Music in the Shadows
Worksop Discovery Day and Night Liturgy, 31 August-1 September 2024.
This research and public history event will take place at Worksop Priory, Nottinghamshire on Saturday 31 August and 1 September 2024. It is organised by the Music in the Shadows project at the University of Nottingham, supported by a grant from the AHRC.
Highlights include:
- an early morning, candlelit Matins service for St Cuthbert, as it might have been known at Worksop some 700 years ago
- a rare performance of what is arguably the oldest surviving English music: a set of chants composed around 930 AD for King Athelstan in honour of St Cuthbert an Anglo-Saxon monk from the Kingdom of Northumbria who became the bishop of Lindisfarne and one of the most important saints of the medieval church in England.
- family activities inspired by the local illuminated manuscript treasure, the Tickhill Psalter, once used in connection with Worksop’s daily offices and now held in New York
- history talks on medieval Office liturgy, the cult of St Cuthbert, and the historical value of attempting an enactment of this sort
Events run over the weekend of 31 August and 1 September 2024. All are most welcome to attend at any point. The organisers are particularly keen to encourage participation in Sunday’s dawn liturgy and its rehearsal, which is open to all, regardless of experience.
The schedule for Saturday 31st August is as follows:
| 10am | Tea and Coffee (Church) |
| 10.30am | Family activities (Church) |
| 11am | History talks (Gatehouse*) *no step-free access. (1) The Office in Medieval Parish Churches – Paul Barnwell (University of Oxford) (2) Cuthbert, Durham, Worksop – Charlie Rozier (University of East Anglia) |
| 12.30pm | Lunch (Church) |
| 1.30pm | Introduction to act of worship (Church) (1) Cuthbert and the Night: Bringing a Forgotten History to Life – Henry Parkes (University of Nottingham) |
| 2pm–5pm | Open rehearsal of night liturgy (Church) |
The schedule for Sunday 1 September is:
| 5am | Night Liturgy for the Translation of St Cuthbert followed by a parish breakfast |
A limited amount of free parking is available in front of the church, and there is public car park very close by on Priorswell Road.
For more information email
worksop.discovery.day@gmail.com
or visit
https://tinyurl.com/nightoffice
or see attached flyer
