Welcome to Anthem 29 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 show@anthem52.com.

This was the last week of the academic year and my choir sang a final choral evensong at the ancient Guild Chapel in Stratford. It was founded by the mediaeval Guild of the Holy Cross and is just across the road from the site of William Shakespeare’s final house in the town. William’s father is reputed to have been behind the whitewashing of the elaborate mediaeval wall paintings in the Chapel that have been restored recently.

When I attended King Edward VI School, and then my son Edward did the same, school services were held in the Guild Chapel. The school was founded by the Guild to provide education for their sons and William Shakespeare is a former pupil.

It has been a lovely tradition for a number of years for the final Evensong of the year to be at the Guild Chapel which has a much better acoustic than Holy Trinity Church. There is also a recently-renovated organ there which is very loud! Unfortunately, the choir stalls are at the other end of the building to the organ so it can be tricky to coordinate the music. However, it was a great occasion despite the sweltering heat that saw one tenor wilting towards the end of the service.

Anyway, back to this week’s anthem. When looking at the psalms set for this week, I spotted the words of a rather well-known anthem – “They that go down to the sea in ships : and occupy their business in great waters ; These men see the works of the Lord : and his wonders in the deep.” The setting of these words by Sumsion is one of my favourite anthems. Not everyone shares my opinion of course. The section ‘stagger like a drunken man’ can be taken as a bit daft but I think it’s fun. Finding these lines wasn’t really a surprise because my choir sang this anthem last week. It was ‘Sea Sunday’ after all.

I didn’t try and do my own version of this part of Psalm cvii (107) but rather the opening using these words:

Words for Anthem 28:

O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever

Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed : and delivered from the hand of the enemy ;

And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west : from the north, and from the south.

I used the Latin name for the Psalm – Confitemini Domineo – and it turned out to be another joyful and loud romp starting with fast organ semiquavers (16th notes) leading to a triumphant choral opening. I’m quite pleased with the way the vocal parts sound like a trumpet fanfare.

I think the organ accompaniment creates a good counterpoint to the vocal parts as they become less chordal and more like answering phrases.

At bar 38 I tried something different in the organ part. I set up a fast rising pattern that uses two treble clef parts – one for each hand. There is a momentary clash between a G natural and an A natural between hands that creates an interesting effect. The vocal parts ‘float’ against all the semiquavers to create a complex texture with plenty of slower-moving triplets to confuse the ear. Finally, the organ pedals and the basses have a contrasting, slow-moving line in unison (almost always). I like the overall effect very much.

One feature I have noticed recently in anthems I have been singing with my choir is that it’s common practice to ignore the separation of text phrases in the vocal parts. So you can have a big gap – even in the middle of a sentence. I went for this approach in this anthem so there is a three-bar gap between ‘O give thanks’ and ‘unto the Lord … ‘ I’m 100% sure no congregation/audience would ever notice and it makes the composition easier!

I repeat the opening section at the end because I think it’s far enough away to avoid annoying repetition and it’s a strong enough passage to bear reiteration. The final bars are simple but effective, I think.

Overall I was happy with this anthem. I’m sure there will be plenty of setbacks to come this year but I feel fairly confident that I have improved a little – at least at the moment.

I did convert this one to Logic Pro but once again I only managed to put together the first line in the word builder. It has come out fairly well, though, I think.

Anyway, see what you think:

Well, what do you think? Let me know on X.com @realanthem52, Instagram @realanthem52, as a comment below or via email show@anthem52.com

I hope you will join me next week for a new episode (perhaps featuring my second interview – will I ever record another?) – and a new anthem – only 23 to go – but until then the question remains – will I make it to Anthem 52?