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 show@anthem52.com.

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:

Words for Anthem 39:

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.

This time I missed out 2 verses but hopefully the sense has been preserved.

The start of the anthem features a rising bass line which I think is in Dorian mode. Even if that’s wrong, it sounds quirky and unusual. The rest of the choir come in with an answering phrase in 3/4 rather than the opening 4/4 – more quirkiness. The end of this phrase is A major – a nice little feature, as they say.

This pattern is repeated several times in the choir parts with variations (for example, the bass part becomes more diatonic) and the organ enters after the second iteration of the choir figure.

Then the organ accompanies the choir with a rocking motion in 3/4 to accentuate the duller, quieter soundscape for the verse which begins ‘A thousand wretched souls are fled’. There are plenty of strange intervals and conflicts between organ and choir – deliberately I might add – and the choir is left unaccompanied to complete the section. I put in pauses over the bar lines to separate the 3 sections of the anthem but Musescore doesn’t take any notice of that and just ploughs on. So you will have to imagine those gaps I’m afraid.

The final section repeats the opening material but with the words of the last verse and everything ends up being triumphant and loud. Perhaps I would add more into that last section given the opportunity to revise this anthem but I’m pleased with a lot of the effects and overall feel of it as it is.

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 – and a new anthem – only 13 to go – but until then the question remains – will I make it to Anthem 52?