The apogee of the native church music tradition, Evensong is a jewel born of the English Reformation, but how did it come to be, asks Tom Coxhead?

Evensong is a miraculous success-story for the Anglican Church in an increasingly secular society. Midweek attendance at cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and larger churches has reportedly increased for this evening service of music, scripture, and prayer which is seen as the pinnacle of the so-called English choral tradition. A tradition that has been served by countless generations of musicians – organists, choirmasters, lay clerks, and child choristers – but where does it come from? Very few professional practitioners or clergy really understand what we have inherited, or indeed what we can identify as ‘authentic’. The broad historical narrative is understood: the Reformation, the Book of Common Prayer, the suppression of church music after the Civil Wars and its reinstatement following the Restoration in 1660, but this only scratches the surface and denies Evensong’s much older roots and the remarkable survival of the English choral tradition over the vicissitudes of time...