A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Anthem
ANTHEM (Gr. Antiphona; Ital. and Span. Antifona; Eng. Antiphon). [App. p.523 "See also Cathedral Music."] The idea of responsive singing, choir answering to choir, or choir to priest, seems inherent in the term, and was anciently conveyed by it; but this, as a necessary element of its meaning, has disappeared in our modern Anglicised synonym 'anthem.' This word—after undergoing several changes in its Anglo-Saxon and Early-English forms, readily traceable in Chaucer, and those writers who preceded and followed him, and subsequently used by Shakspere, Milton, and others,—has at length acquired a meaning equally distinctive and widely accepted. It now signifies a musical composition, or sacred motet, usually set to verses of the Psalms, or other portions of Scripture, or the Liturgy, and sung as an integral part of public worship. If it be not possible so to trace the word etymologically as to render it 'the flower of song,' as some scholars have wished, yet the anthem itself in an artistic aspect, and when represented by its finest examples, may justly be regarded as the culminating point of the daily ritual-music of our English Church.
Anthems are commonly described as either 'full,' 'verse,' 'solo,' or 'for a double choir'; the two former terms correspond to 'tutti' and 'soli' in current technical phraseology. In his valuable work 'The Choral Service of the Church' Dr. Jebb makes a distinction between 'full anthems, properly so called, which consist of chorus alone, and the full anthem with verses; these verses however, which form a very subordinate part of the compositions, do not consist of solos or duets, but for the most part of four parts, to be sung by one side of the choir. In the verse anthem the solos, duets, and trios, have the prominent place: and in some the chorus is a mere introduction or finale.'
Nothing can be more various in form, extent, and treatment, than the music of 'the anthem' as at present heard in churches and cathedrals. Starting at its birth from a point but little removed from the simplicity of the psalm- or hymn-tune, and advancing through various intermediate gradations of development, it has frequently in its later history attained large dimensions; sometimes combining the most elaborate resources of counterpoint with the symmetry of modern forms, together with separate organ, and occasionally orchestral, accompaniment. In its most developed form the anthem is peculiarly and characteristically an English species of composition, and is perhaps the highest and most individual point which has been reached by English composers.
The recognition of the anthem as a stated part of divine service dates from early in Elizabeth's reign; when were issued the Queen's 'Injunctions,' granting permission for the use of 'a hymn or such like song in churches.' A few years later the word 'anthem' appears in the second edition of Day's choral collection, entitled 'Certain Notes set forth in four and five Parts to be sung at the Morning and Evening Prayer and Communion'; and at the last revision of the Prayer Book in 1662 the word appeared in that rubrick which assigns to the anthem the position it now occupies in Matins and Evensong. Only one year later than the publication of the 'Injunctions' Strype gives probably the earliest record of its actual use, at the Chapel Royal on mid-Lent Sunday, 1560: 'And, Service concluded, a good Anthem was sung.' (The prayers at that time ended with the third collect.) Excepting during the Great Rebellion, when music was banished and organs and choir-books destroyed, the anthem has ever since held its place in choral service. At the present day, so far from there being any prospect of its withdrawal, there seems to exist an increasing love for this special form of sacred art, as well as an earnest desire to invest its performance always, and particularly on festivals, with all attainable completeness and dignity.
Ever since the Reformation anthems have been composed by wellnigh all the eminent masters which this country has produced, from Tye and his contemporaries onwards to Gibbons, Purcell, Boyce, Attwood, and our still-lamented Sterndale Bennett. The history of the anthem accordingly can only be completely told in that of music itself. The following attempt at classification, and references to examples, may serve in some measure to illustrate the subject.
Early School, 1520-1625.—Tye, Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons. The vagueness of tonality anciently prevalent begins in the music of Tye to exhibit promise of settlement; while in that of Gibbons it almost entirely disappears. Tye's anthem 'I will exalt Thee, O Lord' is remarkable in this respect, as well as for its general clearness and purity of harmony. Of Tallis' style 'I call and cry,' and 'All people that on earth do dwell,' are good examples. 'Bow Thine ear' and 'Sing joyfully,' Byrd, with 'Hosanna,' 'Lift up your heads,' 'O clap your hands together,' and 'Almighty and everlasting God,' Gibbons, are assuredly masterpieces of vocal writing, which can never grow out of date. Most of the anthems of this period are 'full'; 'verse' or 'solo' anthems, however, are at least as old as the time of Gibbons. Sir F. Ouseley has done good service to the cause of church music and the memory of our 'English Palestrina' by his recent publication of a 'Collection of the Sacred Compositions of Orlando Gibbons.' In this interesting and most valuable work will be found (besides several 'full' anthems, and other matter) not less than twelve 'verse' anthems, some of which have solos; none of these are contained in Boyce's 'Cathedral Music,' and all may probably be reckoned among the earliest known specimens of this kind of anthem. The employment of instruments in churches as an accompaniment to the singers dates as far back as the 4th century, when St. Ambrose introduced them into the cathedral service at Milan. Later on, some rude form of organ began to be used; but only to play the plainsong in unison or octaves with the voices, as is now often done with a serpent or ophicleide in French choirs. It seems to be beyond doubt that the use of some kind of instrumental accompaniment in churches preceded that of the organ. During our 'first period' it would seem that anthems when performed with any addition to the voices of the choir were always accompanied by such bow instruments as then represented the infant orchestra. 'Apt for viols and voices' is a common expression on the title-pages of musical publications of this age. The stringed instrument parts were always in unison with the voices, and had no separate and independent function, except that of filling up the harmony during vocal 'rests,' or occasionally in a few bars of brief symphony. Before the Restoration, according to Dr. Rimbault, 'verses' in the anthems 'were accompanied with viols, the organ being used only in the full parts.' The small organs of this period were commonly portable; a fact which seems to indicate that such instrumental aid as was employed to support the singers was placed in close proximity to them: an arrangement so natural, as well as desirable, that it is surprising to find it ever departed from in the present day.
Second Period, 1650–1720.—Pelham Humphrey, Wise, Blow, Henry Purcell, Croft, Weldon, Jeremiah Clarke. Such great changes in the style and manner of anthem-writing are observable in all that is here indicated, that a new era in the art may be said to have begun. Traceable, in the first instance, to the taste and fancy of Humphrey and his training under Lulli, this was still more largely due to the renowned Purcell, whose powerful genius towers aloft, not only among his contemporaries, but in the annals of all famous men. The compositions of this period are mostly distinguished by novelty of plan and detail, careful and expressive treatment of the text, daring harmonies, and flowing ease in the voice parts; while occasionally the very depths of pathos seem to have been sounded. The following may be mentioned as specimens of the above masters. 'Hear, O heavens' and 'O Lord my God,' Humphrey; 'Prepare ye the way' and 'Awake, awake, put on thy strength,' Wise ; ' I was in the Spirit,' and 'I beheld, and lo!' Blow; 'O give thanks,' 'God, Thou hast cast us out,' and 'O Lord God of Hosts,' Purcell ; 'God is gone up,' 'Cry aloud and shout' (from 'O Lord, I will praise Thee'), and 'Hear my prayer, Lord,' Croft; 'In Thee, O Lord' and 'Hear my crying,' Weldon; and 'I will love Thee' and 'O Lord God of my salvation,' Clarke. While all these pieces are more or less excellent, several of them can only be described in the language of unreserved eulogy. As the 'full' anthem was most in vogue in the former period, so in this the 'verse' and 'solo' anthem grew into favour. It seems to have been reserved for Purcell, himself through life a 'most distinguished singer,' to bring to perfection the airs and graces of the 'solo' anthem.
During this period instrumental music began to assume new and individual importance, and to exercise vast influence upon the general progress of the art. Apart from the frequent employment of instrumental accompaniments by anthem composers, the effect of such additions to the purely vocal element upon their style and manner of writing is clearly traceable from the time of Pelham Humphrey downwards.
Some interesting notices[1] of this important change and of the general performance of anthems in the Chapel Royal may be gleaned from the diaries of Pepys and Evelyn. To quote a few: Pepys, speaking of Christinas Day there in 1662, says, 'The sermon done, a good anthem followed with vialls, and the King came down to receive the Sacrament.' Under the date Nov. 22, 1663, recording his attendance at the chapel, the writer says, 'The anthem was good after sermon, being the fifty-first psalme, made for five voices by one of Captain Cooke's boys, a pretty boy, and they say there are four or five of them that can do as much. And here I first perceived that the King is a little musical, and kept good time with his hand all along the anthem.' Evelyn, on Dec. 21, 1663 [App. p.523 "1662"], mentions his visit to the chapel, and records it in the following important passage:—'One of his Majesty's chaplains preached; after which, instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern, or playhouse, than a church. This was the first time of change, and now we no more heard the cornet which gave life to the organ; that instrument quite left off in which the English were so skilful!'
The development of the simple stringed quartet of Charles the Second's royal band was rapid and important. Purcell himself wrote trumpet parts to his celebrated 'Te Deum,' and in 1755 Boyce added hautboys, bassoons, and drums to the score. Handel's Chandos anthems were variously instrumented; amongst them, in addition to the stringed quartet, are parts for flutes, oboes, bassoons, and trumpets; though all these instruments are not combined in any single piece. After this, with Haydn and Mozart shining high in the musical firmament, it was but a short and easy step to the complete grand orchestra of Attwood's coronation anthems.
Third Period, 1720–1845.—Greene, Boyce, W. Hayes, Battishill, Attwood, Walmisley. At the beginning of this period the anthem received little accession of absolute novelty; yet, probably owing to the influence of Handel, it found able and worthy cultivators in Greene and several of his successors. 'I will sing of Thy power' and 'O clap your hands,' Greene; 'O give thanks,' and the first movement of 'Turn Thee unto me,' Boyce; with 'O worship the Lord' and 'Praise the Lord, Jerusalem,' Hayes, are admirable examples of these several authors. To Battishill we owe one work of eminent and expressive beauty: his 'Call to remembrance' seems like a conception of yesterday, so nobly does it combine the chief merits of our best modern church composers with the skill and power of the elder masters. 'Withdraw not Thou' and 'Grant we beseech Thee,' Attwood, with 'Remember, Lord' and 'O give thanks,' Walmisley, belong almost to the present day. With names so familiar in 'quires and places where they sing' this brief record of notable anthem- writers of the past may be fitly closed.
The number of anthems composed previously to the last hundred years, and scattered among the MS. part-books of cathedral libraries, considerable though it be, represents but imperfectly the productive powers of the old-English school. It is probable that many hundreds of such pieces have been irretrievably lost, either by the sacrilegious hand of the spoiler or the culpable neglect of a mean parsimony. Of the seventy-one anthems written by Blow, and sixty by Boyce, as composers to the Chapel Royal, how few remain, or at least are accessible! And, to glance farther back, where are the missing outpourings of the genius of Orlando Gibbons, or the numerous 'composures' of all his fertile predecessors? The principal treasures actually preserved to us are contained, for the most part, in Day's 'Collection,' already mentioned, Bamard's 'Church Music,' the volumes of Tomkins, Purcell, Croft, Greene, and Boyce, the collections of Boyce, Arnold, and Page in print, and of Aldrich, Hawkins, and Tudway in MS., together with that of the twenty-two anthems of the Madrigalian era, edited by Dr. Rimbault for the Musical Antiquarian Society, and Sir F. Ouseley's edition of Gibbons already mentioned.
Foremost among all foreign contributions to our national school of church music must be placed the twelve anthems written by Handel for his princely patron the Duke of Chandos. Standing apart from any similar productions composed on English soil to texts from the English Bible and for the chapel of an English nobleman, these works of England's great adopted son may justly be claimed as part of her rich inheritance of sacred art. Belonging to a class suited for special occasions are the Funeral and Coronation anthems of the same master. These, together with Mendelssohn's stately yet moving psalms and anthems—some of them also composed to English words—may be legitimately adopted as precious additions to our native store of choral music.
Widely different from such genuine compositions are those adaptations, in the first instance from Handel by Bond, and later on from Masses and other works, which have found their way into use in this country. Whether in these we regard the application of strange words to music first inspired by other and widely different sentiments, or the affront to art involved in thus cutting and hacking the handywork of a deceased master (even in his lightest mood) for the sake of pretty phrases or showy passages—which, however appropriate to their original shape and purpose, are palpably out of keeping in an Anglican service, as well as unsuited to our churches and their simpler executive means—such adaptations are radically bad, and repugnant to all healthy instincts and true principles of feeling and taste. The adaptations of Aldrich in the last and Rimbault and Dyce in the present century from Palestrina and other old continental composers, though not free from objection as such, are not included in the foregoing condemnation.
The eclecticism of existing usage in the selection of anthems is well shown by the contents of a book of words recently put forth for cathedral use. In addition to an extensive array of genuine church anthems of every age and school, from Tye and Tallis to the latest living aspirants, here are plentiful extracts from the oratorios of Handel, Haydn, Spohr, and Mendelssohn; two from Prof. Macfarren's 'St. John the Baptist,' a few of Bach's motets and choruses, several highly objectionable adaptations from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and lastly some specimens of French taste in 'church music' from the pen of M. Gounod. A wide range of art, truly!
Concerning the choice of the anthem the same clerical and high authority before quoted remarks that 'it ought to be a matter of deliberate and religious study'; and being a 'prescribed part of the service, every notion of ecclesiastical propriety dictates that it should harmonise with some portion of the service of the day.' Dr. Jebb further says that 'at each of the particular seasons of the year it would be well to have a fixed canon as to the anthems from which a selection should invariably be made.' These opinions carry conviction with them, and need no enforcement.
In counterpoint and its concomitants, the great works of former ages will scarcely ever be equalled, still less surpassed. Yet, while the English Church can reckon among her living and productive writers Dr. S. S. Wesley [App. p.523 "omit … from list of living composers", whose anthems, whether for originality, beauty, or force, would do honour to any school or country, together with the genial and expressive style of Sir John Goss [App. p.523 "omit from the list of living composers"], and the facile yet masterly art of Sir Frederick Ouseley, not to particularise other well-known names, we may be well content with the present fortune of the anthem, as well as hopeful for its future.
While many fine examples of eight-part writing exist among the anthems of Gibbons, Purcell, and various later composers, it is much to be desired that the plan of writing for two choirs, treated antiphonally, were more cultivated among us, than has hitherto been the case. The ample spaces and acoustical properties of our cathedrals and huge churches are eminently suited to enhance the effects belonging to such a disposition of voices; while the attendance of trained and self-dependent bodies of singers would ensure all necessary point and firmness of attack in performance. In this direction, and in the employment of an independent obbligato accompaniment for organ, orchestra, or both combined, probably lie the most promising paths to 'fresh fields and pastures new' for the rising school of musicians who aspire to distinction as composers of the anthem.[ E. G. M. ]
- ↑ I am indebted for these to the kindness of my friend Dr. Rimbault.