MEDIEVAL music specialists Opus Anglicanum come to St Mary’s Church, Dorchester, on Thursday 18th December at 7pm with a programme of medieval carols and readings.

This concert has become a favourite with fans of the ensemble which has been performing medieval and contemporary music for more than 30 years.

The music varies from simple Gregorian chant to joyous and even raucous Christmas songs, alongside more devotional pieces, some of which are more than 800 years old.

The programme features masterpieces of the period by Guillaume de Machaut, Magister Perotin, Josquin des Prez, Johannes Ockeghem and Jacob Obrecht alongside recognisable early English carols such as Nowell, There is no Rose of such Virtue and Gaudete! Beautiful mediaeval readings delivered by actor Alex Knox are interspersed within the music, creating moments of quiet reflection.

Opus Anglicanum’s repertoire ranges from light-hearted festive offerings to sequences on the First World War, folk music and contemporary – they have commissioned and premiered pieces from composers including Judith Bingham, Sally Beamish, Howard Skempton and Cheryl Frances Hoad.