"An Evening Hymn" by Henry Purcell - Arpa Oscura in Turku Cathedral

"Sacred song" used to be a genre that inspired composers to write many great works. "An Evening Hymn" by Purcell (1659-1695) comes from a collection of these, "Armonia Sacra", published in 1693. Nowadays, this Hymn is usually performed because Purcell's genius endowed the melody with such charm: even modern audiences are prepared to look past the religious nature of the words by Bishop William Fuller (1608-1675) - but there can be no doubt that to Purcell the message contained in the poem was no mere word-play. Purcell elevates the maybe somewhat mundane text to such heights of devotion, once again using his favourite compositional device, the ground bass, that we feel we are entering the state of mind of a person from a remote era.

Performed by Arpa Oscura: Anneliina Rif, soprano & Tuomas Kourula, lute