Choral Latin Evensong.
The 1560 Liber Precum Publicarum (LPP)
[Book of Common Prayer].
Keble College Chapel, Oxford.
Sung by: Antiquum Documentum.
Available on YouTube
The 1560 Liber Precum Publicarum [Book of Common Prayer] is a Latin translation of the Elizabethan 1559 Prayer Book for use in predominantly university and school Chapels.
Antiquum Documentum have tried to imagine what such a Service would have looked like. The music includes adaptions of English Plainsong to Latin words, adaptions of Sarum Chant, as well as “Domine, Dominus Noster” by Thomas Morley, the Latin Evening Service by Thomas Tallis, and “Laboravi in Gemitu Meo” by Thomas Weelkes, all executed in Latin with authentic vocal techniques.
Keble College, Oxford.
Photo Credit: Bridget Bodman.
We have examined many sources to try to work out what the ritual of a Latin Evensong might have looked like in a highly conservative, old-fashioned and even recusant Oxford College Chapel.
This is the first in a series of Liturgical reconstructions by Antiquum Documentum in which we attempt to make sense of Reformation-era Polyphony by placing it back in its original context.
In the coming years, we are hoping to look at Sarum Vespers and Compline and Henrican Polyphony and, in time, other early Prayer Book Liturgy.
We hope these will be useful and visual examples of what Services might have looked like 400 years ago. We use the revenue made in our concerts to fund these sorts of events, but any further contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Vestments borrowed from:
St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford;
St. Andrew’s, Headington;
St. Stephen’s House, University of Oxford;
Keble College, University of Oxford;
Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
Candles borrowed from Pusey House, Oxford.
unless stated otherwise.
Keble College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford[3] in England.
Keble College was established in 1870, having been built as a monument to John Keble, who had been a leading member of the Oxford Movement, which sought to stress the Catholic nature of the Church of England.
Consequently, the College’s original teaching focus was primarily theological, although the College now offers a broad range of subjects, reflecting the diversity of degrees offered across the wider university.
As originally constituted, it was for men only and the Fellows were mostly bachelors, resident in the College. Like many of Oxford’s men’s Colleges, Keble admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979.[4]
It remains distinctive for its once-controversial[5] Neo-Gothic red-brick buildings designed by William Butterfield. The buildings are also notable for breaking from Oxbridge tradition by arranging rooms along corridors, rather than around staircases, in order that the Scouts could supervise the comings and goings of visitors (Girton College, Cambridge, similarly breaks this tradition).
Keble College is one of the larger Colleges of the University of Oxford, with 460 undergraduates and 525 graduate students in 2021/2022.[6]
Keble’s sister College at the University of Cambridge is Selwyn College.
