St. Paul's remembers The Fallen

To mark the centenary of WW I, on Nov. 7 St. Paul’s Cathedral broadcast a live evensong service as part the incomparable BBC Radio 3 series of Choral Evensong. As with all broadcasts, it will be available for a month (i.e. until Dec 11) and then never again.

The program included one English composer who died in the Great War:

St Paul’s Cathedral, London

Choral EvensongLive from St Paul’s Cathedral, London, to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Introit: When you see the millions of the mouthless dead (Macmillan)
Responses: Radcliffe
Psalm 85 (Hemmings) 
First Lesson: Isaiah 57 vv.15-19
Canticles: William Denis Browne in A
Second Lesson: John 15 vv.9-17
Anthems: Lord, let me know mine end (Parry); For the fallen (Blatchly)
Hymn: O God our help in ages past (St Anne)
Voluntary: Chorale Fantasia on ‘O God our Help' (Parry)

Andrew Carwood (Director of Music)
Simon Johnson (Organist)

These composers (all English except for the Scottish MacMillan):

• Sir James MacMillan CBE (1959- )
• Philip Radcliffe (1905-1986)
• Alan Stephen Hemmings (1934-) — not to be confused with singer David Hemmings
• William Dennis Browne (1888-1915), who died in the battle of Gallipoli
• Sir C.H. Hubert Parry (1848-1918), a fan of German music who died in the great influenza epidemic
• Mark Blatchy (1960- ), best known for this war remembrance anthem

The service was not from the (1662) Book of Common Prayer, so presumably it was from the contemporary language Common Worship (2000).

The BBC series broadcasts confirm what is customary for a cathedral evensong: the only piece sung by the congregation is the closing hymn. In this case, it was all six verses of  “O God our help in ages past” (1719) by Isaac Watts with an earlier tune believed composed by William Croft.