大象传媒

The Office of Prime

Introduced by Peter Phillips

The culmination of Radio 3鈥檚 鈥淐apturing Twilight鈥� season continues with the third of the eight services, which make up the Canonical Hours, or Divine Office, which are being broadcast throughout the day. The Tallis Scholars, conducted by Peter Phillips, began their journey just as the clocks changed back to Greenwich Mean Time at 1am this morning. They sing settings of words and psalms associated with each of the Liturgy of the Hours, a daily ritual laid down in the 6th century by St Benedict, which remains familiar in monasteries and convents around the world today.

Latin chant is interspersed with polyphony from across the centuries, as dawn breaks. Throughout the day, these offices include Latin chant, music by Hildegard of Bingen, settings of prayers, motets and canticles by Renaissance composers such as Thomas Tallis, Orlande de Lassus, John Sheppard and John Taverner, sitting alongside more recent works by Arvo P盲rt, John Tavener, and Igor Stravinsky.

Producer: Helen Garrison