Common Ground Song 94 ‘O Lord, hear my prayer’
Words: Psalm 4 / Music: Jacques Berthier © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjgYMt2pHc
Featured image: The chapel at Taizé © Leslie Veen cc-by-sa-2.0

Before I comment on this song, I must first mention the service I attended earlier today, one of Choral Evensong for the Eve of the Annunciation at Wakefield Cathedral. The cathedrals of the Church of England are world famous for the quality of their choral music, and a sung Evensong, with its distinctive Anglican style of chanting, is one of the most-loved traditions. Go to York, Canterbury or one of the other ‘Premier League’ cathedrals and you will find large choirs singing to larger congregations.

Wakefield was different. We (Linda and I) entered the cathedral, the lights were on in the quire, we took a prayer book and sat down, but no-one else was in sight. Being Lent, the gilded reredos was covered in plain linen. Two other people joined us before the organist, and then the choir and clergy, took their places. It was the youth choir today: just seven young people (four men, three women) Most unexpectedly they sang the psalm and canticles unaccompanied, and in a mixture of alternating plainsong and polyphony. The organ was only used for the single congregational hymn, and a voluntary on Bach’s Passion Chorale at the end. Other than that the service was in English rather than Latin, we could have been back in the Middle Ages when the cathedral was built.

Just astounding: seven singers plus their conductor, two clergy and five in the congregation (including a latecomer), but just as moving and if anything more prayerful than anything York can offer. It really felt as if the world outside, with all its troubles and the day’s wind and rain, ceased to exist for that hour, and all that mattered was these few people listening ot God’s word and offering up prayer to him.

Which brings me to today’s song. A well-known short chant from the Taizé community in France, whose simple music is used across the world. Like tonight’s Evensong, it is intended to be sung by small groups, unaccompanied, and as prayerfully as possible. A ‘proper’ Taizé act of worship will include low lighting and candles to enhance the intimacy and relaxed feel of the occasion, but the intention is to concentrate the mind on higher things. Just as, when the choir sings in a cathedral, the eye is drawn to the architecture of the building, soaring to the skies (Wakefield has the highest spire of any church in Yorkshire), so as we join the simple chants our hearts are drawn upwards into the heart of God.  Or he is drawn down into us. The repeated phrases ‘O Lord, hear my prayer, when I call answer me, come and listen to me’ might equally well be expressed as ‘O Lord, help my prayer, when I call speak in me, may I listen to you’.