The Long Night of the Churches

In Pisa, at the Church of San Michele degli Scalzi on 5 June from 9.15 pm to 10.30 pm: ‘Gregorian chants – the rhythmic office of the First Vespers of St Francis’.

The rhythmic office of St Francis, composed in rhyming and metrical verse by Giuliano da Spira around 1230, is the first example of this musical and liturgical genre, and represents one of the earliest poetic and musical expressions dedicated to the saint of Assisi. Its structure alternates between psalmody and metrical texts, giving rise to an intense and spiritually engaging musical narrative.