O How Lovely is the Evening

Background

At the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, I began a series of nightly vespers — piano improvisations on hymns and folk songs — that I shared on Facebook.  I thought a little peace and comfort would do people good.  At the same time, my friend Harriet Fraser was singing lullabies to her children to help soothe their anxieties before sleep.

After seeing my video of “All Through the Night” Harriet thought of her grandparents singing that Welsh lullaby to her as a child, and felt inspired to record a three-part version of herself singing that she could share with her family back in England.  So began the unexpected pandemic project called “PEACE” — a set of 12 lullabies and calming hymns and songs that I arranged for Hatty to record.

“Oh how lovely is the evening,” a simple and lovely round that I grew up singing at camp, was a natural choice to include.  The only challenge was to find something to “do with it” so it wasn’t merely an exact rendition of the round; the inversion of the melody for a “B section” did the trick.