THE WIRELESS CHOIR
Conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON
At the Organ, LESLIE WOODGATE
Relayed from the Guildhall School of Music
THE Anthem, as a musical style, is one which
England may quite fairly claim as its own. More than any other part of the Church music, it lends to the English Cathedral service its own distinctive character.
Known in this country from a very early age, the Anthem is mentioned already by Bede. Chaucer refers to it too, as well as some of the other early English authors, and though there is no actual provision for it in the Prayer Book of Edward VI nor of Queen Elizabeth, by her reign it was at any rato sanctioned, if not ordained as part of the church service. It was called, at that date, ' a hymn or such like song in churches.' That is, in fact, the definition of an Anthem to this day-a a piece of concerted music for voices, which is not actually part of the prescribed Liturgy.
By the time State prayers were added to the Prayer Book, the Anthem was officially included --' in quires and places where they sing, here followeth the Anthem.' In post- Reformation days its popularity was obviously due to the desire of the Reformers for music in a ' tonguo understanded by the people,' but many of our early English composers wrote Anthems which could be used either in the Reformed or in the Roman Church. Some of them, indeed, have alternative English and Latin words.
In the latter part of the sixteenth century, when the composers of Anthems nourished, Byrd was one of the first to introduce short sqJo passages for one or other of the voices, usually with an independent accompaniment for the organ. Gibbons, who followed him, advanced still further along the same lines and many of his Anthems have passages which may be accompanied either by the organ or by viols. In the Restoration period the names of Blow and Purcell stand out, and in the early Georgian era Handel's Anthems, though often beyond the limits of the ordinary Cathedral service, were fine examples of his choral music.
It is a style which has attracted composers right down to the present day, and the daily Cathedral service calls for a constant supply of short Anthems-a supply to which the demand has always been fully equal.