Anthem 52

Welcome to Anthem 39 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].

I've been trying to catch up with anthem production this week. I was only a few days behind but I don't want to be faced with a deficit at the end of the year. So here is an anthem I completed rather quickly. I don't think it has suffered from the speed of composition but you will have to be the judge of that.

I used the same collection of Isaac Watts words as last week and I looked for something a bit more upbeat. It seemed to work because the process of writing didn't depress me (in the non-clinical sense) like last week's did.

Here are the words I chose:

Once more, my soul, the ris­ing day Salutes thy wak­ing eyes; Once more, my voice, thy trib­ute pay To Him that rules the skies.

Night un­to night His name re­peats, The day re­news the sound, Wide as the Heav’n on which He sits, To turn the sea­sons round.

A thou­sand wretch­ed souls are fled Since the last set­ting sun, And yet Thou length’n­est out my thread, And yet my mo­ments run.

Dear God, let all my hours be Thine, Whilst I en­joy the light; Then shall my sun in smiles de­cline, And bring a pleas­ing night.

Welcome to Anthem 38 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].

It was good to return to Holy Trinity Church with the choir this week, even if it wasn't with Charlotte whose Coventry musical life is just getting going. As I write this, she is preparing for an audition to join the Coventry Cathedral Chorus - I'm sure she will enjoy that a great deal.

It was Ollie's (our new interim Director of Music) first Sunday with the choir and we sang Choral Evensong. It went well. I'm looking forward to having some of my own anthems added to the choir's repertoire...one day... 

This week was a bit more of a struggle than last week, in terms of composition. It started off fine as I suddenly remembered that the main criterion of anthem competition I entered earlier in the year was to set words by Isaac Watts, the prolific 18th Century writer. I went back to the source I used to find the text for that anthem and rediscovered an enormous collection of words. 824 texts are mentioned with many linked to on the single page:

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/t/t/watts_i.htm

As well as hymn words, Watts wrote more poetic texts and I chose a short one from Hymns and Spi­ri­tu­al Songs, Book 2, 1707–09, num­ber 26. Here are the words (I missed out one verse):

Lord, we are blind, we mor­tals blind, We can’t be­hold Thy bright abode; O ’tis be­yond a crea­ture’s mind To glance a thought half way to God.

Infinite leagues be­yond the sky The great Eter­nal reigns alone, Where nei­ther wings nor souls can fly, Nor an­gels climb the top­less throne.

Yet, glo­ri­ous Lord, Thy gra­cious eyes Look through, and cheer us from above; Beyond our praise Thy grand­eur flies, Yet we ad­ore, and yet we love.

Welcome to Anthem 37 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].

It's been a week of changes for me and my family. Charlotte has started her university course and there is a new Interim Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church. Both of these changes are, of course, very positive. Charlotte is finding her feet and getting to know her lecturers and the rest of her group as well as settling in to her Uni Hall of Residence. What fun! Ollie is our new DoM but we all know him because he was our Organ Scholar a few years ago before going off to Uni. It's going to be fascinating to see how both of these new situations work out. 

Back to this week's anthem, only a few days after I found it I don't have a clear recollection of how I decided to use part of Psalm xxiv (24). However, the words are highly effective for an anthem and the end of the Psalm contains some of the most well-known anthem words of all:

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors : and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory : even the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory."

If you don't know the anthem by Mathias take a listen to this really good Covid-time version:

I chose words form earlier in the Psalm:

The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is : the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas : and prepared it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord : or who shall rise up in his holy place? Even he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart : He shall receive the blessing from the Lord : and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Welcome to Anthem 36 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].

This is the first anthem I have written away from home. We were on holiday in Devon this past week but Anthem 52 waits for no man - or woman or whatever. For my 30th Wedding Anniversary holiday I managed to write anthems to plug the gap before I went but that wasn't possible this time. I knew I could take my laptop on this holiday and there would be some 'down time' so it was an interesting task to try. I regret not remembering to take my 'over-ear' headphones because using earbuds wasn't a lot of fun. It made the writing more difficult.

However, I did manage to find some reasonable words, again a prayer from a service rather than a Psalm, like the previous anthem. Commonly known as the 'General Confession', it's a prayer familiar to millions of Christians around the world, I'm sure. Despite this, or perhaps due to this, I found it a worthwhile set of lyrics for anthem 36.

Almighty and most merciful Father, We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep,

We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,

We have offended against thy holy laws,

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done,

And we have done those things which we ought not to have done,

And there is no health in us:

But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders;

Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults,

Restore thou them that are penitent,

And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,

That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life,

To the glory of thy holy Name.

Amen.

Welcome to Anthem 35 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].

I've got a little behind in adding these updates over the past couple of weeks. I have managed to write the anthems but not the podcast episodes. Hopefully, I will be fully back on track after this week. The main reasons for this are a family holiday in Devon and a trip to Coventry to settle my daughter into her University accommodation for her first year. She is studying Music Production and Songwriting - more on that topic soon I'm sure.

Back to Anthem 35. This time I found some interesting words in the Irish Book of Common Prayer, not in the usual Psalms sections but in one of the orders of service. I thought it was a passage from St. Luke's Gospel but it's actually a collect used in The Ordering of Deacons service and elsewhere. The words are still good for an anthem though.

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Welcome to Anthem 34 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].

This week I needed to be swift (not Taylor) to complete anthem 34 because I am visiting Bath with my wife to hear our daughter, Charlotte, singing at the RSCM Choir Course. This is the second year in a row that she has had the opportunity to attend the course, thanks to The Friends of the Music of Holy Trinity Church. 3 choristers from Holy Trinity are there this year, enjoying singing in a variety of contexts, including services at Bath Abbey. I'm very much looking forward to that trip.

So I couldn't waste any time coming up with a text for the anthem. While looking through the Irish Book of Common Prayer, I spotted the opening to Psalm cxlv (145). These seemed like promising words and here they are:

I will magnify thee, O God, my King : and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever.

Every day will I give thanks unto thee : and praise thy Name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord, and marvellous worthy to be praised : there is no end of his greatness.

I also added an Amen section in at the end (obviously) because the piece seemed to need it.

Welcome to Anthem 33 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].

THis week's text comes from a very long psalm - cxix (119). It is split up in the Irish Book of Common Prayer into many sections and the words I chose are verses 145 - 152. There are a lot more words than I usually set and I think that's at least partly down to how the process went. It was comparatively easy to write this anthem. It seemed to flow better than last week's. I don't know if the end result is better or worse but the resulting anthem feels fairly complete and coherent.

I call with my whole heart : hear me, O Lord, I will keep thy statutes.

Yea, even unto thee do I call : help me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.

Early in the morning do I cry unto thee : for in thy word is my trust.

Mine eyes prevent the night-watches : that I might be occupied in thy words.

Hear my voice, O Lord, according unto thy loving-kindness : quicken me according as thou art wont.

They draw nigh that of malice persecute me : and are far from thy law.

Be thou nigh at hand, O Lord : for all thy commandments are true.

As concerning thy testimonies, I have known long since ; that thou hast grounded them for ever.

Welcome to Anthem 32 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].

This week, everything seemed to take a long time. I eventually found some words to use, buried in Psalm cvi (106) that seemed to lend themselves to an anthem. I didn't have many preconceptions about how the anthem should sound this week beyond the fact that it needed to be unaccompanied. I let the writing 'decide' where it wanted to go and added in some harmonic changes. Interestingly, I thought it sounded a bit like some of my other compositions so perhaps others will as well.

So here are the words I chose:

Deliver us O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen : that we may give thanks unto thy holy Name, and make our boast of thy praise.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and world without end : and let all the people say, Amen.

Welcome to Anthem 31 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].

It was back to Compline this week - again. Imagine my surprise when I found these words, very close to the others I had used for Lux and Nox:

I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest; for it is thou, Lord, only, that makest me dwell in safety.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

As usual, there was a word that when translated into Latin follows the same pattern as the previous two anthems - peace - pax. So the theme and mood of this week's anthem was set. It was time to write for choir and organ, so it would be another challenge and, presumably, it would result in a different sound to Nox and Lux ... or maybe not. Anyway, here are the Latin words:

In pace in idipsum * dormiam et requiescam.

Quoniam tu Domine singulariter in spe constituisti me.

Gloria Patri et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Welcome to Anthem 30 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].

This week I hit upon a neat idea. When I composed the unaccompanied anthem number 26, Nox, I found the words in the service of Compline. So I decided to go back to that service and look for some more. A passage that caught my attention was this one in English:

Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

This theme of light stood out. Then I realised that the Latin for light is 'lux'. Perhaps it would be possible to make this new anthem a partner for 'Nox', meaning night. So we have Nox and Lux. Listening to them now as a pair, there isn't a lot of difference in how they sound which could have been done to stress the difference in the meaning of the titles but never mind.  

I chose to use the Latin words again - it's just a single verse of Psalm iv (4) after which I added 'Amen' like the end of the psalm in Compline.

Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Domine: dedisti laetitiam in corde meo.