SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 4:30 P.M.
In person and livestreamed at: https://saintmarks.org/worship/live-stream/
Saint Mark's Cathedral invites one and all to join in prayer and praise at nightfall to celebrate All Saints, and to commemorate the lives of all those whom we love but see no longer. Saint Mark's Evensong Choir will offer a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis by Philip Stopford, composed in 2014 for the Evening Choir of St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, Ireland, and sung here for the first time on this occasion. In addition, the choir will offer Grayston Ives' warmly resonant setting of Isaac Watts' reassuring hymn, There is a land of pure delight.
Choral Evensong is a treasure among Christian liturgies in the Anglican tradition. At Saint Mark's, this choir is composed of select Choir School Senior Choristers, the Cathedral Schola, and adults from the Cathedral Choir. Learn more about the Evensong Choir here.
Kuhon Raigo-zu IV for organ -- a meditation on Paradise and The Pure Land, by Hina Sakamoto
Immediately after Choral Evensong on November 7, Canon Kleinschmidt will offer the North American premiere of a 12-minute work for pipe organ by Hina Sakamoto (born 1968), called Kuhon Raigo-zu IV. It is in three movements, each of which incorporates the Gregorian melody of the commendation anthem, In Paradisum, from the Requiem Mass. Kuhon Raigo-zu, was inspired by a famous painting in the Byodoin Temple in Kyoto in which the Buddha Amida descends on a cloud to escort a faithful disciple at the moment of death into the Pure Land, or Paradise. Hina Sakamoto resides in Yokohama, Japan. Many of her compositions for organ are based on Gregorian themes. All of them display exquisite craftsmanship.
These notes by the composer were written for a performance in Yokohama given by the work's dedicatee, Hatsumi Miura, in November 2020, and are translated by Steven Dieck.
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