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“When words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen There are moments when language feels insufficient, when what we are trying to express is too vast to be contained by words alone. The idea of eternity is one of those realities that resists definition, existing at once as an interstellar concept, a spiritual home, an object of longing, and an unknown place beyond the limits of our imagination. We reach for it in moments of grief, wonder, fear, and hope, often not because we expect to understand it, but because we as humans long for what lies beyond our life on earth. The texts in the first half of the program approach eternity from several directions. Together, they do not attempt to answer every question about what lies beyond this life, but instead encourage us to dwell in the mystery of it.
The title of this concert comes from René Clausen’s Tonight Eternity Alone, whose opening line suggests that eternity is not distant or abstract, but near. Adapted from Thomas S. Jones Jr.’s poem ‘Dusk at Sea,’ the text captures a sense of contented solitude within a vast empty space. Ethan McGrath’s newly commissioned In Paradisum carries special meaning for this ensemble. The text contains the phrase from which our ensemble takes its name: Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat – “May the choir of angels receive you.” As a prayer for the dead, this work imagines eternity not as an empty unknown, but as a place of welcome and holy companionship. Healey Willan’s How They So Softly Rest, a lavish setting of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s ‘The Dead,’ turns our attention to an unbridled sense of longing. Where In Paradisum offers the hope of being received into paradise, Willan’s work lingers with those left behind, giving voice to the ache of remembrance and the promise that our earthly rest is not the end. Lucy Walker’s I Saw Eternity, a setting of the familiar opening lines of Henry Vaughan’s ‘The World’ offers perhaps the most vivid image of the evening: eternity as “a great ring of pure and endless light” encompassed by shimmering, circling melodies and intense tonal colors. This work explores eternity as both an expansive concept and as a singularity of sound.
The second half of the program leads us into a service of sung Compline. In the Christian tradition, Compline is a service of prayer, scripture, and canticles that marks the passage from evening into night. It invites those who pray to entrust the day, and ultimately themselves, to God’s keeping. The Compline service will be sung by the ensemble, though all are invited to participate where noted in the program. While Compline is a Christian service, no one is required to participate; you are welcome simply to sit and listen as you would during a concert. If you would like to applaud following the conclusion of the evening, we ask that you please wait until the ensemble has left the sanctuary, allowing a final moment of silence to be held for those worshiping during that time.
Saturday, June 6, 2026 | 7:00 pm
Christ Church Episcopal
663 Douglas Street, Chattanooga TN
Admission Free | Donations Welcome
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Christ Church Episcopal Chattanooga, 663 Douglas Street,Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
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