Anthem 52 - Ring out, wild bells
Anthem 52
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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . 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...
info_outline
Anthem 51 - Childing of a maiden bright
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 51 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . This week, I was still on the search for more unusual Christmas carol words. After quite a bit of unsuccessful browsing, I found an order of service for King's College Chapel way back in 1918. It's fascinating to see what has changed and what hasn't since then. One of the most interesting sets of words was for a...
info_outline
Anthem 50 - A babe is born
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 50 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . Wow. I've made it all the way to 50 anthems. I've surprised myself - and probably you as well, I imagine. I'm also pleased to say that the 50th anthem is one of my favourites so far. The words come from yet another Carol Service order of service, this time from Pembroke College, Oxford. The 15th Century words...
info_outline
Anthem 49 - Today our God
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 49 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . By contrast to last week, this anthem was much easier to compose. In order to catch up with the rapidly disappearing weeks of 2024, I set myself the target of writing this anthem in 2 days. I wondered if I could write a carol that would fit into one of the 'standard' patterns congregations would recognise - and...
info_outline
Anthem 48 - Rorate coeli desuper!
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 48 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . It was lovely to sing in Holy Trinity Church's Advent Carol Service last Sunday - my first service back with the choir. Charlotte was also able to come along and the singing was good. It's been a difficult week for composition. Everything seems to have gone very slowly and I basically a week behind where I...
info_outline
Anthem 47 - There is a flow'r
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 47 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . I went back to Advent this week - or at least I looked for some more Advent lyrics. It occurred to me that I could find some lyrics in service booklets for Advent Carol Services so I tried to search for those. The second one I found was from The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of...
info_outline
Anthem 46 - O come, Divine Messiah
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 46 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . This week, in comparison to last week, was more straightforward, in terms of composing anyway. I realised that I hadn't written very many Advent carols (have I written any as part of Anthem 52?) and, considering the Advent Carol Service is my favourite of the Church year, I should remedy that situation. So I...
info_outline
Anthem 45 - Behold, the grace appears
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 45 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . It was a slightly odd week for composition. I found it difficult to get going but when I did it seemed to go fairly well. Guess where I found the words? Yes, you're correct - Isaac Watts. This time it's a very positive set of lyrics so I decided on a loud anthem, with emphatic organ accompaniment. Here are...
info_outline
Anthem 44 - Hush, my dear
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 44 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . It was time for an unaccompanied anthem this week - in fact another Christmas Carol. You won't be surprised to hear that the words come from Isaac Watts yet again. It's a lullaby sung by a mother, recalling the infant Jesus and Mary. From my experience of singing many carols, I think it's a little unusual....
info_outline
Anthem 43 - Behold, the grace appears
Anthem 52
Welcome to Anthem 43 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . Despite fitting in little bits of composition time around everything else that is currently occupying us, this anthem seemed to flow fairly well. I've resisted the temptation to start writing Christmas Carols until now. Writing carols is how I discovered that I could compose for choirs quickly, much to my...
info_outlineWelcome to Anthem 45 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 [email protected].
It was a slightly odd week for composition. I found it difficult to get going but when I did it seemed to go fairly well.
Guess where I found the words? Yes, you're correct - Isaac Watts. This time it's a very positive set of lyrics so I decided on a loud anthem, with emphatic organ accompaniment.
Here are the words I chose:
Words for Anthem 45:
Behold, the grace appears,
The promise is fulfilled;
Mary, the wondrous virgin, bears,
And Jesus is the Child.The Lord, the highest God,
Calls Him His only Son;
He bids Him rule the lands abroad,
And gives Him David’s throne.Glory to God on high!
And heav’nly peace on earth;
At our Redeemer’s birth!