Welcome to Anthem 52 in my successful attempt to write a new choir anthem every week for a year. I’m Kevin Mulryne and I hope you have enjoyed 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.

Well, here we are at Anthem 52. It’s been a great year of composition, despite the many traditional and unexpected ups and downs of family life. At times it’s been a bit of a slog but I’m surprised how little difficulty I’ve had coming up with ideas and working them through. Whether that has resulted in any decent anthems, I’m not sure and I’ll let you know exactly how I’d like you to help me decide on that in 2025.

That’s to come soon but, for now, I should concentrate on the final anthem in the whole project. Its words come from Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1809-1892. It’s on the theme of New Year, somewhat appropriately.

Here are the words I chose:

Words for Anthem 52:

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light,
The year is dying in the night,
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells across the snow,
The year is dying, let him go,
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Rather than the recent, approachable Christmas Carol style, I decided to compose a New Year Carol with a bit more of an experimental edge. The opening used a layered style, with the 4 parts coming in one after another. After the unusual chord is built up, a key change surprises the listener. I put in more dynamics than usual and I think this has helped to create some drama and structure to the carol. It begins forte but when ‘The flying cloud’ lyrics appear, it suddenly becomes mezzo piano and turns to a minor key to emphasise the old year dying.

A gradual move from loud to very quiet and calm ends with a general pause before a loud and energetic return of the bells. Once again, this gradually recedes via a passage with fast, quaver movement to portray the dying of the old year again.

Finally, a long section based on the words ‘ring out the old, ring in the new’ and a couple of other phrases builds from as quiet as possible to as loud as possible. It uses repeated figures across the parts as well as more quavers to create a climax to end the 52nd anthem – and the whole project.

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 time for a new episode – and a new challenge for 2025 – for now, I have answered the question – will I make it to Anthem 52?