Hello, everyone.

As you can imagine, it has been a real sadness for me during this lockdown period
not to be able to make music with friends and colleagues (choirs, solo singers, instrumentalists),
which in normal times forms such an important part of my weekly routine.
So it has been a real joy and solace to be able to join in music-making with members of my own family –
Jill on tenor horn, Louise on viola and Alistair on keyboard.

For our ‘Music to End the Day’ this evening,
Louise joins me in a lovely movement from the Viola Concerto by Telemann
(probably the earliest concerto to be written for the instrument).

To follow this we hear Roy Crabtree’s familiar hymn based on John 13: ‘A new commandment I give into you, that you love one another that I have loved you.’

Viola Concerto in G – Third movement by Telemann

Composed by Georg Philipp Telemann in 1718. Performed by Louise Boynton (viola) and Adrian Boynton (piano).

Hymn: A new Commandment I give unto you

Words based on John 13: 34–35. Composed by Roy Crabtree 2002.

A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you love one another as I have loved you.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another.

A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you love one another as I have loved you.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another.

And now, a prayer:

Love through me, Love of God,
Make me like the clear air
that thou dost pour thy colours through
as though I were not there.

Think through me, thoughts of God,
my Father, quiet me,
till in thy holy presence, hushed,
I think thy thoughts with thee.

Think through me, thoughts of God,
that always, everywhere,
the stream that through my being flows
may homeward pass in prayer.

Flow through me, peace of God,
calm rivers flow until
no wind can blow, no current stir
a ripple of self-will.

O blessed Love of God,
that all may taste and say
how good thou art, once more I pray
love through me, every day.

Goodnight, everyone.

Adrian Boynton