took a higher line sometimes, but the texture was thinner than at St. Paul’s. (See below for a photo of Westminster Abbey I took!)

The makeup of Anglican church choirs in England is the subject of some controversy. I feel no personal ire for the male domination of the Church’s musical tradition. Mixed choirs, male-only choirs, and female-only choirs each contribute distinct, lovely sounds to sacred and secular music. But lots of scholars and members of the public have written about the inequity of choir makeups. St. Paul’s is actively working to increase female representation in its choir program. This September, it will begin admitting an equal number of boys and girls to its Cathedral School and chorister program. This brief thesis abstract describes obstacles to women and girls in Anglican choirs which do admit them. Structures of Cathedral Choirs are designed to uplift men and are not always conducive to the success of women singers. Despite these obstacles, were I a Londoner, I would seize the opportunity to begin singing in an Anglican Cathedral choir, perhaps at St. Paul's.