Clare College Choral Evensong, Easter 2025

All members of Clare Hall are warmly welcome to Clare Choral Evensong, sung by the Clare College Choir on Sunday 11th May at 6pm in Clare Chapel. Clare College’s Sunday Evensong services during Easter Term are on the theme of ‘Faith in Music’, and each week a visiting speaker will unpack the meaning of a famous choral piece that the Choir will sing. On 11th May, the service focuses on the music of Benjamin Britten, one of the most important British composers of the 20th century. The Choir will sing his unquestionable masterpiece, Rejoice in the Lamb, a highly original setting of words by Christopher Smart written while the poet was in an asylum, and Professor Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity & the Arts at King’s College London, will explore Britten’s piece in the Address. Evensong opens with The Evening Primrose, Britten’s setting of words by John Clare, and the canticles are set in G minor by Henry Purcell, regarded by many as the composer from whom Britten took the greatest influence. The Evensong service is framed by Britten’s organ Prelude and Fugue on a theme of Vittoria, and is preceded at 5.25pm by a vocal recital of Debussy’s 3 Chansons de Bilitis and Strauss’s 4 Lieder, Op. 27. The service will last about an hour, and will be followed by drinks in the Scholars’ Garden (ante-chapel if wet), and then by a roast supper in Hall for those who would like to stay (£7.70, which can be paid on the night). We are really looking forward to welcoming you all for this special termly celebration of our links as college communities! 

Clare Hallers are also welcome to attend all Chapel services at Clare, and may find it easier to enter via the Queens’ Road gate, which has an intercom to the Porters’ Lodge to request access.