Music and Worship: In Our Choicest Psalmody

‘Angel-voices, ever singing…’: a glance at anthems, psalms, and organ voluntaries

Anthems are the only items in church services that are sung by the choir alone. We don’t hear them every week, not least because they take a lot of preparation. The occasional anthem not only helps to motivate and challenge a choir, but gives those listening a chance to pause and reflect.

Among the best-known anthems are some excellent pieces of music, including Bach’s ‘Jesu, joy of man’s desiring’, and the Latin anthem (or motet) ‘Locus iste’ by Bruckner. Anton Bruckner (1824–1896), a devout Roman Catholic and writer of massive symphonies, wrote his piece in 1869 for the dedication of a votive chapel at Linz cathedral in Austria.

The psalms, sung in Latin, formed the backbone of many medieval services. They were continued, in English, when the Book of Common Prayer was authorised in 1549. A scheme was devised whereby the whole book of psalms could be read each month. We regularly sing a psalm (or an extract from one) at Evensong, still using the time-honoured system of Anglican chanting.

However, the psalms touch our worship in other ways. For example, several well-known hymns, including ‘The King of love my Shepherd is’, ‘O God, our help in ages past’ and ‘O worship the King, all glorious above’ are versified paraphrases of psalms.

‘The King of love’ is based on Psalm 23, but with a eucharistic reference in verse 5 that the original writer, King David, could not have written! ‘O God, our help in ages past’ is based on Psalm 90 (presumably one of the very oldest in view of its attribution to Moses). ‘O worship the King’ is among our longer hymns, but is a much abbreviated version of Psalm 104, which has more than 30 verses. (Why not try reading the original psalms and the hymns based on them, to find out in detail how they compare?)

Organ music precedes and follows most sung services. The pieces played are often known as voluntaries. Normally something voluntary is done freely and willingly, not compulsorily. The musical meaning is connected, but not very obviously. The term ‘voluntary’, which dates from about 1550, originally meant a piece that was not bound to a plainsong theme as most organ pieces had been up to that time, but instead was a free composition.

The word ‘voluntary’ was applied also to what we now call extemporisation – where a musician composes a piece as he or she plays, rather than playing something previously composed and written down. We still sometimes hear this kind of voluntary when the choir enters and leaves, and as the Gospel procession returns before the sermon. The music may not be very original, but it can sometimes be specially tailored to the nature of the occasion – and can be made to fill up as much or as little time as necessary!