Welcome to Anthem 26 in my attempt to write a new choir anthem every week for a year. I’m Kevin Mulryne and I hope you will enjoy listening to my progress throughout 2024. Please do visit the website Anthem52.com, follow along on x.com - @realanthem52 or Instagram - @realanthem52 and send me a message to [email protected].

Well, I have made to halfway in my epic project. I have produced 26 anthems in 6 months. I’m not delighted with all of them but I am delighted that I have tackled my decades-long compositional inactivity. Hopefully, there is plenty more to come in months 7-12 of 2024.

This week I am celebrating my 30th Wedding Anniversary by going on the trip of a lifetime with my beautiful wife, Sarah. As I have previously mentioned, next week’s anthem will be the one I wrote in January but this week’s is a brand new one.

While hunting for text to use, I came across an article about Compline - often the final church service of the day. Singing Compline is one of my favourite choral activities partly due to its use of plainsong and partly due to its words which seem to be perfect for a late evening service.

The English version of the opening sentence is ‘the Lord almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end'. I've always loved that phrase. When I saw the Latin original of the opening prayer, I thought it would make a great unaccompanied anthem.

Here are the words:

Words for Anthem 26:

Noctem quietam et finem perfectum concedat nobis Dominus omnipotens. Amen.