29 November 2008
- 7:45 PM
Ely Consort - Music for Advent by Candlelight
The Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral, enhanced by the beauty of candlelight, provides the perfect surroundings for Ely Consort’s concert exploring some of the finest choral music written for advent.
At the heart of the concert lie two great settings of the Magnificat for eight-part choir: the first written by the Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria at the turn of the seventeenth century, and the second Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s monumental setting composed more than three hundred years later.
The contrast of old and new can be heard elsewhere in the programme: Rachmaninov’s glorious setting of Bogoroditsye Dyevo (Ave Maria) is juxtaposed with Arvo Pärt’s modern setting of the same words.
Familiar favourites in the programme include the traditional carol The Angel Gabriel, Mendelssohn’s How Lovely are the Messengers and Vaughan Williams' arrangement of This is the truth sent from above.
Advent organ music played by Cathedral Assistant Organist Jonathan Lilley complete this inspiring programme to start the advent season.
Poster
Tickets £10 in advance, £12 on the day (under 16's free), available from ELY CATHEDRAL BOX OFFICE 01353 660349 (Mon - Fri 11am - 3pm) and ONLINE
Other Events
28 November 2008
- 12:30 PM
to
- 3:00 PM
Literary Lunch with Clive James
Join Topping & Co in the Lady Chapel for a literary lunch with one of the most witty cultural commentators of our time, Clive James.
Author of more than thirty books, Angels Over Elsinore is his latest anthology of characteristically intelligent, yet accessible poetry.
Tickets £12 with £6 off Angels Over Elsinore and £6 off Cultural Amnesia available on the door.
30 November 2008
- 5:30 PM
Advent Procession
PROCESSIONS are a form of religious drama: they re-enact events in the history of the world's creation and salvation.
ADVENT is a time of expectation: the word itself means 'coming'. It recalls ancient Israel's hope for the advent of the Messiah and also expresses the Christian hope for the fulfilment of God�s Kingdom. It celebrates Christ's coming to lead the world from darkness to light.
The service is based on the Great Advent Antiphons. 'Antiphon' originally meant something sung alternately by two choirs: it came also to mean a sentence, appropriate to the season of the Church's year, sung before and after the psalms and canticles. The service begins in darkness, representing the darkness before creation as well as the darkness of sin. The procession moves from the west to the east, symbolising the coming of Christ, the true Light.
The words and music seek to enable us to worship God, who calls us to do his will and make the world what he created it to be - full of his glory.
This year's sequence of readings focuses on the call of John the Baptist : the forerunner.
We welcome members from Churches Together in Ely and thank them for providing readers for this service.
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