Sunday 1st May, Rogation Sunday this year, we also have our 6pm First Sunday Choral Evensong and Benediction.

To mark the day, the Anthem will be “The Heavens are telling the Glory of God” by Franz Joseph Haydn from his Oratorio, The Creation. Die Schöpfung, written between 1797 and 1798 is considered by many to be his masterpiece. The oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as described in both the Book of Genesis and Paradise Lost. It is scored for soprano, tenor and bass soloists representing the Archangels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael, and in Part III Adam & Eve, SATB chorus and full symphony orchestra. However “The Heavens are telling” is often performed as a stand-alone Anthem with organ.

Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes – The text is based on Psalm 19:1-3. Haydn’s century had the view that an orderly universe – particularly the mathematically governed motion of the heavenly bodies – attested to divine wisdom. Haydn, a naturally curious man, may have had an amateur interest in astronomy, as while in England he took the trouble to visit William Herschel, composer and discoverer of Uranus in his observatory in Slough.

Responses by Reading; Office Hymn NEH 245; Psalms 126 & 127; Canticles by Herbert Sumsion in G; Plainsong Benediction Hymns 269, 268.