Evening Service

Biblical text: Lk 1,46–55; Lk 2,29–32

The Evening Service grew out of the celebrations of the one thousandth anniversary of the consecration of St Michael’s Church in Hildesheim, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. For many years St Michael’s has celebrated the service of Choral Evensong, the rich musical conjunction of the divine offices of vespers and compline, which is so familiar within the Anglican tradition.

In the Catholic daily office of evening prayer, particularly in the Cologne version of choral vespers, the Magnificat of Mary and Simeon’s Nunc dimittis from chapters 1 and 2 of Luke are also set to music. Both pieces explore the text, and they can be sung independently of each other – both in worship and in concert – and yet they are connected through individual motifs and the shared doxology.