An interview with Francis Spufford, author of 'Unapologetic: Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense'.

Francis Spufford

Recorded on 11/11/13 in St Patrick's Cathedral at Evensong. Sung by the Gentlemen of the choir. Cantor: Eoghan Desmond. Composed April 2006.

Fauxbourdon Nunc Dimittis

Fauxbourdon Magnificat

Hertford College Chapel Choir, Bruges Tour 2008

Deck The Halls

Hertford College Chapel Choir - Bruges Tour 2008

Ding Dong Merrily On High

Hertford College Chapel Choir, Krakow Tour, 2009 - at Częstochowa, with the shuffling sounds of pilgrims approaching the altar for communion.

O Salutaris Hostia (Howells)

Hertford College Chapel Choir, Krakow Tour, 2009 - at Częstochowa

Steal Away (Tippett)

Hertford College Chapel Choir, San Francisco Tour, 2010 - Morning Eucharist, 4th July, St Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley

O Nata Lux (Tallis)

GÉANT, the pan-European data network serving 50 million research and education users at speeds of up to 500Gbps, demonstrates its power by sonifying 36 years’ worth of NASA Voyager spacecraft data and converting it into a musical duet

Voyager 1 & 2 spacecraft duet

Through Lent, Psalm 139.1–18 is sung at Compline (candlelit night prayer) in the chapel. This is a simple Gregorian tone set to the moving words of the psalm. An antiphon (short, melismatic phrase) is sung at the beginning and end, and Gloria Patri ("Glory to the Father…") is sung after the last psalm verse and before the final repeat of the antiphon. There is a meditative pause at the middle of each verse.

Sung by the Chaplain, the Reverend Gareth Hughes.

    [Antiphon]
The darkness •
is no darkness with you.

  O Lord, you have searched me out and known me; •
   you know my sitting down and my rising up;
      you discern my thoughts from afar.
  You mark out my journeys and my resting place •
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
  For there is not a word on my tongue, •
   but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
  You encompass me behind and before •
   and lay your hand upon me.
  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, •
   so high that I cannot attain it.
  Where can I go then from your spirit? •
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
  If I climb up to heaven, you are there; •
   if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
  If I take the wings of the morning •
   and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
  Even there your hand shall lead me, •
   your right hand hold me fast.
  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me •
   and the light around me turn to night,’
  Even darkness is no darkness with you;
      the night is as clear as the day; •
   darkness and light to you are both alike.
  For you yourself created my inmost parts; •
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
  I thank you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; •
   marvellous are your works, my soul knows well.
  My frame was not hidden from you, •
   when I was made in secret
      and woven in the depths of the earth.
  Your eyes beheld my form, as yet unfinished; •
   already in your book were all my members written,
  As day by day they were fashioned •
   when as yet there was none of them.
  How deep are your counsels to me, O God! •
   How great is the sum of them!
  If I count them, they are more in number than the sand, •
   and at the end, I am still in your presence.

  Glory to the Father and to the Son •
    and to the Holy Spirit.
  As it was in the beginning, is now, •
    and ever shall be. Amen.

    [Antiphon]
The darkness •
is no darkness with you.

Psalm 139 in Gregorian chant

The Chapel of Hertford College.
One of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford.

Hertford College Chapel is in the heart of Oxford: next to the Bridge of Sighs and opposite the Bodleian Library. Built in 1908 by Thomas Graham Jackson, its mix of carved oak and stone makes for a wonderful acoustic. Hertford College Chapel Choir sings at services in the chapel and tours internationally twice a year.

Members of the public are welcome to most services, and may visit whenever Hertford College advertises that we are open for visitors.

You will often find a lot of music in the Chapel: services, lunchtime recitals, concerts, or just people practising with the beautiful pipe organ, the piano or other musical instrument.

The main services of the week are
• Sunday Evensong (5.45 pm) with full choir. Most Sundays have guest preachers drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds of faith and life experience. Evensong is followed by drinks and formal hall
• Wednesday evening Eucharist (6 pm) with a smaller choir, followed by free supper
• Tuesday night Compline (10 pm) with unaccompanied plainsong by candlelight

Psalm 139 in Gregorian chant

Hertford College Chapel

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