Anthem 52

During 2024, I am attempting to write a new choir anthem every week. Follow my progress as I discover what it takes to produce new music to a deadline - will the quality improve? Who can say? I will certainly learn a lot and I hope to be able to interview some people who know a lot more than me about writing, conducting or playing choral music. I wonder what they consider the ingredients are of a 'good' anthem. Look out for new episodes - and anthems - every week and give me your feedback on what I manage to produce. Most importantly - "Will I make it to Anthem 52?"

Anthem 52 - Ring out, wild bells 01/03/2025

Anthem 51 - Childing of a maiden bright 01/03/2025

Anthem 50 - A babe is born 01/03/2025

Anthem 49 - Today our God 01/03/2025

Anthem 48 - Rorate coeli desuper! 12/23/2024

Anthem 47 - There is a flow'r 11/27/2024

Anthem 46 - O come, Divine Messiah 11/18/2024

Anthem 45 - Behold, the grace appears 11/14/2024

Anthem 44 - Hush, my dear 11/05/2024

Anthem 43 - Behold, the grace appears 10/29/2024

Anthem 42 - Thy name, almighty Lord 10/19/2024

Anthem 41 - Come, dearest Lord 10/08/2024

Anthem 40 - Upward I lift my eyes 10/02/2024

Anthem 40 - Upward I lift my eyes Welcome to Anthem 40 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 was Harvest Festival at our sister Church, All Saints, Luddington. It was great to take quite a large choir from Holy Trinity and we sang ‘The Heavens are Telling’ by Haydn from his oratorio, ‘The Creation’. There are a couple of trio sections and I drew the short straw in my tenor capacity. It went rather well. In other news, I've made it to Anthem 40 which feels like another milestone. I've also been thinking about the next stages in my process after the completion of Anthem 52. I am sure that not all the anthems I've written are worthy of compiling into some kind of collection. That isn't to say they haven't been worthwhile to compose. Every time I have completed an anthem I have learned something, including a lot of 'what not to do' revelations! Following the process of some award programmes, I think I'm going to listen to all the anthems and create a 'longlist' of those I deem to be worth revisiting and adding to a collection. Then I will ask friends, family and you to help me narrow the longlist down to a 'shortlist'. A final pass will result in approximately 10 anthems that I will refine and polish up for publication. I can already think of 5 or 6 I expect to be in this final list but I'm bound to be surprised! Back to this week's anthem, however. Once again I chose some words from my current favourite source - Isaac Watts. These ones were fairly 'visual' and the theme of lifting up ones eyes seemed like an obvious choice for setting as an anthem. Here are the words I chose: Words for Anthem 40: Upward I lift mine eyes, From God is all my aid; The God that built the skies, And earth and nature made; God is the tower to which I fly; His grace is nigh in every hour. My feet shall never slide And fall in fatal snares, Since God, my guard and guide, Defends me from my fears. I’ll go and come, nor fear to die, Till from on high Thou call me home. /episode/index/show/1f45b9be-856a-4853-a664-1626b63d0fc9/id/33296402

Anthem 39 - Once more, my soul, the rising day 09/27/2024

Anthem 38 - Lord, we are blind 09/24/2024

Anthem 38 - Lord, we are blind Welcome to Anthem 38 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 good to return to Holy Trinity Church with the choir this week, even if it wasn't with Charlotte whose Coventry musical life is just getting going. As I write this, she is preparing for an audition to join the Coventry Cathedral Chorus - I'm sure she will enjoy that a great deal. It was Ollie's (our new interim Director of Music) first Sunday with the choir and we sang Choral Evensong. It went well. I'm looking forward to having some of my own anthems added to the choir's repertoire...one day... This week was a bit more of a struggle than last week, in terms of composition. It started off fine as I suddenly remembered that the main criterion of anthem competition I entered earlier in the year was to set words by Isaac Watts, the prolific 18th Century writer. I went back to the source I used to find the text for that anthem and rediscovered an enormous collection of words. 824 texts are mentioned with many linked to on the single page: As well as hymn words, Watts wrote more poetic texts and I chose a short one from Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book 2, 1707–09, number 26. Here are the words (I missed out one verse): Words for Anthem 38: Lord, we are blind, we mortals blind, We can’t behold Thy bright abode; O ’tis beyond a creature’s mind To glance a thought half way to God. Infinite leagues beyond the sky The great Eternal reigns alone, Where neither wings nor souls can fly, Nor angels climb the topless throne. Yet, glorious Lord, Thy gracious eyes Look through, and cheer us from above; Beyond our praise Thy grandeur flies, Yet we adore, and yet we love. /episode/index/show/1f45b9be-856a-4853-a664-1626b63d0fc9/id/33187282

Anthem 37 - The earth is the Lord's 09/20/2024

Anthem 37 - The earth is the Lord's Welcome to Anthem 37 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's been a week of changes for me and my family. Charlotte has started her university course and there is a new Interim Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church. Both of these changes are, of course, very positive. Charlotte is finding her feet and getting to know her lecturers and the rest of her group as well as settling in to her Uni Hall of Residence. What fun! Ollie is our new DoM but we all know him because he was our Organ Scholar a few years ago before going off to Uni. It's going to be fascinating to see how both of these new situations work out. Back to this week's anthem, only a few days after I found it I don't have a clear recollection of how I decided to use part of Psalm xxiv (24). However, the words are highly effective for an anthem and the end of the Psalm contains some of the most well-known anthem words of all: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors : and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory : even the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." If you don't know the anthem by Mathias take a listen to this really good Covid-time version: I chose words form earlier in the Psalm: Words for Anthem 37: The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is : the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas : and prepared it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord : or who shall rise up in his holy place? Even he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart : He shall receive the blessing from the Lord : and righteousness from the God of his salvation. /episode/index/show/1f45b9be-856a-4853-a664-1626b63d0fc9/id/33137257

Anthem 36 - Almighty and most merciful Father 09/11/2024

Anthem 36 - Almighty and most merciful Father Welcome to Anthem 36 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 is the first anthem I have written away from home. We were on holiday in Devon this past week but Anthem 52 waits for no man - or woman or whatever. For my 30th Wedding Anniversary holiday I managed to write anthems to plug the gap before I went but that wasn't possible this time. I knew I could take my laptop on this holiday and there would be some 'down time' so it was an interesting task to try. I regret not remembering to take my 'over-ear' headphones because using earbuds wasn't a lot of fun. It made the writing more difficult. However, I did manage to find some reasonable words, again a prayer from a service rather than a Psalm, like the previous anthem. Commonly known as the 'General Confession', it's a prayer familiar to millions of Christians around the world, I'm sure. Despite this, or perhaps due to this, I found it a worthwhile set of lyrics for anthem 36. Words for Anthem 36: Almighty and most merciful Father, We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us: But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders; Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults, Restore thou them that are penitent, And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen. /episode/index/show/1f45b9be-856a-4853-a664-1626b63d0fc9/id/33008552

Anthem 35 - Prevent us O Lord 09/11/2024

Anthem 34 - I will magnify thee 08/22/2024

Anthem 33 - I call with my whole heart 08/19/2024

Anthem 32 - Deliver us, O Lord 08/12/2024

Anthem 31 - Pax 08/04/2024

Anthem 30 - Lux 07/28/2024

Anthem 29 - Confitemini Domineo 07/22/2024

Anthem 29 - Confitemini Domineo 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 - or Instagram - and send me a message to . 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. /episode/index/show/1f45b9be-856a-4853-a664-1626b63d0fc9/id/32244182

Anthem 28 - Lectio brevis 07/15/2024

Anthem 27 - Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove 07/02/2024

Anthem 26 - Nox 06/25/2024

Anthem 25 - Ponder my words O Lord 06/19/2024

Anthem 24 - Hail Son of God 06/13/2024

Anthem 24 - Hail Son of God Welcome to Anthem 24 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 managed to make a little progress with the new Plugin this week, which is pleasing. Without going into a lot of technical explanation (which would be pretty boring) I ended up being able to set the first phrase of this week's anthem in the wordbuilder function. So you can hear a very rough approximation of the opening words sung by the software - Hail Son of God Savior of Men. The first part, Hail Son of God, is repeated in different ways across the different parts. I know I could have made the words sound better but at least they are almost all recognisable, if you also look at the words as they are sung. It took a long time to set up the words in this first phrase. Each syllable needs to be typed individually - and repeated where the notes change on the same word. Once you have worked out a short phrase, this can be saved and reused on other voices but then has to be tweaked when the rhythm and the word lengths are different. I can see how the long-winded process produces good results but the time investment is huge. This is fine if you are creating a piece of choral music for a film or something but for my weekly workflow, I am going to have to practise and improve my speed. We shall see how I get on with that. So I resorted to setting the rest of the anthem to a simple 'ah' sound. It's not too bad a sound overall. I'm fairly pleased with the short anthem itself. The lyrics come from a different source to recent weeks. It's a prayer from Paradise Lost (at least I think so), a work by John Milton, the 17th Century English author. Here are the words: Words for Anthem 23: Hail Son of God, Savior of Men, thy Name Shall be the copious matter of my Song Henceforth, and never shall my Harp thy praise Forget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin. /episode/index/show/1f45b9be-856a-4853-a664-1626b63d0fc9/id/31728877

Anthem 23 - Deus deorum 06/07/2024

Anthem 52

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