Chapter 30
THE PRAYER SERVICE.
II. Anthems.
Anthem=Antiphon, fr. _antiphonon_: so called because two choirs sing alternately.
Anthems are of two sorts--simple Anthems and compound Anthems. A simple Anthem is one or more verses (often from Holy Scripture), used to give character to a Psalm. A compound Anthem is a Hymn or Psalm followed by a Verse, Respond, and Prayer. A simple Anthem was used, for example, to give an Easter, Advent, &c. character to _Venite_. Thus Dec. 16 is marked in the Calendar as _O Sapientia_ because on that day the following Anthem was used with Magnificat:
O Wisdom, which camest forth out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; Come and teach us the way of prudence.
These words are taken, with some alteration, from Wisd. viii. 1. On each of the seven days which follow, until Dec. 23, a different Anthem was used with Magnificat; and forasmuch as these eight Anthems begin with O (O Wisdom, O Lord, O Root of Jesse, &c.), they were known as the O Anthems. Similarly on The Epiphany, S. Matth. ii. 1, 2, 11 was sung as an Antiphon to Magnificat; and on Whitsunday S. John iv. 23. {147} These are instances of the use of simple Anthems in the Services before 1549. The following illustrates the purpose for which they were appointed. It will be observed that the Advent thought was made to pervade the whole Psalm.
ADVENT SETTING OF VENITE.
Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.
O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving: and shew ourselves glad in him with Psalms.
Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.
For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the corners of the earth: and the strength of the hills is his also.
Let us go to meet our Saviour.
The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us worship, and fall down: and kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.
To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me: proved me and saw my works.
Let us go to meet our Saviour.
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said; It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath: that they should not enter into my rest.
Behold the King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Let us go to meet our Saviour.
Behold thy King cometh. Let us go to meet our Saviour.
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THE COMPOUND ANTHEM.
The Prioress, in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, relates that a
Litel child his litel book lernynge, As he sat in the scole in his primere, He _O alma redemptoris_ herde synge, As children lerned her antiphonere:
From this we understand that _O alma redemptoris_ was an "Antym" out of the Antiphonere, or Anthem Book. This Anthem has six hexameter lines followed by a Verse and Respond, and the Collect which we now use for Lady Day. This, then, is what we have called the Compound Anthem.
A good example of it is found in the Prayer Book of 1549 where the Easter Anthems, as we still call them, were ordered to be used in the Morning afore Mattins. Their "setting" was as follows:
Christ rising again from the dead now dieth not: Death from henceforth hath no power upon him. For in that he died, he died but once to put away sin; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And so likewise count yourselves dead unto sin, but living unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Christ is risen again, the firstfruits of them that sleep. For seeing that by man came death, by man also cometh the resurrection of the dead. For as by Adam all men do die: so by Christ all men shall be restored to life.
Hallelujah.
_The Priest_. Shew forth to all nations the glory of God.
_The Answer_. And among all people his wonderful works.
Let us pray.
O God who for our redemption didst give thine only begotten Son to the death of the cross; and by his glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so {149} to die daily from sin, that we may evermore live with him, in the joy of his resurrection; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
The history of the transformation of this Anthem into a Psalm, as it is now used, may be given here. In 1552 its rubric was changed to the present form: that is, it was no longer to be used before Mattins; it was to be sung or said instead of _Venite_. The Verse, Respond and Collect were omitted. In 1662 _Gloria Patri_ was added, and the words of 1 Cor. v. 7, 8 were inserted at the beginning.
The Easter Anthems, as now ordered, are most properly set as a Psalm. With similar propriety, when they were used _before_ the Service of Mattins, they were set as a Prayer-Anthem--beginning with the jubilance which is expressed by the twofold Hallelujah, and gradually modulating the jubilance in preparation for the Service which followed.
Simple Anthems were so frequent, and their changes for special occasions were so many, that they created some confusion and intricacy in the old Services. We may, however, recognise the beauty and worshipfulness of the plan. In the Visitation of the Sick, the words _O Saviour of the world_ &c. as used with Psalm lxxi. are a survival of it. The verse _Remember not Lord_ &c. was introduced at the beginning of the same Service, as an Anthem to Psalm cxliii. The Psalm was omitted in 1552, but its Anthem remains.
The singing of the Psalm and Anthem will be understood from the example quoted above--the half choir which sang the Psalm was continually interrupted by {150} the half choir which sang the Anthem. The following illustration is quoted (by Martene) as of the 11th century. In this case a verse of _Magnificat_ was sung after each verse of the Anthem.
EASTER EVE SETTING OF MAGNIFICAT.
[Transcriber's note: In the following section, in the original book, the material in the right-hand column was italicized. In standard Project Gutenberg practice, such text is (usually) surrounded by underscores ("_"), but for clarity, that underscoring has been omitted here.]
Now on the evening of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn My soul doth magnify the toward the first day of the Lord: week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre.
And behold, there was a And my spirit hath rejoiced great earthquake. in God my Saviour.
For the angel of the Lord For he hath regarded the descended from heaven, and lowliness of his handmaiden: came and rolled back the stone for behold, from henceforth all from the door, and sat upon it. generations shall call me blessed.
His countenance was like For he that is mighty hath lightning, and his raiment magnified me, and holy is his white as snow. name.
And for fear of him the And his mercy is on them keepers did shake, and that fear him, throughout all became as dead men. generations.
And the angel answered He hath shewed strength and said unto the women, Fear with his arm; he hath scattered not ye; for I know that ye the fraud in the imagination seek Jesus, which was crucified. of their hearts. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where He hath put down the the Lord lay. mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek.
And go quickly, and tell He hath filled the hungry his disciples, that he is risen with good things, and the rich from the dead. he hath sent empty away.
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In Galilee shall ye see him: He remembering his mercy lo, I have told you. hath holpen his servant Israel.
Fear not ye; for he is risen As he promised to our forefathers, as he said. Abraham and his seed for ever.
And very early in the first Glory be to the Father, and day of the week, they came to the Son, and to the Holy unto the sepulchre at the rising Ghost: of the sun.
And they said among themselves, As it was in the beginning, Who shall roll us away is now, and ever shall be, the stone, and when they looked, world without end. Amen. they saw that it was rolled away.
We have now given examples of Anthems, which show that they have their name from the responding of two choirs to one another[1]. But Anthems were not of necessity hymns of Praise. The place provided at Morning and Evening Prayer, for the singing of an Anthem, is singularly ill-suited to the singing of a Praise-Anthem: for it is the place also of the Litany. It is sometimes pleaded that people grow tired of prayer, by the end of the 3rd Collect, and need a change: hence, after praying for three or four minutes, they rise up and sing praise for ten minutes, before kneeling again for seven or eight minutes. If we have grasped the reverent orderliness of the Services, we shall not easily be persuaded that this was the design of the order at this place. We have elsewhere shown that an Anthem here unites the Collects which precede it, to those which follow.
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We must believe that there was an intention to provide an Anthem Book. Until this is done by authority, it would be well to distinguish, in Hymn Books, between those Hymns which are suitable in the midst of the Prayers, and those which are appropriate as Hymns of Praise. The same might also be done in the Anthem Books, so that a Praise-Anthem, or Hymn, might be sung at the close of the whole Service. A Prayer-Anthem, or Hymn, or one upon the Redeemer's Love, and His Work as Mediator, suits well as a modulation to the Prayers after the 3rd Collect. And it might be sung Antiphonally.
[1] Rabanus, _De Inst. Cler._ Mart. IV. iv. 1.
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