Meg Rees
Page 308 | 2025
A detailed exploration of choral evensong and its significance in 2024
Abstract
This paper explores the performance of identity in a service of choral evensong. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s writing on cultural capital as a framework, I investigate how the concept of habitus can be applied to identify the performed behaviours of members of clergy, musicians, cathedral staff, and members of congregation within the service of choral evensong. Using semi-structured interviews and fieldnotes collected as an observer of choral evensong, I identify the intricacies of the relationships at play during the service. I explore the internalising and externalising of codified behaviours. My ethnographic study of a clearly defined institutional structure unpicks the mismatch between how an institution appears from the outside and the reality of what happens within. I place my findings within larger narratives and ongoing discussions within the Church of England relating to falling attendance at choral evensong following the Covid-19 pandemic. I take Bristol Cathedral’s Festival of Evensong as a case study to discuss the value, if any, that events such as these have on ensuring that choral evensong is accessible to a wider audience. Exploring the performance of identity in the service of choral evensong is important because it offers insight into how religious practices shape the musical and extramusical behaviour witnessed within religious institutions.
