A religious service, most commonly seen in the Anglican or Episcopal Church, that takes place in the early hours of the evening; originally, and sometimes still, an alternative name for vespers or a service combining vespers and compline.
Used in a Sentence
evensong
Definition, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for evensong.
Editorial note
Since then I've grown to enjoy programming in the evensong again.
Examples9
Definitions1
Parts of speech1
Quick take
A religious service, most commonly seen in the Anglican or Episcopal Church, that takes place in the early hours of the evening; originally, and sometimes still, an alternative name for vespers or a service combining vespers and compline.
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of evensong gathered in one view.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for evensong.
noun
A religious service, most commonly seen in the Anglican or Episcopal Church, that takes place in the early hours of the evening; originally, and sometimes still, an alternative name for vespers or a service combining vespers and compline.
See also: evening-prayer, vespers
Example sentences
Since then I've grown to enjoy programming in the evensong again.
Organ rather than piano, but the repertoire for a month of cathedral services (assuming daily Evensong plus Sunday morning Eucharist) is vast, especially considering all the registrations (stop selections).
Even here in the UK, where it's not such a big thing, there's often an enjoyable few minutes at evensong where the organist improvises in the gap between finishing the prelude and the choir processing in.
Like the other poster who responded, I think it's likely to experience a resurgence, for similar reasons to the rise in popularity in the UK of choral evensong services in churches and cathedrals.
I wasn't doing the same in regards to Belgium - so I didn't have the really powerful opinion-forming experiences of doing stuff like trying to convince my immuno-compromised mother to not attend a choral evensong(!) when the graphs were ascending vertically and there were 30000 new cases every day.
As a bonus: gigs are free and in most cities happen every night (at evensong, which also comes with free mindfulness and meditation sessions, as well as a chance for a singalong with the crowd.) The choirs range from school and college scholarship level to outright professionals and they will often have albums where you can explore their repertoire, and branch off from there.
Quote examples
After the appointed recital, he performed a 20-minute improvisation on the hymn chosen for evensong earlier that day (Herbert Howells' "Michael"), which he had never heard before.
And the third you only get if you listened to the Magnificat beforehand, which in its natural environment - a service of choral Evensong - you would: the "as it was" in the Gloria of the Nunc is _almost_ exactly the same as it was in the Mag...
Proper noun examples
The Anglicans are especially fond of public celebrations, such as Evensong, which can be quite beautiful and rather brief, compared to Eucharistic liturgies.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use evensong in a sentence?
Since then I've grown to enjoy programming in the evensong again.
What does evensong mean?
A religious service, most commonly seen in the Anglican or Episcopal Church, that takes place in the early hours of the evening; originally, and sometimes still, an alternative name for vespers or a service combining vespers and compline.
What part of speech is evensong?
evensong is commonly used as noun.