Everything about Anthem totally explained
An
anthem is a composition to an English religious text sung in the context of an Anglican service. The term has evolved to mean a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a certain group of people, as in the term "
national anthem".
See below for other uses.
"Anthem" is derived from the
Greek αντιφωνα (
antiphōna) through the
Saxon antefn, a word which originally had the same meaning as
antiphony.
It is now, however, generally restricted to a form of church music, particularly in the service of the
Church of England, in which it's appointed by the rubrics to follow the third collect at both morning and evening prayer. It is just as usuan ordinary
hymn as an anthem, which may be a more elaborate composition than the congregational hymns. Several anthems are included in the
English coronation service. The words are selected from Holy Scripture or in some cases from the Liturgy, and the music is generally more elaborate and varied than that of psalm or
hymn tunes. Though the anthem of the Church of England is analogous to the
motet of the
Roman Catholic and
Lutheran Churches, both being written for a trained choir and not for the congregation, it's as a musical form essentially English in its origin and development.
The anthem developed as a replacement for the
Catholic "votive antiphon" commonly sung as an appendix to the main office to the
Blessed Virgin Mary or other saints. Though anthems were written in the Elizabethan period by
Byrd,
Tallis and others they're not mentioned in the
Book of Common Prayer until
1662, when the famous rubric "In quires and places where they sing here followeth the Anthem" first appears.
Early anthems tended to be simple and
homophonic in texture, in order that the words could be clearly heard. Late in the
sixteenth century the "verse anthem", in which passages for solo voices alternated with passages for full choir, began to evolve. This became the dominant form in the
Restoration period, when composers such as
Henry Purcell and
John Blow wrote elaborate examples for the
Chapel Royal with orchestral accompaniment. In the
nineteenth century Samuel Sebastian Wesley wrote anthems influenced by contemporary
oratorio which could stretch to several
movements and last twenty minutes or longer. Later in the same century
Charles Villiers Stanford composed examples which used symphonic techniques to produce a more concise and unified structure. Many anthems have been produced on this model since his time, generally by
organists rather than professional
composers and often in a conservative style. Major composers have tended to compose anthems only in response to commissions and for special occasions; examples include
Edward Elgar's
Great is the Lord and
Give unto the Lord (both with orchestral accompaniment),
Benjamin Britten's
Rejoice in the Lamb (a modern example of a multi-movement anthem and today heard mainly as a concert piece), and (on a much smaller scale)
Ralph Vaughan Williams'
O taste and see, written for the
coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II. With the relaxation of the rule, in
England at least, that anthems should be only in English, the repertoire has been greatly enhanced by the addition of many works from the Latin repertory.
In common usage among many Protestant churches the term "anthem" often refers to any short sacred choral work presented during the course of a worship service.
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